Lady Marian Alford

Lady Marian was the widow of Viscount Alford, elder son of the first Lord Brownlow, owner of Ashridge House and Estate. Together with her son, Adelbert, who succeeded to the title in 1867, they developed the estate and took a keen interest in tenants and employees, maintaining property, building new cottages, village halls, restoring churches, making roads and encouraging industry.

Lady Marian was an accredited English artist, patron of the arts and an author.  She was especially interested in embroidery, its history and how women had used it as a form of employment. She was involved in the setting up of the School of Art Needlework, which later became the Royal School of Needlework in Kensington. 

Needlework as Art by Lady Marian was published in 1886. (still available, free, from website Project Gutenberg.) On the frontispiece is the MA monogram, taken from the detail from the roundel above the bookcase in Ashridge and also seen on the embroidery presented to Edlesborough Church in 1868.

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