DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51519#0227
THE COUNTESS OF CHESTERFIELD.
193
had withdrawn her husband’s affections from her in the first year
of her marriag-e; and whom she every way detested; was not
content with the legitimate triumph of winning back her husband
from her trammels; she resolved to deprive Lady Castlemaine of
her new admirer; and to add George Hamilton to her own train of
adorers. This laudable resolve was not very difficult to execute;
for Hamilton was the most inflammable of men; he was only a le
petit cousin/’ and she had constant opportunities of meeting him,
either in the society of his sister; or at the apartments of his aunt;
the Duchess of Ormond. He could not see with impunity one of
the loveliest women of the time : he began to waver in his alle-
giance to Lady Castlemaine; and while he yet hesitated; one or
two encouraging glances from the blue eyes of Lady Chesterfield
brought him at once to her feet.
We should not forget; while reading De Grammont’s Memoirs,
that they were written by the brother of George Hamilton; who
considered himself as a betrayed and injured lover; and whose
account of Lady Chesterfield’s conduct was likely to be coloured
by his own exasperated feelings : notwithstanding the conspicuous
figure she makes in those Memoirs, and the malicious gaiety with
which her coquetry and her indiscretion are exposed; I can find no
direct accusation against her virtue either there or elsewhere.
PepyS; who was likely to hear all the scandal of the court; men-
tions her ever with respect; as a that most virtuous lady yet he
never speaks of her husband without some slighting expression or
discreditable allusion. In the present case, Lord Chesterfield had
placed himself beyond the pale of sympathy ; his former treatment
of his wife was so well known at court; that his jealous airs exposed
him to universal ridicule.
At this time it happened that the guitar-player Francisco,
(mentioned in the Introduction;) had rendered that instrument so
much the fashion, that all the beauties and courtiers affected to
* Pepys’ Diary, vol. i. p. 177—191.
0
193
had withdrawn her husband’s affections from her in the first year
of her marriag-e; and whom she every way detested; was not
content with the legitimate triumph of winning back her husband
from her trammels; she resolved to deprive Lady Castlemaine of
her new admirer; and to add George Hamilton to her own train of
adorers. This laudable resolve was not very difficult to execute;
for Hamilton was the most inflammable of men; he was only a le
petit cousin/’ and she had constant opportunities of meeting him,
either in the society of his sister; or at the apartments of his aunt;
the Duchess of Ormond. He could not see with impunity one of
the loveliest women of the time : he began to waver in his alle-
giance to Lady Castlemaine; and while he yet hesitated; one or
two encouraging glances from the blue eyes of Lady Chesterfield
brought him at once to her feet.
We should not forget; while reading De Grammont’s Memoirs,
that they were written by the brother of George Hamilton; who
considered himself as a betrayed and injured lover; and whose
account of Lady Chesterfield’s conduct was likely to be coloured
by his own exasperated feelings : notwithstanding the conspicuous
figure she makes in those Memoirs, and the malicious gaiety with
which her coquetry and her indiscretion are exposed; I can find no
direct accusation against her virtue either there or elsewhere.
PepyS; who was likely to hear all the scandal of the court; men-
tions her ever with respect; as a that most virtuous lady yet he
never speaks of her husband without some slighting expression or
discreditable allusion. In the present case, Lord Chesterfield had
placed himself beyond the pale of sympathy ; his former treatment
of his wife was so well known at court; that his jealous airs exposed
him to universal ridicule.
At this time it happened that the guitar-player Francisco,
(mentioned in the Introduction;) had rendered that instrument so
much the fashion, that all the beauties and courtiers affected to
* Pepys’ Diary, vol. i. p. 177—191.
0