A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Sutherland, Harriet Elizabeth Georgiana

4121174A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography — Sutherland, Harriet Elizabeth Georgiana

SUTHERLAND, HARRIET ELIZABETH GEORGIANA,

Is the third daughter of George, third Earl of Carlisle, and in every respect one of the very noblest of England's female aristocracy. As Mistress of the Robes to the Queen, and wife of the Duke of Sutherland, a nobleman of immense wealth and influence, she naturally takes her place as leader in the world of haut ton. But all this would not entitle her to her place in our volume, were it not that her high rank and brilliant personal qualifications are enriched and enhanced by her noble qualities of mind and heart. Foremost in rank, she is also so in good works, and in 1853 placed herself at the head of a popular movement against slavery. At Stafford House, her town residence, meetings were held, and there was drawn up the celebrated address from the ladies of England to those of America, which received an immense number of signatures, and expressed in strong, yet kind and womanly terms, the sorrow and reprobation with which negro slavery was viewed by the greater half of the people of this country. At Stafford House, too, Mrs. Stowe was entertained like a sister, the aristocracy of rank and the aristocracy of mind being there exhibited in their true filial relationship. High as the Duchess of Sutherland's name stands in the roll of British nobility, yet does it stand, as it will ever do, higher and shine brighter in that of good and philanthropic woman.