FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31  
32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   >>  
s 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 1
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31  
32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   >>  



Top keywords:
staples
 

Spencer

 

Gallery

 
daughter
 

Walpole

 

picture

 

Edinburgh

 

Thomas

 
Luttrell
 
married

present

 

difficult

 

Athole

 

Fitzherbert

 

beauties

 

persons

 

irresistibly

 

Duchess

 

played

 
gownings

graces
 

lineaments

 
portrait
 

perpetuating

 

Devonshire

 

bearing

 

Georgiana

 
laughed
 
century
 

eighteenth


habitual
 

resist

 

varied

 

active

 

enchantment

 

animate

 

pleased

 

coquetry

 

Hampshire

 

Bambridge


Edward

 

Synnerton

 

Smythe

 
Walter
 

captivated

 

royalty

 

Staffordshire

 

painter

 

George

 

coronation