Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington after "half a lifetime together, they had come to understand each other at the end". He had found consolation for his unhappy marriage in his warm friendship with the diarist Harriet Arbuthnot, wife of his colleague Charles Arbuthnot. Harriet's death in the cholera epidemic of 1834 was almost as great a blow to Wellington as it was to her husband. The two widowers spent their last years together at Apsley House. Wellington died at Walmer Castle in Deal on 14 September 1852. This was his residence as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. Walmer Castle was said to have been
Allington Castle a bend in the River Medway about north of Maidstone. The fortification was subsequently expanded but as it was an unauthorised adulterine castle, its demolition was ordered in 1174 during the reign of Henry II. It was replaced with a small unfortified manor house. The present castle was built between 1279–99 by Stephen de Pencester, the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, who was granted a licence to crenellate the existing manor house by Edward I. It was inherited by Penchester's daughter and passed via marriage to the Cobham family, who owned it until 1492. The building's development was continued