ABSTRACT
The story of Thomas Carlyle's friendship with Lady Ashburton and Jane Welsh Carlyle's jealousy of her is well known. The riots, caused by rural poverty and increasingly repressive Poor Laws, were rooted in the aristocratic 'Do-Nothing' attitudes that Carlyle excoriated in Past and Present. Carlyle's feelings about the aristocracy were undoubtedly ambivalent. Guests' comments give a much more dramatic and complex view of the Ashburtons and activities at the Grange, and offer a different perspective from that of the Carlyles. George Venables said that both the Carlyles' lives would have been impoverished without the Ashburtons' friendship, but it is equally true that without the Carlyles, the Ashburtons' lives would have been duller. In spite of the impact the friendship had on the Carlyles' private lives and their marriage, there were many other relationships which had far more intellectual significance for them.
