at the Coronation.
The Queen bestowed upon her many marks of favour and friendship. But the
promotion to the highest honours of the Court was not allowed to
militate against her soul's welfare. The service of the King of kings
was always put first.

It is needless to say that the duchess was always a regular attendant at
God's house. For thirty years she made a practice of taking copious
notes of the sermons. The notes were copied out carefully during the
week. This note-taking--sometimes a slight embarrassment to the
preacher--was a great help to the hearer. As at least two sermons a week
were thus noted, there must have been a great mass of manuscript before
the thirty years were expired. Amongst those whose sermons she much
enjoyed were Mr. Howels of Long Acre, Mr. Harington Evans, and Mr.
Blunt, of Chelsea.

Good works were promoted by the duke and duchess at the cost of much
self-denial. The duke's predecessor had left the estates heavily
burdened. The consequence was that they were put under trust, only a
limited income being allowed to the duke. This made contributions to
charitable objects less ample than they would otherwise have been. But
generous help was bestowed that cost the givers something to give. The
duchess set her heart on building and endowing a chapel in connection
with the Church of England. To render this possible the duke proposed to
sell some of his horses. For the same purpose the duchess left a golden
vase valued at L1200 to be sold. To quote her own words to explain what
resulted from this charitable idea: "The Duchess of Beaufort, hearing of
my vase, thought of her diamond ear-rings, which she got me to dispose
of for a chapel in Wales, and her diamonds made me think of my jewels;
and as the duke had always been most anxious for the chapel, he agreed
with me that stones were much prettier in a chapel wall than round one's
neck, and so he allowed me to sell L600's worth, or rather what brought
that, for they cost more than double. The chapel is going on nicely, and
I have still enough jewels left to help to endow it, if no other way
should open. I do think I may with confidence hope for a blessing on
this. It is no sacrifice to me whatever, except as it is one to the
duke, who is very fond of seeing me fine, and was brought up to think
it right."

The strict observance of family prayer has already been referred to. A
room had been fitted up in the castle as a little chapel. The duke was