I must ever acknowledge as my best school, and thereof always am
to hold a feeling and grateful memory." At this time the home of the
Herberts at Wilton was a literary centre. The Countess was herself an
industrious author, and the subject of innumerable dedicatory addresses.
She seems to have been as beautiful as she was gracious and gifted. In
the Penshurst picture we see her in extreme youth. The long oval and
delicate chiselling of the Sidney face are expressed in their finest
perfection, and justify the resemblance, found by Spenser, to "her
brother dear." The soft hair is of the same golden-brown as his, the
colour her eldest son inherited, and which Shakespeare is said to have
described in his figure of the marjoram-buds. In the picture by
Gheeraedts at the National Portrait Gallery, painted in 1614, she has
lost little of her youthful beauty, but has added the special graces of
maturity. The hair is still a rich brown. A thoughtful soul sits
brooding behind those attentive eyes--a soul that seems to wish to ask
the universal unanswerable questions, one that has grappled with doubt
and struggled with environing circumstance, but has not yet consented to
be baffled. The face is modern and complex. This accomplished lady
received at Wilton the most distinguished people of her time. Her guests
included Spenser, Raleigh, probably Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Inigo
Jones, Sir John Harrington, Dr. Donne, and many more; and the Countess's
_Pastoral Dialogue in Praise of Astraea_ was probably written in honour
of a visit from the Queen herself. It would perhaps be strange if the
young poet did not surround the personality of this fascinating
patroness with a romantic halo and feel that his poetic fame was linked
with hers. The Delia of the sonnets has all the excellencies that a
sonnet-honoured lady should have, including locks of gold. But the fact
that the poet has slyly changed the word "amber" to "snary" in sonnet
xiv., and "golden" to "sable" in sonnet xxxviii., looks as if he desired
to shield her personality from too blunt a guess. However, many hints
are given; she lives in the "joyful North," in "fair Albion;" she is

"The eternal wonder of our happy Isle."

And the river by which he sounds her name is the Avon--

"But Avon, poor in fame and poor in waters,
Shall have my song, where Delia hath her seat."

The Wiltshire Avon is the proud brook that flows southward by Wilton,
"where Delia hath her seat