But the Wedderburnes, though poor, were well descended, and it is said that backstairs influence was not spared to second his own unblushing efforts for position. Lord Campbell tells us he was the first to deny the right of the poor, ‘which old usage and the piety of our forefathers had given them, to glean in the cornfields after the harvest.’ He gave judgment also that the law of burning women alive for the crime of coining should not be mitigated to hanging, and on the occasion of the Gordon Riots showed himself merciless as another Jeffreys in taking life, condemning the rioters to be hanged by scores without reference to age or degree of culpability.[42] [Illustration: _Rosslyn House._] He hanged mere children, for some of these unfortunates were not more than fourteen years of age, of whom Selwyn, who never missed an execution or a death at which he could be present, noted in his ‘Diary’ that he ‘never saw boys cry so much in his life.’ But to return to Rosslyn House and Lord Loughborough, we read that in politics he was without honour, siding with either party that happened to be in power, and whether Whig or Tory it mattered not—his lordship was always on the winning side. ‘None are all evil,’ but ‘neither wit, nor talent, nor a splendid hospitality’ can redeem the meaner and darker traits of Lord Loughborough’s character.[43] Rosslyn House, formerly known as Shelford Lodge, had anciently belonged to the Careys, who held it of the Church of Westminster. It is stated in the ‘Northern Heights of London’ that the celebrated Lord Chesterfield lived here for some years, while he held the Manor of Belsize, of which it is a part, and this author suggests that his ancestors might have called the house after their estate, Shelford Manor, in Nottinghamshire.[44] In 1812 Rosslyn House was occupied by Mrs. Milligan, widow of the projector of the West India Docks. It has since been the residence of Admiral Disney, the Earl of Galloway, Sir Francis Freeling (Secretary of the General Post Office), and others, till it fell into the hands of a speculative builder, who happened to fail before all the fine timber was felled and the house wholly destroyed. The grand avenue of chestnut-trees, which is said to be as old as Elizabeth’s time, remained almost entire[45] (1855-56), and some well-timbered fields appeared in the vicinity of the mansion. But the park itself has been cut up into portions, each of which belongs to a separate proprietor, and as many houses are scattered over it. For four years, while the fine old house, the historical home of the unfortunate Sir Harry Vane, was being prepared for them, Rosslyn House was used as the Home for Soldiers’ Daughters.