"Were I now as I was, I had sung What Lawrence has painted so well; But the strain would expire on my tongue, And the theme is too soft for my sh.e.l.l.
"I am ashes where once I was fire, And the bard in my bosom is dead: What I loved I now merely admire, And my heart is as gray as my head.
"Let the young and the brilliant aspire To sing what I gaze on in vain, For sorrow has torn from my lyre The string which was worthy the strain."
[Ill.u.s.tration: MARY ISABELLA d.u.c.h.eSS OF RUTLAND by REYNOLDS]
HER GRACE OF RUTLAND
Rowlandson, the caricaturist, once published a cartoon ent.i.tled "Juno Devon, All Sublime." The rival G.o.ddesses in compet.i.tion with her before that modern Paris, the Prince of Wales, being their Graces of Gordon and Rutland. Beyond the various written records of the opposing beauty of those aristocratic dames who dominated society in their day, we have ample painted evidence of their loveliness. Of her Grace of Devonshire, we have, first, the engraved renderings of "the lost Gainsborough." There are other Gainsboroughs, too,--Georgiana as a child, and a full-length of her standing at the edge of a lawn, her face looking down, wearing a white dress, her right elbow on the base of a column, a scarf in both hands, her hair piled high, but without the hat, as in the more famous picture. There are then several by Sir Joshua. The first, where she stands as a child beside her mother; then, she as a mother with her own child,--a very charming profile, and a picture that insinuates the vivacity of demeanor and the abandon so characteristic of her.
Walpole wrote of this as "Little like and not good." Yet, as to goodness, a modern authority has said: "It is a superb work; and, in motive, color, and composition, it ranks as a triumph alike of nature and art." Again, there is a whole-length showing her about to descend some steps to a lawn, her superb shoulders and neck bare, and her hair highly bedecked with feathers. Walpole writes of another portrait, drawn by Lady Di Beauclerck, and engraved by Bartolozzi: "A Castilian nymph conceived by Sappho and executed by Myron, would not have had more grace and simplicity. The likeness is perfectly preserved, except that the paintress has lent her own expression to the d.u.c.h.ess, which you will allow is very agreeable flattering." In the Royal collection of miniatures at Windsor, are three charmingly executed ivories of her by Cosway. Lawrence, too, made a chalk drawing of her, which now hangs at Chiswick House, in the room in which Charles Fox died. This is an interesting work from being a very early effort of the after-time President of the Academy, and showing that then he had not attained the trick of flattering his sitters, even when they were noted beauties. Angelica Kauffman painted her, and John Downman also made a portrait replete with elegance and picturesqueness. In fact, the comely d.u.c.h.ess pervaded the art of the period. Of her Grace of Gordon, we have, as our ideal presentment of her, the portrait by Sir Joshua.
In it her hair is done up high, and two rows of pearls are intertwined therein. The dress is of the Charles the First period, and shows the sweetly modulated shoulders leading up to--
"The pillared throat, clear chiselled cheek, High arching brows, nose purely Greek, Set lips,--too firm for a coquette."
We have also an interesting portrait of her by Romney.
Of her Grace of Rutland, we have also several pictures by Sir Joshua.
There is a whole-length with a decorative head-dress, and a landscape background. The original of this was destroyed by fire at Belvoir Castle. Another, a half-length, in the same costume, and a three-quarter face, is mostly pervaded by a serene sense of pride.
There is a drawing of her done by the Hon. Mrs. O"Neil, which is interesting from the picturesque head-dress shown. Her Grace of Gordon was as great a power in the political world as she of Devonshire,--probably greater, for her alliance and principles were with the ruling power. This lady was to Pitt"s party what Fair Devon was to Fox"s. In fact, it was a.s.serted she endeavored to marry her daughter, Lady Charlotte, afterwards d.u.c.h.ess of Richmond, to the premier. When Georgiana made her famous canva.s.s in favor of Fox, the Tories opposed to her the Scotch d.u.c.h.ess.
She lived and entertained then in a splendid mansion in Pall Mall; and there a.s.sembled the adherents of the Administration.
Jane was the daughter of Sir William Maxwell, of Monreith, and in her youth, even, was noted for beauty. A ballad, "Jenny of Monreith,"
written in her honor, was often chivalrously sung by her son George, the last Duke of Gordon. "Jenny" married the fourth Duke, Alexander, in 1767. The career of the Duke"s youngest brother George, identified with the "Gordon Riot," caused the family much embarra.s.sment, and even threatened to derogate from the d.u.c.h.ess"s dominance with the ruling party.
Her Grace was of somewhat stronger fibre than she of Devon; more masculinity, ay, even more principle, characterized her. Thrift was a visible virtue, in contrast to Georgiana"s improvidence. Command, rather than cajolery, was her political method. Her later life was devoted to securing sons-in-law; three dukes, a marquis, and a knight were of her garnering. She was on good terms with the Regent, and endeavored to aid him in his differences with his Princess Caroline.
She is remembered, too, as a patron and friend of Dr. Beattie, the poet, who has eulogized her in these lines "To a Pen":--
"Go, and be guided by the brightest eyes, And to the softest hand thine aid impart; To trace the fair ideas as they arise, Warm from the purest, gentlest, n.o.blest heart."
The third in that group of G.o.ddesses was surely the fairest of them all, of more perfect form, more n.o.ble bearing, having that ultimate element of the greatest beauty,--distinction. She came of a longer lineage, and was the consummate flower of beauty wrought by the sun and summers through many generations of patrician life,--life amid the palatial parks, the superb scenery, and majestic castles of England.
Such living weaves its sweetest elements into the tissues of the being and works a spell of loveliness such as Lady Mary Somerset. She was the youngest daughter of Charles, fourth Duke of Beaufort, a descendant of the Plantagenets. In 1775, she was married to Lord Charles Manners, eldest son (born in 1754) of John,--that Marquis of Granby whom Junius attacked, who was a.s.sociated in the government, in George the Second"s time, with the Earl of Chatham. The Marquis was a man of much force, and a most hospitable entertainer. He died before his father, the third Duke of Rutland.
Lord Charles succeeded to the dukedom in 1779. He had formed a friendship at Cambridge with Pitt, the son of his father"s colleague, and through his influence Pitt entered Parliament. In 1784, he was induced by the young premier to accept the Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland, and it is with the lavish entertainment and high revelries at Dublin Castle that his name and that of his beautiful d.u.c.h.ess is connected.
High living soon told its tale, for the Duke died in 1787, at the early age of thirty-three. Though having the most beautiful wife in England, his affections wandered, and tales are told of his attachment to that siren singer, Mrs. Billington. The d.u.c.h.ess"s manner had somewhat of levity and much coquetry in it, though she could not be cla.s.sed with that company who have not time to be virtuous. At the time of her lord"s death, she was living with her mother, the Dowager d.u.c.h.ess of Beaufort, in Berkeley Square, London, having been partially estranged from her husband. On hearing of his illness, she started to set out for Dublin; but a message of his death came fast upon the trail of the first news. Perchance it was this estrangement at death, this having parted in anger without the chance of reconciliation in life, that affected her so deeply that, though sought by many suitors, the widow was true to the memory of her late lord. Her son, John Henry, succeeded to the t.i.tle; and his bride, a daughter of the Earl of Carlisle, was also known as a beauty, and her portrait was painted by Hoppner, in 1798. It was she of whom Greville wrote in his Memoirs, and commented on her lack of taste in spoiling the magnificent Castle of Belvoir, the pride and glory of the Eastern Midlands.
The beauty of the d.u.c.h.ess Mary Isabella was statuesque, cla.s.sical; her features were n.o.ble. She received admiration as her right, but gave not largesse of smiles and wit in return. She was not as the Devonian divinity, "The woman in whose golden smile all life seems enchanted."
Wraxall writes of a lady telling of witnessing a prenuptial display of her person, and being entranced by lithe limb, by the fine and faultless form. Reynolds has hinted at the beauteous body, and the hint ensnares us. Verily, "the visible fair form of a woman is hereditary queen of us." Wraxall also likens the d.u.c.h.ess to an older-time beauty, Diane de Poitiers,--that famous lady of France, the favorite of Francois I. and Henri II. Of that lady"s beauty, it was written, that it was of the form and feature rather than the radiance of the mind and manner transforming them; and like her, too, our d.u.c.h.ess retained her beauty to an advanced age. She died in 1821. To the last, she impressed one with her dignity, her n.o.bility, her loveliness.
"And they who saw her snow-white hair.
And dark, sad eyes, so deep with feeling, Breathed all at once the chancel air, And seemed to hear the organ pealing."
[Ill.u.s.tration: LAVINIA COUNTESS SPENCER by REYNOLDS]
LAVINIA
In March, 1781, Walpole writes to a friend: "As your lordship has honored all the productions of my press with your acceptance, I venture to inclose the last, which I printed to oblige the Lucans.
There are many beautiful and poetic expressions in it. A wedding, to be sure, is neither a new nor a promising subject, nor will outlast the favors; still, I think Mr. Jones"s ode is uncommonly good for the occasion." The ode was "The Muse Recalled," and the occasion the nuptials of Lord Viscount Althorp and Miss Lavinia Bingham, eldest daughter of Sir Charles Bingham, created, in 1776, Baron Lucan of Castlebar. Sir Charles was a man of culture, who was intimate with Johnson, Goldsmith, Gibbon, Reynolds, and Burke. He is frequently pleasantly mentioned by Boswell. He had married, in 1760, Margaret, daughter of James Smith, M.P., a lady of great good sense and rare accomplishments, and three lovely daughters were the issue from this union. Reynolds found in them most pleasing subjects for his pencil.
Their pictures appeared at the Academy, in 1786. Lavinia was portrayed as shown in the picture here given, and again in quite as lovely a fashion,--standing out doors and wearing a wide-brimmed hat which casts a broad shade across the face; the wavy curls of hair fall upon the shoulder; in the background is a landscape. The navete of the face is exquisitely delightful. The old-time flavor of the whole causes one to recall Locker"s lines on the picture of his grandmother:--
"Beneath a summer tree.
Her maiden reverie Has a charm; Her ringlets are in taste; What an arm! ... what a waist For an arm!"
In the picture of her youngest sister, Anne, is a broad hat, too; she sits full-face, but in her features there is lacking just a little of the quiet dignity of the eldest. All of these portraits have been made familiar to us by the most meritorious mezzotints of them by Cousins.
In Lavinia"s face there lingers all the enchanting grace of girlhood,--a face yet full of that early beauty--
"Which, like the morning"s glow Hints a full day below."
A later president of the Academy, Sir Martin Shee, has shown us that face in the noonday of its matronly beauty, and the gentle character and sweet sensibility yet outshine through the mask of the flesh as in the earlier pictures.
Lady Bingham was careful of the education and company of her daughters. The girls were musical, and Lavinia excelled in painting as well. Walpole writes of her being in Italy, in 1785, with Mrs. Damer, his sculptor friend, and of her drawing with very great expression. He was not so complimentary of her music some years before, when he tells of being invited to Lady Lucan"s to hear her daughters sing Jomelli"s "Miserere," set for two voices: "It lasted for two hours, and instead of being pathetic was eminently dull, until at last I rejoiced when "_the two women had left the sepulchre_.""
Shortly after this he tells of rumors of the attachment of George John, Lord Althorp, brother of Georgiana of Devonshire, to "that sweet creature" Lavinia. At dinner at Lord Lucan"s, Lord Althorp sat at a side table with the girls and a Miss Shipley. "Pray, Lady Spencer,"
said Walpole, "is it owned that Lord Althorp is to marry--Miss Shipley?" His next reference to the Lucans is in regard to the wedding ode printed on the Strawberry Hill press. The poet therein invokes blessings in this wise:--
"Shine forth, ye silver eyes of night, And gaze on virtues crowned with treasures of delight.
"Flow smoothly, circling hours,-- And o"er their heads unblended pleasure pour; Nor let your fleeting round Their mortal transports bound, But fill their cup of bliss, eternal powers, Till time himself shall cease, and suns shall blaze no more."
He essays to eulogize the bride:--
"Each morn reclined on many a rose, Lavinia"s pencil shall disclose New forms of dignity and grace, The expressive air, the impa.s.sioned face, The curled smile, the bubbling tear, The bloom of hope, the snow of fear, To some poetic tale fresh beauty give, And bid the starting tablet rise and live; Or with swift fingers shall she touch the strings, Notes of such wondrous texture weave As lifts the soul on seraph wings."
He then proceeds to encourage Althorp to lead a strong, n.o.ble life, devoting his great abilities to the state, though he laments the small chances for genuine sterling worth to achieve eminence.
"In this voluptuous, this abandoned age,"
when the leaders of the country are
"Slaves of vice and slaves of gold."
There was much fitness in this poet essaying a homily for the groom"s benefit, for he had been the young man"s tutor some years before. When the first Earl--a man of most fascinating manners--placed his son in the tutor"s charge, he said, "Make him, if you can, like yourself and I shall be satisfied." Johnson said of Sir William Jones, "The most enlightened of the sons of men." He became a great Indian and Persian scholar, and was ever an honored friend of his former pupil.