although he does not vouch for its authenticity. The story goes that the
gallant Claverhouse had heard of the fame of a certain Lady Elphinstone,
aged upwards of a century, and was very desirous to see her. Now the
centenarian was a staunch Whig, and required some persuasion to induce
her to receive the enemy of her party, but she, perhaps, had some
feminine grain of curiosity in her composition, and was tempted by the
notion of seeing the far-famed captivating monster.
In the course of conversation the soldier remarked that the lady, having
lived so long, must have witnessed many wonderful changes. ‘Hout na,
sir,’ answered the stout-hearted old Whigamore; ‘the warld is just wi’
me where it began. When I was entering life, there was ane Knox
deaving[2] us a’ wi’ his _clavers_,[3] and noo I am ganging out, there
is ane _Claver’se_ deaving us wi’ his knocks.’
Footnote 2:
_Deaving_, _i.e._ deafening.
Footnote 3:
_Clavers_, idle chattering.
There can be little doubt the old lady’s courage and humour were equally
appreciated by the General.
Lord Dundee married Jane, youngest daughter of Lord Cochrane, and (as
before mentioned) granddaughter of the first Earl of Dundonald, by whom
he had an only son, James, who succeeded to his father’s titles, but
died a few months after.
--------------
No. 138.
FREDERICK, KING OF BOHEMIA.
_Profile. Oval. Armour. White Collar, blue Ribbon and Order._
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No. 139.
LADY ESSEX RICH, COUNTESS OF NOTTINGHAM.
BY SIR PETER LELY.
_Seated. Light blue dress. White sleeves._
SHE was the daughter, and one of the co-heirs of Robert Earl of Warwick.
She married (as his first wife) Daniel Finch, second Earl of Nottingham,
who afterwards succeeded his father (the famous Chancellor) as Earl of
Winchilsea. Lady Essex Rich had one daughter, married to the Marquis of
Halifax.
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No. 140.
FIRST VISCOUNT WEYMOUTH.
DIED 1714.
_Black dress. Embroidered collar. Long hair. White sleeves._
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No. 141.
MR. KELIFET.
_Dressed in black. Ruff. Pointed beard. Arms of Kelifet in corner
of picture._
THIS portrait is supposed to be that of Richard Kelifet, Esq. of ‘The
Place,’ Egham, county Surrey.
He was chief groom of Queen Elizabeth’s removing wardrobe, and yeoman of
Her Majesty’s standing wardrobe, and a most faithful servant of Her
Majesty, according to an inscription on his monument in Egham Church.
His daughter Cicely married Sir John Denham, Baron of the Exchequer, to
whom she brought ‘The Place,’ at Egham, as her dower.
In 1673 this house was occupied by a connection of the Longleat family,
John Thynne, Esq., when (we are told) ‘it contained many valuable and
curious pictures.’ This circumstance may possibly be a clew to the fact
that the portrait above-named finds a place in the collection of the
Marquis of Bath.
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No. 142.
HENRY LORD BEAUCHAMP.
BY SIR PETER LELY.
BORN 1628, DIED 1656.
_Brown coat. White sleeves. Red mantle._
HE was the eldest son of William, second Duke of Somerset, by his second
wife, Lady Frances Devereux, eldest daughter of the Earl of Essex. He
married Mary, daughter of Lord Capel, by whom he had one son, William,
(who succeeded his grandfather as Duke of Somerset,) and three
daughters. Two died in infancy, and the third married Thomas Lord Bruce,
afterwards Earl of Ailesbury.
Lord Beauchamp died _vita patris_.
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No. 143.
THE HONOURABLE LEOPOLD FINCH.
DIED IN 1689.
_In black, with white band._
FIFTH son of Heneage Finch, second Earl of Winchilsea, by Lady Mary
Seymour, daughter of William Duke of Somerset.
He was Warden of All Souls, Oxford. Married Lucy, daughter and co-heir
of John Davie, of Ruxford, in the county of Devon, and died without
children.
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No. 144.
THE HONOURABLE LADY SAVILE.
_Blue mantle. White dress. Ringlets. Leaning against a tree._
DAUGHTER of Lord Keeper Coventry, married first Sir William Savile, and
afterwards Sir Thomas Chicheley of Wimpole, Cambridgeshire.
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No. 145.
DON FERDINAND, CARDINAL INFANT OF SPAIN.
AFTER RUBENS.
BORN 1609, DIED 1641.
_Scarlet robes and cap._
WAS the son of Philip III., King of Spain, by Margaret, daughter of
Charles Archduke of Austria, and born at the Escurial.
When only ten years old he was created Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo,
and other dignities were conferred on him, which brought in enormous
revenues. His father on his deathbed sent for the little ecclesiastic,
and admonished him on the sacred nature of his duties. Ferdinand was
remarkable as a warrior, a politician, a connoisseur of art, a man of
pleasure, and much given to hospitality. He kept open house at his
country palace near Madrid, where he instituted a species of dramatic
performance, half-pageant, half-operatic, which took the name of the
Zarzuelas, from the country house in question. He studied foreign
languages, mathematics, philosophy, and strategics; loved books and
literary society, patronised the arts, studied painting himself under
Vincenzo and Carducho, and sat for his portrait both to Vandyck and
Rubens.
But the career in which he distinguished himself most was that of arms.
He was an enthusiastic soldier and an able general, and did good service
for Spain in the field, especially at the battle of Nordlingen, against
the Imperialists. Upon the death of the Archduchess Clara Eugenia,
Ferdinand Cardinal Infant succeeded to the government of the Low
Countries, and continued his military career with honour and success. A
parallel has been drawn between him and the Cardinal Ippolito de Medici,
natural son to Julian of that house:—Both ecclesiastics by profession,
and soldiers by choice; both remarkable for personal beauty, for
accomplishments as well as learning, fond of the fine arts, of society
and splendid living; both sat for their portraits in most unclerical
costumes,—Ippolito to Titian in the dress of a Hungarian noble,—see the
superb picture at Florence; the other to Rubens,—armed and mounted on
his charger, ready for the field. It was his boast, among other
successes, that he obliged the army of the Prince of Orange twice to
raise the siege of Guelders. He died the 6th of November 1641, when his
loving countrymen erected a gorgeous monument to his memory in the
cathedral at Toledo, seventy feet high, the work of Lorenzo Fernandez de
Salazar, with eulogistic inscriptions in various languages. The funeral
was conducted with great pomp. Canon Antonio Calderon pronounced the
funeral oration, speaking of him as one of Spain’s greatest men,—a hero,
a skilful general, a virtuous citizen. Nor did the preacher forget to
remind all good Catholics that the scene of Ferdinand’s most celebrated
victory was Nordlingen, where ‘the heretic Luther had preached his most
pestilent doctrines.’
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No. 146.
ROBERT HARLEY, EARL OF OXFORD.
BY SIR GODFREY KNELLER.
BORN 1661, DIED 1724.
_Seated. Black coat and breeches. Wig. Star and ribbon of Garter.
Holding his wand of office. Left arm akimbo. Hat on table._
STUDIED under the famous Dr. Birch, who boasted of the number of
statesmen he had educated; showed great promise. In 1688 he raised a
troop of horse for the service of William of Orange, whom he joined, but
who showed him no particular favour. Harley sat in Parliament, but
waited for office till 1704, when Queen Anne gave him a seat in the
Council, and made him Secretary of State. He was much opposed to
Godolphin and Marlborough, and made common cause with the Queen’s new
favourite, Mrs. Masham, to overthrow the power of the Whigs.
The Ministers insisted on his dismissal, but the Queen stood by him as
long as she could. When Harley was compelled to resign, the Queen said
to him: ‘You see the unfortunate condition of monarchs,—they are obliged
to give up their friends to please their enemies;’ but so good was
Anne’s opinion of Harley, that she constantly consulted him on public
affairs, even when out of office.
On the downfall of the Whig Administration, he was made Chancellor of
the Exchequer, and Treasurer.
He was much censured, even by his own party, for some of his financial
measures, by which however he enriched the royal coffers. In March 1711
an event happened which made a great noise, and rendered Harley the hero
of the day. A French adventurer called Bourlie, or the Marquis de
Guiscard, was a shifty individual, who acted first as a spy of England
against France, and then of France against England, being in the pay of
both. His intrigues were discovered, and he was brought before the Privy
Council. Believing that Harley had been instrumental in his detection,
he resolved to be revenged. While waiting his turn for examination, he
found means to secrete about his person a penknife which was lying on
the table, among some papers. No sooner was he brought forward, than he
rushed in a fury upon Harley and stabbed him several times, the Minister
falling senseless on the ground, covered with blood. A scene of
confusion ensued, and the Duke of Buckingham, drawing his sword, wounded
the assassin, who was conveyed to Newgate, where he died in a few days,
either from the effect of the sword-thrusts or by his own hand.
The event seemed to have revived Harley’s popularity; both Houses
presented an address to the Queen, assuring her that Harley’s loyalty
had brought this attack upon him, etc. etc., and when he reappeared in
the House, a brilliant reception awaited him, and a Bill was passed
making an attempt on the life of a Privy Councillor a felony, which
deprived the offender of benefit of clergy. In the same year, Robert
Harley, being then Lord High Treasurer, was created Baron Wigmore, and
Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, and next year he received the Garter, and
became Prime Minister of England.
Lords Oxford and Bolingbroke at first worked together to withstand the
power of the opposition, and to bring about the pacification of Europe,
and the Peace of Utrecht added to the popularity of the ministerial
party; but dissensions arose between Bolingbroke and the Premier, and
recriminations and fresh intrigues, in which Mrs. Masham was implicated,
all of which belongs to England’s political history.
Oxford was deprived of all his offices, and accused of plotting in
favour of the Pretender. The Queen died, and in 1715 he was sent to the
Tower, on an accusation of high treason. He was imprisoned for two
years, and on his release gave himself up to the enjoyment of art and
literature. He formed a magnificent library, which cost him a fortune,
not only from the splendour of the works themselves, but on account of
their sumptuous binding. His collection of MSS., called after him the
Harleian MSS., which was afterwards greatly increased by his son, is now
one of the glories of the British Museum, purchased by the Government
after the second Lord Oxford’s death.
Few men have been more eulogised on the one hand and reviled on the
other, but he has been unanimously described as a kind patron of men of
letters.
It was Harley who brought into operation the measure known to posterity
as ‘The South Sea Bubble,’ which entailed ruin on numbers, and in spite
of much opposition he established State lotteries.
Lord Oxford was twice married, first to Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas
Foley of Whitley Court, county Worcester, by whom he had one son, and
two daughters; and, secondly, to Sarah, daughter of Thomas Myddleton,
Esq., who was childless.
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No. 147.
LORD JOHN RUSSELL, AFTERWARDS
EARL RUSSELL, K.G.
BORN 1792, DIED 1878.
_As a young man. Resting his hand on the inner frame of the picture._
THE youngest son of Lord John Russell, afterwards sixth Duke of Bedford,
by the Hon. Georgiana Elizabeth Byng. Born in the very crisis of the
French Revolution, his uncle (the reigning Duke) was the champion of
French ideas, and having been carried far beyond the opinions of his
family, which for more than a century had been zealously Whig, both he
and his brother, young Russell’s father, settled that on John’s leaving
Westminster, he should go to the University of Edinburgh, Oxford and
Cambridge being too Tory in their proclivities to suit the family
traditions. By the time (we quote an able article in the _Times_ of
1878) the youth left College, his political faith had crystallised into
something very like that in which he consistently lived, laboured, and
died. A visit to the Peninsula, however, where the star of Wellington
was then in the ascendant, modified his French ideas and inspired him
with such an admiration for the hero, that ever afterwards, in the
fiercest political struggle, John Russell maintained towards the Duke
the attitude and language of profound respect, almost amounting to
veneration. On his return to England, while still under age, he sat for
Tavistock, and threw himself heart and soul into the Parliamentary fray
at one of the most eventful periods of the history, not only of England,
but of Europe, and of that history John Russell’s career forms a most
important feature. But our limited space will only allow us to glance at
the prominent events of his life. He was a zealous advocate for Catholic
Emancipation, and all Liberal measures, and from the very first threw in
his lot with those who demanded Parliamentary reform, in which cause he
was the primary mover, and the draught for the first Bill of which was
drawn up by his own hand. To his early efforts in this cause Macaulay
refers with his usual eloquence, saying: ‘Those were proud and happy
days, when amid the applause and blessings of millions, my noble friend
led us on in the struggle for the Reform Bill; when hundreds waited
round our doors till sunrise, to hear how well we had sped; when the
great cities of the North poured forth their populations on the highway
to meet the mails which brought tidings from the capital, whether the
battle of the people had been lost or won,’ etc. etc. Lord John Russell
sat for Tavistock, Hunts, Bandon, etc.; and was a member of the Lower
House for forty-seven years, during many of which he was the leader of
the Opposition. He filled at various times many of the highest offices
of State, Home, Foreign, Colonial, Lord President of the Council,
Commissioner to the Congress at Vienna, and First Lord of the Treasury
from 1846 to 1852. Once more Foreign Secretary in 1859, and again at the
head of the Government in 1865, he retired in 1866, having been raised
to the Peerage as Earl Russell and Viscount Amberley in 1861, and
receiving the Garter in 1862. He married, first, (in 1835,) Adelaide,
daughter of Thomas Lister, of Armitage Park, widow of the second Lord
Ribblesdale; she died in 1838, leaving two daughters. His second wife
was Lady Frances Elliot, daughter of Gilbert, second Earl of Minto, by
whom he had three sons and a daughter. Besides a drama, ‘Don Carlos,’
written in his youth, Lord Russell was the author of several literary
works, political, historical, etc. etc. He died at Pembroke Lodge in
1878. His latter years had been much embittered by the premature death
of his eldest son, Lord Amberley, and his wife (a daughter of Lord
Stanley of Alderley), within a few months of each other. They left two
little children, of whom one is the present Earl Russell.
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No. 148.
A LADY.
_Seated. In a rich dress._
DOUBTFUL. Called the Countess of Stamford. Possibly Lady Ogle, married
to Thomas Thynne of Ten Thousand.
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No. 149.
THOMAS THYNNE, ESQ.
BY SIR GODFREY KNELLER.
_Light brown coat. Long fair hair. Arm akimbo._
FATHER of the second Lord Weymouth.
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No. 150.
MR. CONINGSBY, USHER OF THE BLACK ROD.
_Red cloak. Black skull-cap. Embroidered vest and gauntlets. Gold chain
and medal. Ruff. Holding a wand. In the background is the coat of
arms of the Coningsby family._
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No. 151.
ELIZABETH, MARCHIONESS OF BATH.
HEAD BY SALISBURY.
BORN 1735, DIED 1825.
_White lace cap._
SHE was the eldest daughter of the Duke of Portland by Lady Margaret
Harley. In 1754 she married Thomas Thynne, first Marquis of Bath, by
whom she had a very large family. She survived her husband many years.
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No. 152.
MR. COLE, HOUSE STEWARD.
UNCERTAIN.
_Brown coat. White wig. Writing. A seal lying on a book on the table._
--------------
No. 153.
PORTRAIT UNKNOWN.
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No. 154.
ANNE BRUDENELL, COUNTESS OF SHREWSBURY.
BY WISSING.
BORN 1621, DIED 1702.
_Brown dress. White sleeves. Blue mantle._
THE daughter of Robert Brudenell, second Earl of Cardigan, by Anne,
daughter of Viscount Savage. She married Francis, eleventh Earl of
Shrewsbury, as his second wife.
De Grammont, in describing the beauties of the Court of the new Queen,
Catherine of Braganza, mentions Lady Shrewsbury in the first flight. She
seems to have surpassed most of the members of the royal circle in vice
and effrontery, and a long list is given by the author above quoted of
those who did not sigh in vain, but De Grammont says she was even more
remarkable for the misfortunes she brought on those with whom she had to
deal than for her conquests. The well-known wit and courtier, Thomas
Killigrew, after her desertion of him for the Duke of Buckingham, amused
himself by writing lampoons and speaking of her in a most unrestrained
manner. He had been admonished that such a proceeding would prove
dangerous, but persisted in his invectives. He was attacked one evening
on his return from the Duke of York’s at St. James’s by some assassins,
who made several sword-thrusts through his chair, one of which pierced
his arm. After this narrow escape he bridled his tongue and pen, but
sought for no redress, well aware the attempt would be fruitless.
Pepys tells us the Duke of Buckingham took Lady Shrewsbury to his house,
whereupon the Duchess, usually very sparing of her reproaches, remarked
it was not fit for her and the other to remain together under the same
roof, to which the Duke agreed, adding, ‘I have therefore, Madam,
ordered your coach to take you to your father’s;’—a speech which honest
Pepys designates as ‘devilish.’
Evelyn, in his account of his visits to Newmarket, ‘where was racing,
revelling, and feasting with jolly blades’ during the King’s residence
there, mentions the Duke of Buckingham with that abandoned woman,
Shrewsbury, with fiddlers, and the like, ‘all of which,’ he said, ‘did
ill become a Christian court.’
Her lover also installed her in his beautiful country house on the banks
of the Thames, to which Pope alludes—
‘Cliveden’s proud alcove,
The bower of wanton Shrewsbury, and love.’
But the incident by which she is best remembered is the famous duel,
which ended so fatally. Whether Buckingham’s boasts were too loud, when
he expatiated on the constancy and devotion of the hitherto fickle
beauty, or from some other cause, the patient husband’s indignation was
at length roused, and he sent a challenge to the Duke. We subjoin
Pepys’s account: ‘Much discourse of the duel between the Duke of
Buckingham, Holmes, and one Jenkins on one side, and my Lord of
Shrewsbury, Sir John Talbot, and one Bernard Howard, on the other. It
was all about my Lady Shrewsbury, who is, and hath been for a long time,
mistress to the Duke of Buckingham. The husband challenged him, and they
met yesterday, January the 16th, 1667, in a close, near Barne Elmes, and
Lord Shrewsbury is wounded, run through the body from the right breast,
through the shoulder, and Sir John, all along one of his arms, and
Jenkins is killed, and the rest all in a measure wounded.’ Pepys makes a
sapient remark on the subject: ‘This will make the world think that the
King has some good councillors about him, when the Duke, the greatest
man, is a fellow of no more sobriety than to fight a duel about a
mistress.’ He tells us that the King, having got wind of the matter, had
sent a message by the Duke of Albemarle to Buckingham, forbidding him to
fight, which message, like many others, was never delivered. ‘There was
great talk of the business, and Lord Shrewsbury’s case was considered
very bad, and if he should die, it might make it worse for the Duke of
Buckingham, and I shall not be much sorry for it, as we may have some
more sober man in his place, to assist in the Government.’
On the 16th of the ensuing March, Lord Shrewsbury died of his wounds.
There is a story currently believed, that his shameless wife held her
lover’s horse, during the duel, in the disguise of a page.
The Queen put herself at the head of a party that declaimed against the
Duke and his wicked transactions; but she was soon silenced, and the
whole matter hushed up.
Lady Shrewsbury lived to find a man adventurous enough to marry her, in
the person of the son of Sir Thomas Brydges of Keynsham, county
Somerset. She died at the age of eighty-one.
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No. 155.
DOROTHY PERCY, COUNTESS OF LEICESTER.
AFTER THE VANDYCK AT PETWORTH.
DIED 1659.
_Seated. White satin gown. Blue mantle. Pearl ornaments._
She was the eldest daughter of Henry Percy, ninth Earl of
Northumberland, by Dorothy, daughter of Walter, first Earl of Essex, of
the Devereux family. She married in 1618 Robert Sidney, Earl of
Leicester.
Of her affection for her husband let her own letter speak, written
eighteen years after their marriage, when Lord Leicester was Ambassador
in Paris. She says, if she were not bound to entertain his messenger a
little, ‘I would bestowe one side of this paper in making love to you,
and since I maie with modestie expres it, I will saie that if it be love
to think of you sleeping and waking, to discourse of nothing with
pleasure, but what concerns you, to wishe myselfe everie hower with you,
and to praie for you with as much devotion as for mie owne sowle, then
sertainlie it maie be said that I am in love.’
Dorothy was indeed of a gentle and loving disposition, and of a
character in all respects strongly opposed to that of her sister, the
Countess of Carlisle, whom Sir Philip Warwick designates as ‘that busy
stateswoman,’ with other observations by no means flattering. Dorothy’s
tastes were of a more domestic kind, and her temper amiable and
peaceable. She could not, however, prevent a dissension which arose
between her brother Algernon Earl of Northumberland and her Lord, when
the latter was in Holstein. A letter addressed by Lord Leicester to his
brother-in-law shows plainly that he was not the implacable one in this
matter. After many assurances of friendship he goes on to say: ‘I
present a request to your Lordship, that you will make a visit to your
sister, my dear wife, if she be at Penshurst. That poor place has not
offended, that it should be forbidden the honour to receive you. She
hath not offended, that she should be deprived of the consolation and
delight that your Lordship’s company ever brings her;’ many more
arguments and conciliatory expressions going to prove that Leicester, at
least, desired to be reconciled; but Northumberland remained irate. We
may gather this from another letter, from Dorothy to her husband. ‘I
have not yet seen my brother,’ she writes, ‘he being full of the King’s
business, as he pretends, neither have I perceived any inclination to
drawe me from the solitarines I suffer in this place; for though I
expressed a willingnesse to go to him, yet have I received no manner of
invitation, which I take a little unkindlie. But I thanke God and you,
mie dearest harte, that the obligations I have received from frendes
have been small, and I hope mie necessities of the times maie not be
encreased. But of this coldnesse in my brother I will take little
notice, and content myself the best I can, with this lonelie life,
without enveing others their greatnesse, their plenty, or their
jollitie.... My best and most earnest praiers shall be offered for you,
and with your owne, which I believe are better than mine, I hope the
blessinges shall be obtained, which shall make us happy.’ We hear of her
afterwards visiting her husband in Paris, when the Queen of France
presented my Lady Leicester with a costly diamond.