When her husband became a peer she had to take his rank, and it was one
of those indefinable sacrifices associated with noble birth, that, as a
Viscountess, she had to give precedence to the wives of Marquises and
Earls.
To one who had filled so high a position as Lady Ossington had done in
political and social life the descent in status involved by the adoption
of the new title was not of much moment. She had been honoured by
royalty and had done the honours to royalty, she had tasted all the
pleasures that aristocratic Society could provide.
Like her brother, the eccentric Duke, Lady Ossington spent large sums of
money, intended, directly or indirectly, to benefit the wage-earning
classes.
In a spirit of philanthropy she built a coffee palace at Newark, Notts,
a town nine miles from Ossington, at a cost of over L20,000. Her object
was to provide a hostel where travellers of humble means could find
accommodation for the night, at charges within their means, and that it
should be a centre of meeting for Friendly Societies and other bodies in
their business and social gatherings.
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