The thing that grieves me in it all, is that their children will be of different religions, according to their sex. I know that Leveson ought not and that my father cannot consent that their sons and grandsons should be Roman Catholics, which is certainly unfortunate."

Also, while in Paris Lady Georgiana and her mother became acquainted with Mrs. Elizabeth Fry, the Quaker, who encouraged her to extend the work for the poor on which she had already embarked. Up until then she had used her own money but realised that this was inadequate and decided to supplement her income by writing.

Her first effort, a translation of a French poem was submitted to Bentley's Magazine in London. She received 12 guineas for it.

This inspired her to send another but Mr. Bentley suggested she ought to find a wider audience with some prose. The result was her first novel, "Ellen Middleton", published as a three-decker in 1844. Despite the improbabilities in the plot it received a number of favourable reviews, including one from Mr. Gladstone in the Quarterly Review.

Thus encouraged, she embarked on a literary career which over the next forty years produced ten novels (two in French), two books of yerse and six biographies.

With a change of government in 1841 Earl Granville and his family left Paris, going first to the South of France, then to Italy and on to Rome. There they stayed for two years. Just before they returned to England and, completely unbeknown to his wife, Mr. Fullerton was received into the Catholic Church on April 23rd 1843.

Lady Georgiana, although attracted to the Church, was reluctant to follow her husband while her father was still alive. The feelings of the times can be judged from the Duke of Devonshire's letter to her husband.

My Dear Fullerton,

I will not conceal from you that I am exceedingly sorry for what you have done, but there is no use my dwelling on that, for you have I doubt not acted to the best of your judgment and conscience. The only thing that gives me pleasure in your letter is your intention of keeping it secret to which I trust you will adhere..."

Lady Georgiana1s father died in January 1846 and on 10th April of that year she, too, was received into the Catholic Church. The Duke of Devonshire thought it "convenable" that she should join her husband and said that, "religion is a subject on which man and wife ought to agree". Many of her friends were to take the same course.

The conversion did not affect her close relations with her mother and brothers and only slightly with her sister, Lady Rivers, whose daughter recalled that, "I know my mother tried very hard to dissuade my aunt from being a Roman Catholic - but I fancy that, after the first step was taken, the subject of the difference of religion was scarcely ever mentioned between them."

The Fullertons took a house in the West End of London, 27 Chapel Street, which later became the focus for their charitable works; but they also spent some time in Midgham, Berkshire where she started a school for poor Catholics.

They then moved to Wilbury Park near Amesbury. Here she was near to her sister at Rushmore. She described the place in a letter to her younger brother Freddie in September 1854.

" You will be curious to know how we like this place. This is what I think. That it is a cheerful, sunny, comfortable house - a most healthy spot with smart fresh air and smells. It has nice shade and is very rural - a very pretty village at the gate of the small park. It has the somewhat neglected look of Rushmore without its picturesque beauty .

It is a much more eligible place than Midgham, a reasonable purchase, excellent sport for G(ranville). The railway is just making which is to bring a station (Grately) at most a mile from the house door.

Rivers and the two eldest girls came over from Rushmore on Tuesday for the day, twenty six miles and back. ...G has been very well lately. It is now three months since he joined and during that time he has only one attack - a month ago - which certainly proves that his present mode of life suits him better on the whole than that he previously led abroad. His zest and pleasure in his military duties is unabated."

Her son despite a life of ill health had joined the Army that year but six months later while staying with his uncle at Rushmore he collapsed and died. On the same evening Lord Rivers sent a telegram to his brother-in-law Earl Granville in London. "Granville Fullerton has had a fit and is no more. Make it known to his father and mother. We shall all be in London this evening." Dr. Henry Manning (later Cardinal) broke the news to Lady Georgiana and her husband.

Their life up to that time had been somewhat nomadic, dividing their time between relatives and houses in England and, particularly in the winter, traveling on the Continent. After the death of their son the couple dedicated their life and works to the Roman Catholic Church and to the relief of the poor, particularly the Irish in and around Westminster.

Lady Georgiana remained in mourning for the rest of her life and kept a portrait of her son in her bedroom with curtains drawn across it. They moved from Wilbury Park to Slindon in Sussex, very near to her close friends the Duchess of Norfolk at Arundel and Lady Newburgh at Slindon House.

But London was the centre of her philanthropic and charitable activities. From here she wrote letters supporting friends undertaking similar work, inviting religious orders from the Continent to settle a small congregation in London to assist with the work of succoring the poor.

Two of these, the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul and the Helpers of Poor Souls responded, the latter settling at Gloucester Gate, the support she gave was not only financial and moral but also practical. One lady visitor, having left food and money for an invalid woman, was asked why she was leaving so soon.

Apparently 'Lady Georgiana would make the fire, sweep the room, dress the woman and read and talk to her. She and her husband provided gifts of money for St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Great Ormond Street, London, and the Sisters of Mercy in Belfast. Much of this was done quietly, and the extent to which Lady Georgiana helped different religious orders was not known to the other orders.

It was in 1857 that Lady Georgiana first met Magdalen "Fanny" Taylor, a convert to Catholicism after the Crimean War where she had nursed with Florence Nightingale and the Sisters of Mercy from Bermondsey.

After Fanny Taylor's first novel "Tyborne" had been published she was invited to call at Chapel Street to meet Lady Georgiana. "I can see her now welcoming with that manner peculiar to herself - a mixture of childlike simplicity and high bred courtesy".