level with such great men.’ Then the Archbishop asked her plainly if
the Duchess of St. Albans was to have the key?
‘No, never!’ she said; ‘though she is always tormenting me about it.’
‘My Lord into the country for good; leaves me to get everything ready.
Busy packing all day. The Princess asks why Lord Cowper leaves London;
and answer, “To avoid importunity, and be quiet.” “And what makes you
go so soon?” “Because he commands me, madam, and I have nothing to do
but to obey.”’
The Cowpers still kept up their friendship with Baron Bernstorff, who
was himself subject to the most capricious treatment in high places,
and the German Baron, and the Lady-in-Waiting had many long
discussions on political matters.
They were agreed on many subjects, and above all in abhorrence of the
South Sea Scheme, which was then the great topic of the day. ‘Go into
the country, nothing material there.’ But she ‘came back to go to the
birthday of our most gracious King.’ ‘Waited on the Princess to Court,
where was one of the greatest crowds I ever saw; it being greatly
increased by our new Lords and Masters of the South Sea, who had more
court made to them than the Ministers themselves.’
As a climax to the confusion that reigned between the rival Courts,
the Lord Chamberlain, the Duke of Newcastle, chose to celebrate His
Majesty’s birthday-night by getting drunk, in consequence of which the
ladies of the Princess’s household had no places, but ‘stood in the
heat and crowd all night.’ The Duchess of Shrewsbury scolded aloud,
which only elicited insulting answers from the great official, and so
indignant were the Princess’s ladies, that they all went home, with
the exception of my Lady Dorset.
Here is another mention of the Chamberlain: ‘Newcastle stood before me
both day and night. If I had not seen his face I should have known who
it was, it being his peculiarity to turn his back upon those he has
any obligations to.’ Another incident in Lady Cowper’s Court life
shows the Princess of Wales could be flippant as well as capricious,
but her attendant was a match for her. ‘She had a mind to be out of
humour with me, and put on a frown. The King turned his back to me who
was playing. But a sudden curiosity took him, and he turned his face
round, and had his eyes fixed on me all night so intently, without
being angry, that it was talked about. The Princess said to me next
morning, that the King could not help liking me as well as ever; and
that she saw plainly by his manner that I could do what I pleased, and
that it was my own fault if I did not rule them all. I answered, for
the thing itself I did not believe it at all, and, supposing it were
true, power was too dear bought when one was to do such dishonourable
work for it.’
_July 5._—‘My waiting concluded without my having had any opportunity
of saying one word to the Princess alone, without the door being
open;’—her Royal mistress, whom she so much loved, and by whom, but a
short time ago, she had been trusted, and consulted on every subject,
public or private. It is probable Lady Cowper found much truth in a
passage in one of the Duchess of Marlborough’s letters to her, though,
as far as one could tell, her Grace’s taste did not always incline to
private life! ‘I don’t wonder that you find it melancholy to be away
from your Lord and children, for though the Princess is very easy and
obliging,’—this was as early as 1716,—‘I think any one who has common
sense or honesty must needs be weary of everything one meets with at
Court. I have seen a good many, and lived in them many years, but I
protest I was never pleased but when I was a child; and after I had
been a maid of honour some time at fourteen I wished myself out of the
Court as much as I wished to come into it before I knew what it was.’
We have been tempted step by step into lengthening our record of Mary,
the first Countess Cowper, not only because we have authentic records
of herself, and the Court she adorned, from her own pen, but because
in those records we find so much nature and simplicity of style, so
many evidences of her sterling qualities, her many accomplishments and
excellent judgment, the whole tempered by playful sallies and
pardonable petulance. A modest and well-conducted woman in a vicious
Court, and uncontaminated by the immorality of those with whom she was
compelled to associate; the worthy wife of a good and great man, whose
loss she could not endure. She closed his eyes, and four months
afterwards she once more lay by his side in their last resting-place.
Lord Cowper died in October 1723, and ‘in the latter end of December,’
says Lady Sarah Cowper, ‘my mother grew much weaker, and extremely
ill. She lost her appetite, and at times her memory, so that she would
speak of my father as if living, ask for him, and expect him home.
When she recollected his death, it was with so lively a grief as if it
had just happened. In short, she had really what is so often talked
of, so seldom seen, a broken heart. She died on the 5th of February
1724.’
She expected him home; he did not come, and so she went to join him in
‘the Court of Heaven.’
------------------
_No. 6._
WILLIAM VISCOUNT FORDWICH, AFTERWARDS SECOND EARL COWPER, SON AND HEIR
OF THE LORD CHANCELLOR.
_Blue velvet coat. White cravat. Powder._
------------------
_No. 7._
MRS. GORE.
_White flowered brocade. Lace cap._
She was the wife of Charles Gore, Esq. Her daughter married George,
third Earl Cowper, whose acquaintance they made at Florence, where Mr.
Gore and his family were residing.
------------------
_No. 8._
GEORGIANA CAROLINA, SECOND WIFE OF THE SECOND EARL COWPER.
_Grey gown. Blue bows._
BORN 1716, DIED 1780.
SHE was the younger daughter of John Lord Carteret, afterwards Earl
Granville. Her sponsors were King George II. and his Queen, hence her
baptismal names. In 1733-4 a contemporary paper announces her
marriage:—‘The bride, a beautiful young lady, with a portion of
£30,000, to the Hon. John Spencer, brother to the Duke of Marlborough,
and grandson to Sarah, Duchess Dowager of Marlborough.’ John, or
‘Jack,’ as he was familiarly called, was one of those reckless
spirits, who, in the days of which we are speaking, went by the name
of ‘Rattlebrains,’ being very wilful, merry, extravagant, and the best
company in the world! Better to laugh, talk, or drink, than to
transact any business with. By this description it will be seen that
between him and his aged grandmother there were many points of
resemblance, and in consequence the Duchess was very partial to her
scapegrace grandson. They fell out, it must be confessed, over and
over again, but Jack always contrived to coax, cajole, or joke himself
back into favour. On one festive occasion, when Sarah was presiding at
the head of her own table at Althorp, supported by a crowd of
daughters, sons-in-law, grandchildren, and what not, in the pride of
wealth, relationship, and splendid surroundings, she said aloud, ‘Here
am I, the root, encircled by my branches.’
‘True,’ says mischievous Jack, at the bottom of the table, in a
whisper to his neighbour; ‘pity that the root should not be in its
proper place, under ground.’ The young man to whom the sally was
addressed was thrown into such convulsions of laughter that the
Duchess’s curiosity was aroused, and she insisted on knowing the cause
of so much mirth. Few people dared to gainsay the aged virago, and
certainly not this timid youth; thus questioned, he had neither the
courage nor the imagination for a false or evasive answer, and he
blurted out the bare truth. The Duchess rose in a fury. ‘Leave the
room, Jack,’ said she; ‘leave the house, and never darken my doors
again.’ The culprit obeyed with an air of mock submission, and on
reaching the door he turned, and with a profound salutation, quitted
the apartment. But in another moment his head appeared above the sill
of the window, which was open. He cleared it at a bound, vaulted into
the room, and knelt at his grandmother’s feet. It was the window, not
the door! A perfect reconciliation ensued; and so completely was Jack
forgiven, that the Duchess settled a considerable annuity on him,
pending the large fortune and estates he would inherit by her will, in
addition to those left in trust for him by his grandfather the Duke.
Mrs. Delany, in her amusing diaries and letters, published of late
years by Lady Llanover, to whom many thanks are due for the same,
speaks constantly of her cousin Georgiana Granville, with an obvious
pride in the relationship. She says, in writing to her sister, ‘You
will expect to hear some account of our cousin Spencer. The marriage
took place between eight and nine o’clock at night. The guests were
very distinguished,—the Dukes and Duchesses of Marlborough and
Bedford, Sir Robert and Lady Worsley, the bride’s grandparents, and
numerous members of their family, Lord Morpeth, Colonel Montagu, etc.
etc. After they were married, they played a pool of commerce, then
retired between twelve and one, and went next day to Windsor Lodge.
They are to return on Monday, to what was Mr. Percival’s lodging in
Conduit Street. Georgiana was dressed in white satin, embroidered in
silver, her laces very fine, and the jewels the Duchess of Marlborough
gave her, magnificent. Frequent allusions are made by the writers of
the day to these famous jewels in which Mrs. Spencer ‘sparkled.’ Then
follows a catalogue of the bride’s wedding bravery, of laces and linen
very fine, and flowered silks, such as would rouse the envy of many a
lover of old brocade in modern times; a pink and silver poudesoy, a
blue damask night-gown, and rich brocades, all stiff with embroidery.
John Spencer dying, his widow contracted a second marriage with Lord
Cowper, and Mrs. Delany speaks of the union as being a very happy one,
for ‘Georgiana is much attached to her new Lord and his children, and
it is warmly reciprocated.’ Horace Walpole, in describing the gorgeous
sight which the coronation of George III. and his Queen presented,
gives an amusing account of the preparations for the same among the
ladies: how several were dressed overnight, and reposed in armchairs,
with watchers beside them to wake up the sleepers when in danger of
ruffling their garments or tumbling their headdresses. Walpole
conveyed Ladies Townshend, Hervey, Hertford, and Anne Conolly, with
Mrs. Clive, to see the show in his deputy’s house at the gate of
Westminster Hall. Says Lady Townshend, ‘I should like to go to a
coronation, for I have never seen one.’ ‘Why,’ remarked Horace, ‘you
walked at the last.’ ‘Yes, child,’ was the candid reply, ‘but I saw
nothing; I only looked to see who was looking at me.’ There seemed to
have been a great stir among the Countesses, who all objected to
associate with Lady Macclesfield. Horace again: ‘My heraldry was much
more offended with the ladies who did walk, than with those who walked
out of place, but I was not so furiously angry as my Lady Cowper. She
flatly refused at first to set a foot with my Lady Macclesfield, and
when at last compelled to do so she set out at a round trot’ (to
distance her companion?), ‘as if she designed to prove the antiquity
of her family by walking as lustily as a maid of honour of Queen
Guinevere.’ Mrs. Delany writes later on, ‘Lady Cowper is very much
pleased at her son being made an Earl, and all the more as the honour
was entirely unsolicited.’ Lord Spencer was a generous and dutiful
son, and when his mother once more became a widow, he gave her a
charming house at Richmond, fully furnished, where she was very
hospitable to Mrs. Delany and that branch of her family, as well as to
the relations and connections of both her husbands. Here her ‘cousin’
frequently mentions meeting Lady Spencer and her mother, Mrs. Poyntz,
Anne Maria Mordaunt, who had been maid of honour to Queen Caroline,
and governess to the Duke of Cumberland. Lady Cowper’s letters are
lively and genial. In one, dated New Year’s Day, she says, ‘Last
evening came Lord Montagu (only son of the Earl of Cardigan, created
Baron Montagu). He spent most of the evening alone with me, and I
played on the guitar, and sang to him. I hope we may not be talked
about, for he is quite alive, I assure you, although he is fourscore
struck, as the Duchess of Marlborough used to say.’ Georgiana retained
her good looks to a very advanced age, for Mrs. Delany says, not long
before her death, ‘I saw Lady Cowper yesterday. She is still the
Glastonbury Rose.’ During her last illness, which was of some
duration, her daughter-in-law, Lady Spencer, was unremitting in her
attentions, driving over daily from her home at Wimbledon to Richmond,
sometimes twice in the twenty-four hours, and often passing the night
by the sufferer’s bedside.
------------------
_No. 9._
LADY SARAH COWPER.
_Black gown. Pink ribbons._
DIED 1758.
THE daughter of the first Earl, Lord Chancellor Cowper, by his second
wife, Mary Clavering. Mrs. Delany in her lively and good-natured
gossip makes frequent mention of Lady Sarah, with whom she became well
acquainted, her ‘cousin Carteret’ being Lady Sarah’s sister-in-law.
This was Georgiana Carteret, Lady Cowper, of whom we have just given a
notice.
‘I envy you, says Mrs. Delany, writing to a friend, ‘for living in the
neighbourhood. There is quite a happy nest of brothers and sisters.
Lady Sarah has taken a little cottage to be near Lord Cowper, to whom
she is tenderly attached. We had a delightful day when we drank tea at
Panshanger, and we walked through a beautiful wood, Mrs. Poyntz and
her daughter being of the party. Her daughter had married Lord
Spencer, Lady Cowper’s son by her first husband. Lord and Lady Cowper
took us to Cole Green, a good large house, with nothing in it except,
oh! such a picture!’ This is an allusion to the magnificent portrait,
by Vandyck, of Count John of Nassau Siegen and his family. Lady Sarah
did not long enjoy the facilities which her little cottage afforded of
constant intercourse with her relatives. She fell into bad health,
which entailed great suffering, and died in 1758, making a sad gap in
the happy family circle.
------------------
_No. 10._
LADY CAROLINE SEYMOUR.
_Low black gown. White sleeves._
Daughter of the second Earl Cowper by his first wife. Married to Henry
Seymour, Esq.
------------------
_No. 11._
WILLIAM LAMB, SECOND VISCOUNT MELBOURNE.
_Dark coat. Blue tie._
BY PARTRIDGE.
PASSAGE OPPOSITE LADY COWPER’S BOUDOIR.
SIR PENISTON LAMB, FIRST VISCOUNT MELBOURNE.
_Head in pastel._
BORN 1745, DIED 1828.
HE was the son of Sir Matthew Lamb of Brocket Hall, county Hertford
(originally in the possession of the Winnington family), by Charlotte,
daughter of the Right Honourable Thomas Coke, and sister and heir of
Charles Coke, who died suddenly at Geneva, leaving a very large
fortune. Sir Peniston Lamb, besides inheriting half a million at his
father’s death, came in for a considerable sum, the savings of his
uncle, the Bishop of Peterborough, and to his accumulated wealth he
added considerably by his alliance with the beautiful heiress, Miss
Milbanke, in 1769.
He was a member of the House of Commons for many years; and in 1770 he
was created an Irish Peer by the title of Baron Melbourne of Kilmore,
county Cavan; in 1780 he was made a Viscount. He was handsome,
gentlemanlike, genial, fond of the country and of sport, but had no
love for study. On the contrary, he was illiterate for a man in his
position; and one or two of his early love-letters to the celebrated
actress, Mrs. Baddeley, have been quoted as examples of bad grammar
and spelling. He was very popular in society, both in London and the
country. But, for his own taste, he preferred his shooting or hunting
parties to the brilliant reunions of Melbourne House, and was the idol
of the neighbourhood round Brocket. He sat in the House of Commons for
many years, but when his eldest son was old enough, he willingly made
way for ‘Pen.’ He was one of the most indulgent of husbands, as we
have said in Lady Melbourne’s Life, and used to declare he had given
his wife her dowry back in diamonds. He was a most tender father, his
health being much affected at the time by his son Peniston’s untimely
death. The Prince of Wales prevailed on him to turn part of his park
into a race-course, for he was easily persuaded to comply with the
wishes of others, and was very kind to his eccentric daughter, Lady
Caroline Lamb, who was fond of him in her own peculiar way. Lord
Melbourne survived his wife some years, and died peacefully; carefully
and tenderly nursed by his son William, and his daughter, Lady Cowper.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration]
CORRIDOR.
[Illustration]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CORRIDOR.
-------
_No. 1._
HEAD BY REMBRANDT.
------------------
_No. 2._
MALE PORTRAIT. UNKNOWN.
_Black suit and cap. White ruff._
BY FERDINAND BOL.
------------------
_No. 3._
MALE PORTRAIT. UNKNOWN.
_Black and white dress. White ruff. Coat of arms in corner._
BY PORBUS THE ELDER.
------------------
_No. 4._
MISS JACKSON.
_Fawn-coloured frock. Large straw hat lying on the ground._
BY WILLIAM JACKSON, R.A.
SHE was the daughter of the artist, who was born in 1730 at Exeter,
where his father was a tradesman. Began life as a musician and teacher
of music, but took to painting, and became a Royal Academician. He at
first tried his hand at landscapes, but preferring portraiture, became
a skilful copyist, being especially successful in the works of Sir
Joshua Reynolds, and Gainsborough, who was very friendly to him.
Jackson died in 1803.
------------------
_No. 5._
LADY OF THE HOUSE OF NASSAU.
_Black dress braided with gold. White bow. Stand-up ruff._
------------------
_No. 6._
ANNE, COUNTESS COWPER. A HEAD.
SHE was the daughter of Charles Gore, who resided with his wife and
family at Florence, where Lord Cowper (the third Earl) made her
acquaintance, and married her. Mrs. Delany mentions her cousin, Lady
Cowper, having received a commission from the betrothed lover to buy
jewels for his intended; at the same time he sends his stepmother a
portrait in water-colours of Miss Gore, as a Savoyard peasant. ‘Pretty
enough, but I should think it cannot do her justice, as it certainly
does not answer to her reputation for great beauty.’ She became one of
the leaders of the brilliant society at Florence, where she was very
much admired, particularly at the Grand-Ducal Court. She survived her
husband many years, living for the most part in a villa outside the
walls, where she died at an advanced age. Lady Cowper was said to have
been much imposed upon, and even robbed by her dependants in her
latter days.
------------------
_No. 7._
THREE CHILDREN OF THE FIRST EARL COWPER, LORD CHANCELLOR.
_The eldest, who is standing, is dressed in a red frock and white
skirt. The two younger children, who are sitting, are in pink,
with white pinafores._
------------------
_No. 8._
JARICH VAN BOTNIA.
_Black suit, trimmed with ermine._
He was ancestor of Lady Henrietta Auverquerque, first wife of the
second Earl Cowper.
------------------
_No. 9._
LADY. UNKNOWN.
_Black and white dress. Cap._
------------------
_No. 10._
LUITS VAN BOTNIA.
_Black and white gown. Ruff. Peaked cap. Gold chain._
She was the daughter of Jarich Van Botnia, and wife of Louve Van
Walta.
------------------
_No. 11._
HENRY BENNET, EARL OF ARLINGTON, HIS WIFE AND DAUGHTER.
BORN 1618, DIED 1685.
BY SIR PETER LELY.
THE family was settled in Berkshire, when, towards the close of the
sixteenth century, two brothers Bennet went to London, and
respectively made their fortunes by successful commercial
undertakings. From the elder descended a certain Sir John Bennet,
living at Dawley, county Middlesex, who married Dorothy, daughter of
Sir John Crofts of Saxham, county Norfolk. The subject of this notice
was their second son. He was educated under the paternal roof till he
went to Oxford, and was entered a student at Christ Church, where he
took his degree as B.A. and M.A., and was much esteemed both as
scholar and poet. He remained some time at the University, where he
was still a resident when the Court arrived in 1644.
He was presented to King Charles, and soon after entered the army as a
volunteer. Lord Digby, then Secretary of State, took a fancy to young
Bennet, and appointed him Under-Secretary. But this post did not
interfere with his military duties; he was ever in the field ‘when
honour called,’ and was so severely wounded at Andover, in an
engagement near that town, as to be invalided for a long time. He was
indeed dangerously ill, and there is little doubt that it was in one
of these encounters that he received the scar by which he is so well
known in all his portraits.
Deeply attached to the Royal cause, on the termination of the war
Bennet went to France, and on into Germany and Italy, never losing
sight of the hope of once more joining and serving the house of
Stuart. In 1649 he was summoned to Paris by James Duke of York, to
fill the post of private secretary.
King Charles, writing to his brother, says: ‘You must be very kind to
Harry Bennet, and communicate freely with him, for as you are sure
that he is full of duty and integrity to you, so I must tell you that
I shall trust him more than any about you, and cause him to be
instructed in those businesses of mine, when I cannot write to you
myself.’
In 1658 Sir Henry Bennet, Knight, was sent as Ambassador to Madrid.
Clarendon says it was at the instigation of Lord Bristol, but at this
time there was strife between the new ambassador and his former
patron. Henry Bennet, with all the zeal that usually characterises a
recent convert to Catholicism, was very anxious that his Royal master
should make his profession to the same faith, whereas Digby, or rather
the Earl of Bristol (as he had become), though himself a Roman
Catholic, considered that such a step would be ruinous to Charles’s
interests. Great bitterness in consequence existed between Bristol and
Bennet, increased by the jealousy excited in the mind of the former
with regard to the latter’s mission, being under the impression that
he himself was far better fitted for the post.
Sir Henry, however, seems to have pleased most parties in his
diplomatic capacity; and at the Restoration the King gave him the
office of Privy Purse, and made him his constant companion. Bennet was
well calculated to suit the taste of the Merry Monarch. Burnet tells
us he had the art of observing the King’s humour, and hitting it off,
beyond all the men of his time; and Clarendon gives us a clue to one
of the reasons, when he mentions that ‘Bennet filled a principal
place, to all intents and purposes, at the nightly meetings’ (alluding
to the King’s jovial suppers in Lady Castlemaine’s apartments), ‘added
to which, he was most lively and sparkling in conversation.’
In 1662 Charles bribed Sir Edward Nicholas to resign his Secretaryship
of State (and that with a considerable sum), that he might bestow the
vacant post on his favourite. The contrast between Bennet’s entire
submission to the Royal will, and the honest rectitude of the
Chancellor (Clarendon), increased the King’s dislike to that worthy
servant of the Crown, on whose downfall Bennet rose still higher.
In 1663 he was raised to the Peerage as Lord Arlington, whereupon
Clarendon threw some ridicule on the choice of the title, taken from
an obscure village in Middlesex, which had once belonged to Bennet’s
father, but was now in the possession of another family.
While at the head of public affairs, no measures of any importance
were undertaken, with the exception of the first Dutch war.
In 1670 was formed the famous Cabal Ministry (spoken of more fully in
our notice of Lord Shaftesbury) which Arlington consented to join, and
of which his title formed one of the initials.