Some Old Time Beauties | Page 2

a kiss from the lovely lips of the
seductive Duchess. The price was paid, amid the plaudits of the crowd.
An Irish elector, impressed by the fair appellant's vivacity, exclaimed:
"I could light my pipe at her eyes."
Fox was elected for the Tory borough of Westminster, and great was
the rejoicing at Carlton House. A _fête_ 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