DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51519#0270
228 THE COUNTESS OF SOUTHESK.
presumptive to the crown. The history of this ludicrous adventure
was speedily spread through the whole court; it became the sub-
ject of ballads, lampoons, and epigrams innumerable, and covered
the unfortunate earl with a degree of contempt and ridicule, which
added to his shame and despair.
Yet even this public exposure and its consequences did not
banish Lady Southesk from society : she continued for some years
to haunt the court: she sought at the gaming table a relief from
ennui, and endeavoured to conceal by art the ravages which dissi-
pation, rather than time, had made in her once lovely face. Pepys
mentions her, among the beauties of the day, as parading her
charms in the park and the theatre; and to use his own coarse,
but forcible expression, (C devilishly painted.” Her latter years
■were embittered by sorrows, against which a woman’s heart, how-
ever depraved, is seldom entirely hardened. In her days of trium-
phant beauty, she had neglected her children j and in age they
became her torment. Her eldest son, Lord Carnegie, treated her
with coldness, and seemed to enter into his father’s wrongs and
feelings towards her; her youngest and favourite son, William
Carnegie, a youth of great beauty of person and splendid talents,
was killed in a duel at the age of nineteen. He had been sent to
Paris to complete his education, and there meeting with young
Tallemache, the son of the Duchess of Lauderdale,* they
quarrelled about a profligate actress ; and in this unworthy cause
William Carnegie perished, in the spring and blossom of his years.
Lady Southesk died before her husband, and did not long sur-
vive the loss of her son, which occurred in 1681; but the date of
her death is not mentioned. Lord Southesk died in 1688, and was
succeeded by his son Charles, Lord Carnegie, who, like all his
family, was devotedly attached to the house of Stuart. After the
Devolution he never visited the English court, but continued to
reside in Scotland, either at Kinnaird in Forfar, or at the Castle
* She was Countess of Dysart in her own right.
presumptive to the crown. The history of this ludicrous adventure
was speedily spread through the whole court; it became the sub-
ject of ballads, lampoons, and epigrams innumerable, and covered
the unfortunate earl with a degree of contempt and ridicule, which
added to his shame and despair.
Yet even this public exposure and its consequences did not
banish Lady Southesk from society : she continued for some years
to haunt the court: she sought at the gaming table a relief from
ennui, and endeavoured to conceal by art the ravages which dissi-
pation, rather than time, had made in her once lovely face. Pepys
mentions her, among the beauties of the day, as parading her
charms in the park and the theatre; and to use his own coarse,
but forcible expression, (C devilishly painted.” Her latter years
■were embittered by sorrows, against which a woman’s heart, how-
ever depraved, is seldom entirely hardened. In her days of trium-
phant beauty, she had neglected her children j and in age they
became her torment. Her eldest son, Lord Carnegie, treated her
with coldness, and seemed to enter into his father’s wrongs and
feelings towards her; her youngest and favourite son, William
Carnegie, a youth of great beauty of person and splendid talents,
was killed in a duel at the age of nineteen. He had been sent to
Paris to complete his education, and there meeting with young
Tallemache, the son of the Duchess of Lauderdale,* they
quarrelled about a profligate actress ; and in this unworthy cause
William Carnegie perished, in the spring and blossom of his years.
Lady Southesk died before her husband, and did not long sur-
vive the loss of her son, which occurred in 1681; but the date of
her death is not mentioned. Lord Southesk died in 1688, and was
succeeded by his son Charles, Lord Carnegie, who, like all his
family, was devotedly attached to the house of Stuart. After the
Devolution he never visited the English court, but continued to
reside in Scotland, either at Kinnaird in Forfar, or at the Castle
* She was Countess of Dysart in her own right.