She always wore white and was famous for covering her opera box entirely in orchids. Her marriage to Marlborough, divorced by his first wife over a flagrant love affair, was widely regarded as a cynical trade of money for title. (Marlborough’s philandering continued; he had another flagrant affair with Lady Colin Campbell.) The Hammersley money re-roofed Blenheim, built an organ in the Long Library and supplied a laboratory for Marlborough’s science experiments.
