1808-1877
[Sidenote: Kemble’s _Records of a Girlhood_.]
“When I first knew Caroline Sheridan she had not long been married to
the Hon. George Norton. She was splendidly handsome, of an un-English
character of beauty, her rather large and heavy head and features
recalling the grandest Grecian and Italian models, to the latter of
whom her rich colouring and blue-black braids of hair gave her an
additional resemblance. Though neither as perfectly lovely as the
Duchess of Somerset, nor as perfectly charming as Lady Dufferin,
she produced a far more striking impression than either of them, by
the combination of the poetical genius with which she alone, of the
three, was gifted, with the brilliant power of repartee which they
(especially Lady Dufferin) possessed in common with her, united to
the exceptional beauty with which they were all three endowed. Mrs.
Norton was exceedingly epigrammatic in her talk, and comically dramatic
in her manner of relating things.... She was no musician, but had a
deep, sweet contralto voice, precisely the same in which she always
spoke, and which, combined with her always lowered eyelids (‘downy
eyelids’ with sweeping silken fringes), gave such incomparably comic
effect to her sharp retorts and ludicrous stories.... I admired her
extremely.--1827.
“The next time ... was at an evening party at my sister’s house,
where her appearance struck me more than it had ever done. Her dress
had something to do with this effect, no doubt. She had a rich
gold-coloured silk on, shaded and softened all over with black lace
draperies, and her splendid head, neck, and arms, were adorned with
magnificently simple Etruscan ornaments, which she had brought from
Rome, whence she had just returned, and where the fashion of that
famous antique jewellery had lately been revived. She was still ‘une
beauté triomphante à faire voir aux ambassadeurs.’”
[Sidenote: A personal friend.]
“The most beautiful of ‘the beautiful Sheridans,’ Caroline Norton will
also live in the memory of her friends as one of the most fascinating
of women. Her voice was exceedingly sweet and musical, her movements
wonderfully graceful, and, with the solitary exception of Theodore
Hook, whose rough, coarse wit spared no one, her queenly bearing won
her general adulation and deference. Her face was a pure oval, her head
was crowned by heavy braids of the darkest hair, while the warmth and
light which suffused her expressive countenance gave her a somewhat
un-English appearance. Her eyes were dark; black curly lashes swept
over the warmly-tinted cheek; the lips were of geranium red; the teeth,
dazzlingly white. Altogether she was a vivid piece of colouring, and
as she was always very beautifully dressed, it did not require her
literary reputation to make her at all times sought after and admired.”
[Sidenote: S. C. Hall’s _Retrospect of a long Life_.]
“It seems but yesterday--it is not so very long ago certainly--that
I saw for the last time the Hon. Mrs. Norton. Her radiant beauty was
then faded, but her stately form had been little impaired by years, and
she had retained much of the grace that made her early womanhood so
surpassingly attractive. She combined, in a singular degree, feminine
delicacy with masculine vigour; though essentially womanly, she seemed
to have the force of character of man. Remarkably handsome she perhaps
excited admiration rather than affection. I can easily imagine greater
love to be given to a far plainer woman. She had, in more than full
measure, the traditional beauty of her family, and no doubt inherited
with it some of the waywardness that is associated with the name of
Sheridan.”