AN impressive and valuable bracelet with a unique Forest of Dean connection is to be sold at an auction in Berlin.
Lady Paget, aged 90, died as a result of burns she received when her clothes caught fire. She had dropped off to sleep while reading a newspaper in the library at Unlawater.
Lady Paget woke to find both the newspaper and her skirts alight. Her butler reacted quickly to stamp out the flames but she died later in hospital.
Much admired for her looks and elegence Lady Paget was a friend of Queen Victoria and is said to have assisted in making. the arrangements for the marriage of the Prince of Wales, afterwards Edward V11, to Princess Alexandra of Denmark.
Her marriage to Augustus Berkeley Paget, a diplomat, took the couple to all the major European capitals. They had three children.
Following the death of her husband Lady Paget continued to live in Italy but, amid rumours of war, returned to England and her recently acquired home in Newnham.
A keen writer, Lady Paget published a number of books and was one of the first to mention the hollow earth theory claiming that cities existed beneath a desert and that in the 21st century an entrance would be discovered to a subterranean kingdom. She was also a vegetarian.
The bracelet has been handed down through the family and is estimated to be worth around 12,000 euros. It had been a gift to Lady Paget who was closely associated with the Prussian royal court. The makers were the world famous Berlin jewellers Wagner and Friedlander.
The auction takes place in Berlin on May 31.