Adeline Horsey Recollections. I remember meeting Lady Harriet Cowper, who first married Count d'Orsay when she was only fifteen years of age. The marriage was arranged by her stepmother, the famous Lady Blessington, who forced Lady Harriett to marry the man who was popularly supposed to be her own lover. Old Lord Blessington made a very liberal marriage settlement on his only daughter, but it really benefited the Count, and not his child bride. Their union was most disastrous and was almost immediately followed by a separation.

After Count d'Orsay's death his widow married Mr. Cowper, who owned Sandringham. She had one daughter by him, and her second matrimonial venture was a happy one. Lady Harriett was a most kind-hearted woman, and among her most charitable actions she endowed a home for twelve young working girls who needed rest and change.