DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68073#0402
376
OLD WORLD MASTERS
Lady Harvey related that the wedding-party went from London to
Althorp “in three coaches with six horses and two hundred horsemen.
The villages through which they passed were in great alarm, some of
the people shutting themselves up in their houses, and others coming
out with pitchforks, spits, and spades, crying out ‘The invasion has
come’, believing that the Pretender and the King of France were both
come together; and great relief was experienced when the formidable
cavalcade had passed without setting fire to the habitation, or mur-
dering the inhabitants.”
The year after this marriage Mrs. Delany, Horace Walpole’s friend,
met “Mrs. Spencer, one of the finest figures I ever saw, in white and
silver with all her jewels and scarlet decorations; her modest, unaf-
fected air gives a lustre to all her finery that would be very tinsel
without it.”
Is it any wonder that with such parentage Georgiana Spencer should
have had brains, beauty, charm, and perfect equipment in every way
for that world of society which was her inheritance?
Georgiana was born on June 9, 1757, and was married at the age
of seventeen to the fifth Duke of Devonshire, regarded as the “first
match” in England. “Georgiana was a lively girl,” said Walpole,
“natural and full of grace.” Immediately the Duchess became “the
irresistible queen of ton” and the most conspicuous leader of society
whenever and wherever she appeared. She dazzled every gathering
by her beauty; astonished everyone with her elegant and extrava-
gant dress; and charmed everybody by her wit and her grace. The
Duchess was always among the gay butterflies who masqueraded at
the Pantheon, promenaded at Ranelagh, danced at assemblies, or
played for high-stakes at fashionable gaming-tables. To think of
London society in the late Eighteenth Century without the Duchess
of Devonshire, is impossible.
Walpole writes that she “effaces all without being a beauty; but
her youthful figure, flowing good nature, sense, and lively modesty
and modest familiarity make her a phenomenon.”
The Duchess had a clever mind and she delighted in the society
of persons of talent. Fox, Sheridan, and Selwyn were among her
OLD WORLD MASTERS
Lady Harvey related that the wedding-party went from London to
Althorp “in three coaches with six horses and two hundred horsemen.
The villages through which they passed were in great alarm, some of
the people shutting themselves up in their houses, and others coming
out with pitchforks, spits, and spades, crying out ‘The invasion has
come’, believing that the Pretender and the King of France were both
come together; and great relief was experienced when the formidable
cavalcade had passed without setting fire to the habitation, or mur-
dering the inhabitants.”
The year after this marriage Mrs. Delany, Horace Walpole’s friend,
met “Mrs. Spencer, one of the finest figures I ever saw, in white and
silver with all her jewels and scarlet decorations; her modest, unaf-
fected air gives a lustre to all her finery that would be very tinsel
without it.”
Is it any wonder that with such parentage Georgiana Spencer should
have had brains, beauty, charm, and perfect equipment in every way
for that world of society which was her inheritance?
Georgiana was born on June 9, 1757, and was married at the age
of seventeen to the fifth Duke of Devonshire, regarded as the “first
match” in England. “Georgiana was a lively girl,” said Walpole,
“natural and full of grace.” Immediately the Duchess became “the
irresistible queen of ton” and the most conspicuous leader of society
whenever and wherever she appeared. She dazzled every gathering
by her beauty; astonished everyone with her elegant and extrava-
gant dress; and charmed everybody by her wit and her grace. The
Duchess was always among the gay butterflies who masqueraded at
the Pantheon, promenaded at Ranelagh, danced at assemblies, or
played for high-stakes at fashionable gaming-tables. To think of
London society in the late Eighteenth Century without the Duchess
of Devonshire, is impossible.
Walpole writes that she “effaces all without being a beauty; but
her youthful figure, flowing good nature, sense, and lively modesty
and modest familiarity make her a phenomenon.”
The Duchess had a clever mind and she delighted in the society
of persons of talent. Fox, Sheridan, and Selwyn were among her