In May 1999, she succeeded as
Baroness Arlington when the abeyance of the Arlington barony was terminated. Under the provisions of the
Peerage Act 1963, she took her seat in the
House of Lords on 27 May 1999, and remained in the House until 11 November 1999 when the
House of Lords Act 1999 took effect. She made her
only speech the week after the death of her husband, who had helped her to prepare it, on 18 October 1999 in a series of questions to the Transport Minister in the Lords, on the subject of speeding. Lady Arlington, after having succeeded in claiming her ancestral title out of abeyance in her favour, was reminded with tongue-in-cheek by the
Labour hereditary peer,
Lord Berkeley (also cr. Lord Gueterbock in 2000), that she was now well prepared to petition for the restoration of the ancient titles of
Earl of Arlington and/or
Viscount Thetford in her favour, being one of the four co-heirs to those titles. Hers was the last
barony created by
writ of summons to be brought out of
abeyance while hereditary peers had an automatic right to attend the House of Lords. ==See also==