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Page 2
Fox was elected for the Tory borough of Westminster, and great was the
rejoicing at Carlton House. A _f�te_ was given on the grounds the day
following, and the ordinarily well-apparelled Prince appeared in a
superb costume of the radical colors, blue and buff. This was the
period of the Duchess's greatest glory, as well as of her most superb
charm of personality; and it was about this period that Gainsborough
painted his perennially delightful presentment of her. She was then
twenty-seven years of age, and had been married ten years. Wraxall
wrote what is probably the best contemporary description of her: "The
personal charms of the Duchess of Devonshire constituted her smallest
pretensions to universal admiration; nor did her beauty consist, like
that of the Gunnings, in regularity of features, and faultless
formation of limbs and shape; it lay in the amenity and graces of her
deportment, in her irresistible manners, and the seduction of her
society. Her hair was not without a tinge of red; and her face, though
pleasing, yet, had it not been illuminated by her mind, might have
been considered an ordinary countenance."
It is said of Gainsborough that, while painting the Duchess, "he drew
his wet pencil across a mouth all thought exquisitely lovely, saying,
'Her Grace is too hard for me.'"
The lady later knew the cuts of comment, and the keen pain of
justifiable jealousy. The rival in her husband's attentions was Lady
Elizabeth Foster, daughter of the Earl of Bristol, a brunette of
handsome presence, and at the death of Georgiana, in 1806, she became
the second wife of the Duke. There was an apparent friendship between
the ladies, and Lady Elizabeth for a time lived under the same roof as
the Duchess.
Madame d'Arblay, in 1791, visited her at Bath, and made record then of
her introduction to the Duchess, and indicated the premonition of
trouble in this wise. "Presently followed two ladies; Lady Spencer,
with a look and manner warmly announcing pleasure in what she was
doing, then introduced me to the first of them, saying, 'Duchess of
Devonshire, Miss Burney.' She made me a very civil compliment upon
hoping my health was recovering; and Lady Spencer then, slightly, and
as if unavoidably, said, 'Lady Elizabeth Foster.'" Gibbon said of the
latter, that, "No man could withstand her; and that if she chose to
beckon the Lord Chancellor from his woolsack, in full sight of the
world, he could not resist obedience." Reynolds painted a portrait of
her, showing a bright-eyed, smiling lady, with close-curled hair, of
girlish appearance. In Samuel Rogers's "Table Talk" are several
mentions of the famous Georgiana, and especially one which tells of
her love for gambling. "Gaming was the rage during her day; she
indulged in it, and was made miserable by her debts. A faro-table was
kept by Martindale, at which the Duchess and other high fashionables
used to play. Sheridan said that the Duchess and Martindale had agreed
that whatever they two won from each other should be sometimes
_double_, sometimes _treble_, what it was called. And Sheridan assured
me that he had handed the Duchess into her carriage when she was
literally sobbing at her losses, she having lost fifteen hundred
pounds, when it was supposed to be only five hundred pounds." A life
such as she then led surely affected her appearance. In 1783, Walpole
wrote: "The Duchess of Devonshire, the empress of fashion, is no
beauty at all. She was a very fine woman, with all the freshness of
youth and health, but verges fast to a coarseness."
The offspring of the Duchess Georgiana were: Georgiana Dorothy,
afterwards Countess Carlisle, whose letters were lately published, and
exhibit an original observation and a terse style of record; Henrietta
Elizabeth, later Countess Granville; and a son, who succeeded to the
Dukedom. About the latter's birth was some mystery; insinuation was
active. The Duchess had little liking for domestic life, so normal
neglect of child may have been construed into an unnatural dislike.
Her son never married. Through the stress of the home infelicity, her
beauty waned; but her bearing and breeding kept her paramount in her
set. She is known to this later generation only as a superb beauty who
stands with such opulent charm of costume, and of fine hauteur of
manner, amid the noble groves of Chatsworth--as the once potential
original of Gainsborough's greatest portrait. "The bust outlasts the
throne, the coin Tiberius."
A most pathetic tribute to the beauty of the Duchess was paid by
"Peter Pindar" (Dr. Wolcot), who addressed "A Petition to Time in
favor of the Duchess of Devonshire," and implored the Inexorable
thus:--
"Hurt not the form that all admire.
Oh, never with white hairs her temple sprinkle!
Oh, sacred be her cheek, her lip, her bloom!
And do not, in a lovely dimple's room,
Place a hard mortifying wrinkle.
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