DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68073#0403
ENGLISH, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
377
special friends. The story of her campaigning for Fox with Fox’s
sister, Lady Duncannon, and even selling “a kiss for a vote” is told
by many pens and by pencils as well, for the Duchess afforded fine
material for the caricaturists. The Duchess was much pleased, it is
said, by the compliment paid to her during the Fox campaign by an
Irishman, who exclaimed: “Sure I could light me pipe at her eyes!”
And Gainsborough managed to fix this flaming glance in the famous
Satterlee portrait.
Coarse satire attacked the Duchess of Devonshire as it attacks all
who enter the political arena; but, on the other hand, there are many
tributes from contemporary pens to her sweetness of disposition and
to her noble and generous qualities of heart.
In 1806 upon hearing of her death at Devonshire House, Piccadilly,
(just lately demolished), the Prince of .Wales exclaimed: “We have
lost the best-loved woman in England” and Charles James Fox re-
plied: “We have lost the kindest heart in England.”
The Duchess of Devonshire occasionally wrote verse. Her Passage
of the Mountain of St. Gothard, dedicated to her children (she had a
son and two daughters), was published with a French translation in
1802; an Italian translation was printed in 1803; and a German trans-
lation in 1805. This poem gave occasion to Coleridge’s ode with the
lines:
“O lady nursed in pomp and pleasure
Whence learned you that heroic measure? ”
Gainsborough could not have made this or any other portrait of
the Duchess of Devonshire until after 1782, because, in that year,
Bate published in the Morning Herald, the following lines:
“O Gainsboro! thou whose genius soars so high,
Wild as an eagle in an unknown sky,
To Devon turn!—thy pencil there shall find
A subject equal to thy happy mind!
Amidst thy fairest scenes, thy brightest dyes,
Like young Aurora let the Beauty rise.”
Another portrait of the Duchess of Devonshire by Gainsborough is
also in this country, owned by the Hon. Andrew W. Mellon. It
represents a whole length life-size figure leaning against a pedestal
377
special friends. The story of her campaigning for Fox with Fox’s
sister, Lady Duncannon, and even selling “a kiss for a vote” is told
by many pens and by pencils as well, for the Duchess afforded fine
material for the caricaturists. The Duchess was much pleased, it is
said, by the compliment paid to her during the Fox campaign by an
Irishman, who exclaimed: “Sure I could light me pipe at her eyes!”
And Gainsborough managed to fix this flaming glance in the famous
Satterlee portrait.
Coarse satire attacked the Duchess of Devonshire as it attacks all
who enter the political arena; but, on the other hand, there are many
tributes from contemporary pens to her sweetness of disposition and
to her noble and generous qualities of heart.
In 1806 upon hearing of her death at Devonshire House, Piccadilly,
(just lately demolished), the Prince of .Wales exclaimed: “We have
lost the best-loved woman in England” and Charles James Fox re-
plied: “We have lost the kindest heart in England.”
The Duchess of Devonshire occasionally wrote verse. Her Passage
of the Mountain of St. Gothard, dedicated to her children (she had a
son and two daughters), was published with a French translation in
1802; an Italian translation was printed in 1803; and a German trans-
lation in 1805. This poem gave occasion to Coleridge’s ode with the
lines:
“O lady nursed in pomp and pleasure
Whence learned you that heroic measure? ”
Gainsborough could not have made this or any other portrait of
the Duchess of Devonshire until after 1782, because, in that year,
Bate published in the Morning Herald, the following lines:
“O Gainsboro! thou whose genius soars so high,
Wild as an eagle in an unknown sky,
To Devon turn!—thy pencil there shall find
A subject equal to thy happy mind!
Amidst thy fairest scenes, thy brightest dyes,
Like young Aurora let the Beauty rise.”
Another portrait of the Duchess of Devonshire by Gainsborough is
also in this country, owned by the Hon. Andrew W. Mellon. It
represents a whole length life-size figure leaning against a pedestal