THE LADY QUILTER
OF LANGHAM PLACE
See Also: CITY LIVERY COMPANIES Women, Lady Charlotte Schreiber; FANS Lady Charlotte Schreiber; PHILANTHROPY
Baroness Burdett-Coutts; TAXIS Cabmen's Shelters
Lady
Charlotte Bertie was born the daughter of the 9th Earl of
Lindsey. Her father died while she was
young and she took a strong dislike to her stepfather. She was highly intelligent and her
accomplishments included teaching herself Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian. At the age of 21 Lady Charlotte married Sir
John Guest 1st Bt. M.P.. The
baronet owned the Dowlais Iron Company.
The enterprise operated what was then the world's largest
ironworks. Its output was devoured by
the burgeoning railway industry. She
participated in the running of the business, having her own office in its
London base. She involved herself in
overseeing the firm's finances and participated in the technical discussions
that its senior managers conducted.
The
Guests had ten children together. She
continued to act as a hostess through her pregnancies. There is a story that, upon one occasion
while she was entertaining, she sensed that her waters seemed to be about to
break. She excused herself, gave birth
to the infant and then rejoined her guests.
Lady
Charlotte maintained her interest in languages.
She learnt Middle Welsh and translated a number of its principal
literary works into English.1
The acme of her linguistic output was a three-volume rendition of the
epic The Mabinogion (1849). This
was not to be superseded for eight decades.
Sir
John died in 1852. Lady Charlotte took
over the leadership of the Dowlais Iron Company. Had the widow been born later than she had
been she would have encountered social attitudes that would have made it far
harder for her to assume such a prominent role in the iron industry than was
the case. She was a child of the Regency
and so the full Victorian strictures upon women's conduct had not yet
developed.
The
widow re-married in 1855. Her new
husband was Charles Schreiber, a Classical scholar who had helped prepare one
of her sons for admission to the University of Cambridge. The couple became ardent collectors of
chinaware.2 This involved
their making prolonged journeys across Europe.
Lady Charlotte also sought out fans and playing cards.
During
her final years, the polylinguist-scholar-industrialist-connoisseur's eyesight
began to diminish. However, she found
herself being compelled to still be active in some way. She had a cabmen's shelter erected in Langham
Place, which was near to her townhouse.
She took to spending much of her time making red quilts for the cabmen
who frequented the hut.3
Location:
17 Cavendish Square, W1G 0PH. The home
of her youngest daughter Blanche, Countess of Bessborough, with whom she lived
during her final years. (blue, pink)
11
Portland Place, W1N 3AA.
Demolished. Her home from 1863
until 1889. (orange, red)
8
Spring Gardens, SW1A 2BN. Demolished.
(orange, brown)
1. The poet Alfred Tennyson held Lady Charlotte's English in high
regard. He used one of her translations
from Welsh as the model for his poem Idylls of The King (1874).
2. The Victoria & Albert Museum displays part of the collection.
3. If the taxi trade does not already commemorate Lady Schreiber s
achievements and regard for its members, it should.
David
Backhouse 2024