Welsh Journals

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LORD AND LADY LLANOVER 1862-1863 (PLATES XVI. 5-6) EARLY in February 1862, Lady Llanover1 was taken ill so suddenly that there was no time to postpone the house-party which had been invited for the Hunt Ball at Abergavenny.2 Lord3 and Lady Tredegar4 and their daughter,5 indeed, arrived just as Lady Llanover was being helped to her bed, but she would not hear of their visit being postponed. So well was her household organised that everything went off successfully. On 24 February, Dr. Cameron,6 who had come down from London to attend to Lady Llanover, ordered her a change of air, and it was decided to go to Tenby7 as soon as she was fit to travel. Lord Llanover8 hired a house in Tudor Square, and a large party set out on 12 March, including Lord and Lady Llanover, Miss Waddington,9 Miss Maria Lucas10 (Lady Llanover's companion and friend), footmen, coachman, ladies' maids and other servants. Most of them stayed at South Cliff, but Miss Lucas stayed at 'Mrs. Brown's in Tudor Square'.11 where her brother-in-law and sister, Sir Gardner12 and Lady Wilkinson,13 were already installed. Sir Gardner, who had been married to the eldest daughter of Henry Lucas14 of Uplands, Glamorganshire, in Llanover Church in 1856, was a great lover of the delightful old town of Tenby. Three years later, in 1865, he was to discover a new British oyster there, and to publish an account of it in the Zoologist,15 and it was he who saved the old gate- way at Tenby, when it was threatened with demolition in 1867, by writing an article in the Archaeological Journal, protesting against such vandalism. The house hired by the Llanovers had 'a beautiful view of the South Sands, Caldey and St. Margaret Islands, and Giltar Point',16 and the whole party, including the servants, had many delightful walks and drives in the neighbourhood. On 1 April, Mr.17 and Mrs.18 Herbert arrived at the nearby Ivy Cottage, and were joined there by the Miss Williams19 of Aberpergwm,20 so there was no lack of company. They visited Carew Castle,21 Lawrenny Park,22 Pembroke Castle,23 and the Government dockyards at Pater,24 where amongst other large iron-clads built there they 'noticed one, The Prince Consort',25 and crossed the ferry to see 'the great Eastern then on her gridiron'26 but the greater part of their time was spent on the sands and cliffs. They gathered sea anemonies, on the North Sands, caught crabs and eels 'about St. Catherine's Rock'27 and went to Giltar Point to shoot wild duck. They gathered great quantities of shells on the beaches, and