Edith Rawdon-Hastings, 10th Countess of Loudoun


Edith Maud Rawdon-Hastings, 10th Countess of Loudoun was a Scottish peer. She died aged 41 after caring for Rowallan Castle. Sir George Gilbert Scott designed an Eleanor Cross style monument to her which was erected in Ashby de la Zouch.

Life

She was born in 1833, the daughter of George Rawdon-Hastings, 2nd Marquess of Hastings and his wife Barbara. She was greatly attached to the old Mure family mansion of Rowallan Castle near Kilmaurs in Ayrshire. She expended considerable sums in repairing the ancient edifice and without her concern this remarkable building would no longer be with us.
On 30 April 1853, she married Charles Clifton, 1st Baron Donington, who took the name Abney-Hastings, as a condition of inheriting from a second cousin Sir Charles Abney-Hastings, 2nd Bt, a natural grandson of the 10th Earl of Huntingdon. They had six children:
In 1866 Rawdon-Hastings drew a picture which she called "Skeleton Ball". This picture is now in the Tate.
After her death her widowed husband was created Baron Donington. After she died the Loudoun monument was erected in Ashby. The octagonal monument by Sir George Gilbert Scott is based on the Eleanor crosses and is now a Grade II* listed structure.