Bath, and made record then of
her introduction to the Duchess, and indicated the premonition of
trouble in this wise. "Presently followed two ladies; Lady Spencer,
with a look and manner warmly announcing pleasure in what she was
doing, then introduced me to the first of them, saying, 'Duchess of
Devonshire, Miss Burney.' She made me a very civil compliment upon
hoping my health was recovering; and Lady Spencer then, slightly, and
as if unavoidably, said, 'Lady Elizabeth Foster.'" Gibbon said of the
latter, that, "No man could withstand her; and that if she chose to
beckon the Lord Chancellor from his woolsack, in full sight of the
world, he could not resist obedience." Reynolds painted a portrait of
her, showing a bright-eyed, smiling lady, with close-curled hair, of
girlish appearance. In Samuel Rogers's "Table Talk" are several
mentions of the famous Georgiana, and especially one which tells of
her love for gambling. "Gaming was the rage during her day; she
indulged in it, and was made miserable by her debts. A faro-table was
kept by Martindale, at which the Duchess and other high fashionables
used to play. Sheridan said that the Duchess and Martindale had agreed
that whatever they two won from each other should be sometimes
_double_, sometimes _treble_, what it was called. And Sheridan assured
me that he had handed the Duchess into her carriage when she was
literally sobbing at her losses, she having lost fifteen hundred
pounds, when it was supposed to be only five hundred pounds." A life
such as she then led surely affected her appearance. In 1783, Walpole
wrote: "The Duchess of Devonshire, the empress of fashion, is no
beauty at all. She was a very fine woman, with all the freshness of
youth and health, but verges fast to a coarseness."

The offspring of the Duchess Georgiana were: Georgiana Dorothy,
afterwards Countess Carlisle, whose letters were lately published, and
exhibit an original observation and a terse style of record; Henrietta
Elizabeth, later Countess Granville; and a son, who succeeded to the
Dukedom. About the latter's birth was some mystery; insinuation was
active. The Duchess had little liking for domestic life, so normal
neglect of child may have been construed into an unnatural dislike.
Her son never married. Through the stress of the home infelicity, her
beauty waned; but her bearing and breeding kept her paramount in her
set. She is known to this later generation only as a superb beauty who