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Page 9
[Illustration: MARGUERITE COUNTESS OF BLESSINGTON by LAWRENCE]
LADY BLESSINGTON
The brilliant Blessington,--brilliant in beauty and in intellect!
Throughout her life of romance she was fortunate in her literary
friendships, through whom a knowledge of her abilities has grown to
tradition, but most fortunate in the portrayer of her beauty. Lawrence
has painted a picture which it is a perpetual pleasure to behold,--the
superb arms and shoulders, the serene, steadfast gaze of the eyes, and
the conscious, yet confident, poise of the head forming a record to
justify the tradition of great personal beauty and alertness of mind.
Marguerite Blessington's youth was ill-regulated and penurious. She
was born in 1789, the second daughter of Edmund Power, of Knockbrit,
near Clonmel, in the county of Tipperary. Her father came of a good
family, as did also her mother, who spoke unduly often of her
ancestors, the Desmonds. Marguerite was not comely in her early
girlhood, though her sister Ellen and her brother Robert were handsome
children. As a child, she was sensitive and sentimental, and her
delight was to browse in a library,--and it was this taste that
equipped her for her later friendships. Her power of imagination was
uncommonly strong, and she became the entertainer of her
children-companions with stories of her own imagining, as well as by
her recitals of legends and romance learned in the library. Her father
removed to Clonmel, and became editor of a paper there. He was not
prosperous, and was a man of perverse temper, which grew with
adversity. Marguerite and her sister were fancied by some wealthy
maiden-lady relatives, and were taken by them to a home of comfort. On
their return to Clonmel,--beautiful, and with the distinction of
knowledge and a clever use of it,--they were a contrast to the
ordinary Irish country girl, whose whole equipment of dress and
accomplishments was "two washing gowns and a tune on the piano." The
girls took part in all the gayeties of the town, and, besides the
charm of their conversation, were graceful dancers; and though
Marguerite was less beautiful, she was most tasteful in dress, and
this became always a noted characteristic of hers. They became the
attraction of an English regiment recently stationed in the town, and
Marguerite was soon married, through the insistence of her father, to
a Captain Farmer, when less than fifteen years of age. This was the
great misfortune of her life.
Her husband was subject to fits of insanity, and her whole feeling
towards him was that of aversion. Cruelty and caprice were the chief
components of his character. From his tyranny she fled,--first to her
father's house, but was denied solace there, so sought it elsewhere.
She led a somewhat vagabond existence for about nine years, living
first with one friend, then with another; thankful for any home, and
accommodating herself to any companions. Of this period of her life
not much is recorded, save her beauty, for it was shortly after this
that her peerless portrait was painted, ere her sorrow and suffering
had time to efface the vivacity of youth, but only to give depth to
the eyes and interest to the face. She lived in London with her
brother Robert until in 1817, when her husband's death occurred by his
falling out of a window when in a state of drunken frenzy. Four months
after this she became the second wife of an Irish nobleman of a
dashing person and little brains, Charles John Gardiner, second Earl
of Blessington, when she was twenty-eight and he was thirty-five years
of age. With this marriage came a reversal of her misfortunes. Her
generosity, sympathy, and good heart soon prompted the improvement of
the conditions of her own family, and in this gave emphatic evidence
of that devotedness to duty and friends which became her strongest
trait. Her youngest sister, Marianne, was adopted and educated by her,
and became her travelling companion, and long afterwards her modest
biographer. Her sister Ellen married first, Mr. Home Purves, and
afterwards, Viscount Canterbury, speaker of the House of Commons.
Lord Blessington's income was great, but his tastes were extravagant
as were also his wife's, and luxurious was their home in St. James's
Square, and magnificent the manner in which they entertained the
brilliant society gathered there; and for three years their brilliant
companies of beauty and intellect outshone the congregations at
Holland House. In 1822, Count D'Orsay, a polished and accomplished
young Frenchman, visited London, and was made most welcome by the
Blessingtons. In August of that year they started for a leisurely tour
of the Continent. The Countess kept a diary during this journeying,
which was published in 1839, under the title of "The Idler in Italy,"
revealing a keen observation and a capacity for entertaining comment.
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