Some Old Time Beauties | Page 4

of old, Whose war-cry oft has waked the
battle swell!"
Old Dr. John Brown, of Edinburgh, wrote of a late Duke of Athole:
"Courage, endurance, stanchness, fidelity, and warmth of heart,
simplicity, and downrightness, were his staples." They are ever the
staples of the Scotch character, and they were all pre-eminent in Sir
Thomas. His life was noble, and his affection was faithful to its early
troth.
A pathetic history attaches to this picture of Mrs. Graham: When its
subject died, the sorrowing husband had it bricked up where it hung,
and it was only by an accident that it was discovered at his death, in
1843. It now hangs in the National Gallery of Scotland at Edinburgh.
The present reproduction shows but a part of the picture, the figure
being full length. It has been excellently reproduced in etching by both
Flameng and Waltner.
In 1885, a most comprehensive exhibition of Gainsborough's works
was made at the Grosvenor Gallery in London. At it was noted the
important part this painter had played in perpetuating the lineaments,
bearing, graces, and gownings of the great persons of the latter half of
the eighteenth century.
"The lips that laughed an age agone, The fops, the dukes, the beauties
all, Le Brun that sang and Carr that shone."
There was seen The Hon. Miss Georgiana Spencer, at the age of six,
and again a later portrait of her as the Duchess of Devonshire,--she of
the then irresistibly seductive manners,--and her mother, Countess
Spencer, of whom Walpole wrote as being one of the beauties present
at the coronation of George III., in 1761. There, too, was Anne Luttrell,
daughter of Simon Luttrell, Baron Irnham, who married, first,
Christopher Horton, and, secondly, the Duke of Cumberland, brother of
the king. Of her Walpole wrote: "There was something so bewitching
in her languishing eyes, which she could animate to enchantment if she
pleased, and her coquetry was so active, so varied, and yet so habitual
that it was difficult not to see through it, and yet as difficult to resist it."
And here was another widow who captivated royalty, Mrs. Fitzherbert,
who was a daughter of Walter Smythe of Bambridge, Hampshire, and
married, first, Edward Weld, secondly, Thomas Fitzherbert of
Synnerton, Staffordshire (who died in 1781), and was said to have been

married to the Prince of Wales (George IV.) in 1785. And there also
was a more notorious beauty, Miss Grace Dalrymple, afterwards Mrs.
Elliott,--though divorced later, and becoming the mistress of various
aristocrats, notably the Duke of Orleans.
The Duchess of Montagu, granddaughter of the great Duke of
Marlborough (one of the Churchills,--a family prolific of beauties), was
there seen. Several pictures of the painter's wife (who was a Miss
Margaret Burr), of his youngest daughter, Mary, afterwards Mrs.
Fischer, and one of his friend, Miss Linley, went to augment this
superb congregation of beauties shown. Portraits of Garrick,--that
intensely interesting Stratford portrait,--Earl Spencer, Pitt, Earl
Stanhope, Colonel St. Leger, George IV., Duke of Cumberland, George
III., Earl Cathcart, Canning, Dr. Johnson, Fox, and several showings of
himself, made up a body of work unsurpassed in importance by that of
the president of the Academy himself.
Gainsborough was born in 1727; he moved to Bath, in its most brilliant
period, in 1760. He died in 1788, but had ceased contributing to the
Academy four years before, because of a disagreement with the
hanging committee. His portraits of ladies were always picturesque and
individual, each differentiated from each of his own works as well as
from that of other painters.
This portrait of the Hon. Mrs. Graham is delicate in color, yellowed
somewhat by its long seclusion from the light,--and will remain one of
the most delightful and spirituel creations of the old-English school.

[Illustration: EMMA, LADY HAMILTON by ROMNEY]
Lady Hamilton
With the name of Lady Hamilton is ever associated the names of
England's most famous sailor and of one of her most famous painters.
Hers was a life redolent of ill-repute. Though her beauty was great, it
served her for ill purposes; but she came by her lack of character by
heredity. She was born in 1761, the daughter of a female servant named
Harte, and at the age of thirteen was put to service as a nurse in the
house of a Mr. Thomas of Hawarden, Flintshire. She found tending
children a tedious task, and forsook it. At sixteen, she went to London,
and became a lady's maid there. Her leisure time was spent in reading
novels and plays, which inspired a love for the drama. She early

developed a rare ability for pantomimic representation; and this became
a favorite form of entertainment in drawing-rooms and studios. Her
duties as a domestic agreed not with the drama, so her next position
was as