was opposing Lord North. When the Marquess of Rockingham came
to power, he was made a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury. In 1783, he
succeeded to his father's earldom. The Dowager Countess lived on until
1814. Her character has been variously described. Mrs. Delany calls
her "an agreeable person, with a sensible, generous, and delicate
mind." She was termed vain. What woman would not be who was mother to
such beauties as Devonshire, Duncannon, and Lavinia. In an
autobiography by the third Earl, he naively remarks that his mother
never liked his grandmother. The pleasing picture of "Ruth and Naomi"
is the exception in families.

On the breaking out of the French Revolution, Earl Spencer gave his
support to Pitt, by whom he was appointed first lord of the admiralty,
in 1794. It was during the period of her husband's brilliant career in
this office that the Countess made her greatest success as a hostess
in ministerial society. She was a good conversationalist, and
especially attractive to men of individuality who admired her
sagacious, picturesque pungency of expression. The great naval
commanders, who frequented the admiralty, were impressed with the
frankness and force of her superior mind, Nelson and Collingwood
particularly. She is frequently mentioned in their letters as being
sure to have much sympathy in their work. A late biographer of the
Earl wrote: "She had the penetration to appreciate Nelson through the
cloud of personal vanity and silly conceit which caused him to be
lightly esteemed in London society." Her "bull-dog" she used playfully
to call him. She visited Gibbon at Lausanne, in 1795, and he writes:
"She is a charming woman who, with sense and spirit, has the
playfulness and simplicity of a child." By some she was accounted
haughty and exclusive. Perchance she was to those who were without the
breeding or the brains to commend them to her. Dignified she certainly
was, and her influence was wholly for good in the uplifting of
politics and the purifying of society. "I would not advise any one to
utter a word against any one she was attached to," once said her
father. She became the wise coadjutor of her husband in forming the
magnificent Althorp Library.

When the earl retired from the admiralty, in 1800, his entertaining
became less general. His hospitalities at Spencer House were
restricted to his more intimate friends. Here came Lord Grenville,
Earl Grey, chief of the Whigs, Brougham, Horner, and Lor