AN EXTRAORDINARY STORY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1223, 7 August 1885, Page 3

AN EXTRAORDINARY STORY.

The following has gone the round of the Scotch papers : A few days ago there died in Preston, at an ordinary cottage house in a street on the northern side of_ the town, a woman of royal descent —a’ second cousin of Queen Victoria, it is distinctly asserted ; and, so far as the town is concerned, she went down to the grave, at the age o' eighty five, “ unhonordi and unsung.” The only mourner at the grave side was her son. whose life has been of a most chequered description. For particular reasons we purposely suppress name;; if references were plainly made, the living might be injured in material prosnects. Tills personage, true to the vow she had made, gave no general cue to her character lineage. So well was this vow kept that only a limited favoured number were able to penetrate the secret. Descended from a royal stock of peculiarly historic renown, the woman referred to passed her youthful days in the vioi Tty of Balmoral Castle. A braw Scotch laddie, well educated, but with no fie ancestry to boast of, wooed ana won the maiden. They were marrie 1 ; but the maniage was not approved of in certain high quarters, and the wo hied couple afterwards took their de parture ami located themselves in a neighboring Scottish town. . . . Great secreay was ..bserved as to the family charac ter and associations of the deceased j and it was only three days ago we ascertained through quite a special channel, that she had lived and died at Preston. A short time before her death shn, with her son, went specially to London and stayed there fo : ' a week, certain arrangements being made during their sojourn in the metropolis. In her last illness she called her son to her bedside, gave him good counsel, and advised him to he content with his present station in life, as any departure from it might be attended with inconvenience to his happiness. During hei lifetime there were from time to time communications passing bes tween London and Scotland and the deceased, which inclines us to think the socalled error of her marriage was viewed in a by no moans very harsh light, and the events which subsequently took place strongly con firm this view. The deceased was a ripe scholar, a good linguist, possessed a well-hal (need mind, and left behind her many things bearing upon her royal descent. These, wo understand, are about to be, if they have not already been, sent to a certain quarter. A voluminous correspondence has been committed to the flames by order of certain authorities, and a diary kept by husband and wife has shared the same cruel fate. Many of the books bore marginal notes in ink, and these, too, have been sub ■ jected to the same fiery ordeal. In accordance with instructions officially given, all manuscripts and letters have been destroyed, while some articles have been sent off to London and Scotland.