Like the happiest countries that have no history, the tranquil life of
joyous content leaves little to chronicle. Only in the nobility of
character of a husband who grieved her loss for years, and in his
strong dignity, and devotion to her memory, do we get a hint of the
gracious and good lady whom Gainsborough has made immortal for us.
And in that phrase of her lifetime, "lovely Mary Cathcart," is a whole
biography of benignity and beauty. She came of one of the most ancient
and noble families in Scotland, and was the daughter of the ninth
Baron Cathcart, called "Cathcart of Fontenoy." Her brother William
became the tenth Baron, and afterwards the first Earl Cathcart. He had
studied law, but abandoned it for the army, and had a gallant career
therein; becoming a lieutenant-general in 1801, and commander-in-chief
of the expedition to Copenhagen in 1807; afterwards acquiring
reputation as ambassador for several years at St. Petersburg. He was
perhaps the earliest of British noblemen to marry American beauties;
having wedded the daughter of Andrew Elliott of New York, in 1779.
In November, 1774, there was rejoicing among the retainers of the
House of Cathcart, for there was to be a double wedding. The eldest
daughter, "Jenny," was married to the Duke of Athole, that same Duke
who became a friendly patron of Burns, and in reference to whom the
poet writes, when addressing some verses to him: "It eases my heart a
good deal, as rhyme is the coin with which a poet pays his debts of
honor and gratitude. What I owe to the noble family of Athole, of the
first kind, I shall ever proudly boast; what I owe of the last, so
help me God, in my hour of need I shall never forget."
The second sister, the Hon. Mary, was married to Sir Thomas Graham of
Balgowan, a descendant of the Marquis of Montrose and of Graham of
Claverhouse. The youngest sister, Louisa, later became Countess of
Mansfield, and her portrait, by Romney,--a seated profile figure with
flowing draperies,--is that artist's most masterly work.
After eighteen years of happy married life, she died childless; one of
those good women that were--
"True in loving all their lives,"--
"a surpassing spirit whose light adorned the world around it." Her
husband grieved greatly. He was ordered to travel to divert his
despair. He visited Gibraltar, and there the dormant martial spirit of
his ancestors was aroused by his environment. Though then forty-three
years of age, he immediately entered the army as a volunteer. He
rapidly rose in his profession, and had an especially brilliant career
in the Peninsular War. In 1811, he became the hero of Barossa, and in
the same year was made second in command to the Duke of Wellington. He
was created Lord Lynedoch of Balgowan, Perthshire, and frequently was
thanked by Parliament for his services. Sheridan said, "Never was
there a loftier spirit in a braver heart." And alluding to his
services during the retreat to Corunna, he said, "Graham was their
best adviser in the hour of peril; and in the hour of disaster, their
surest consolation." Scott eulogizes him in the poem, "The Vision of
Don Roderick," in the lines,--
"Nor be his praise o'erpast who strove to hide
Beneath the warrior's vest affection's wound,
Whose wish Heaven for his country's weal denied;
Danger and fate, he sought, but glory found.
"From clime to clime, wher'e'r war's trumpets sound,
The wanderer went; yet, Caledonia, still
Thine was his thought in march and tented ground;
He dreamed mid Alpine cliffs of Athole's hill,
And heard in Ebro's roar his Lynedoch's lovely rill.
"O hero of a race renowned 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]