Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 4.djvu/365

DEVONSHIRE 347 181 1 ; cr. D.C.L. of Oxford, 3 July 1793. Like the 4 preceding Dukes, he was a Whig.(*) He m., istly, 5 June 1774, at Wimbledon, Georgiana, 1st da. of John (Spencer), ist Earl Spencer, by Margaret Georgiana, ist da. of the Rt. Hon. Stephen Poyntz. She, who was b. 7 June 1757, d. 30 Mar. I 806, at Devonshire House, Piccadilly, of an abscess on the liver, and was bur. in All Saints', Derby, aged nearly 49. C") He ?«., 2ndly, 19 Oct. 1809, at his own house at Chiswick, Midx., Elizabeth, widow of John Thomas Foster (who d. 1796), 2nd da. of Frederick Augustus (Hervey), 4th Earl OF Bristol, by Elizabeth, da. of Sir Jermyn Davers, Bart. He d. 29 July 181 1, at Devonshire House afsd., of "water on the chest," and was bur. in All Saints', Derby, aged 62. Will pr. 15 Aug. 18 11, under ;^300,ooo.(') themselves, and never (said the Prince of Wales) did three men receive the Order in so dissimilar and characteristic a manner. " The Duke of Devonshire advanced ^up to the Sovereign with his phlegmatic, cold, awkward air, like a clown; Lord Shel- burne came forward, bowing on every side, smiling and fawning like a courtier; the Duke of Richmond presented himself easy, unembarrassed, and with dignity, like a gentleman." (Wraxall's Memoin). (^) His yst. brother, George Augustus Henry Cavendish, was cr. Earl of Burling- ton in 1 83 1. V.G. C") She was well known as a leader of fashion, a beauty, and a politician. Wraxall's Memoirs are full of notices of her. In vol. iii, pp. 343-344, he says, "this charming person" (who married at 17) "for her beauty, accomplishments and the decided part which she took against the Minister of her day may be aptly compared to the Duchess de Longueville." In vol. v, pp. 368-372, he enumerates the various ladies whom the Prince of Wales (George IV) favoured, beginning with (i) Mrs. Robinson ("Perdita"), (2) Lady Augusta Campbell, (3) Lady Melbourne, to whom (4) succeeded " The Ducliess of Devonshire, but of what nature was that attachment must remain a matter of conjecture. I know, however, that during her pregnancy in 1785, H.R.H. manifested so much anxiety and made such frequent morning visits on horseback to Wimbledon as to give umbrage to her brother Lord Spencer, and even, it was supposed, to excite some emotion in the phlegmatic bosom of the Duke her husband." Her canvassing for Fox at the Westminster election of 1784, exchanging kisses for promises of votes, is well known. So are, deservedly, the beautiful pictures of her by Reynolds. The Gainsborough portrait, with hat and feather (which probably does not represent any Duchess of Devonshire at all), was sold in 1 84 1 by a Miss Maginnis to a dealer for £^b, and in 1876 was sold at Christie's to Agnew, the well-known picture dealer, for the then unheard-of price of 10,000 guineas; from him it was stolen 3 weeks later, and was not recovered till 190 1, having reposed in that long interval in the false bottom of a trunk in the United States. It was then acquired by the American financier Pierpont Morgan for ^^30,000. Her beauty con- sisted "in the amenity and graces of her deportment, in her irresistible manners, and the seduction of her society. Her hair was not without a tinge of red; and her face, though pleasing, yet had it not been illuminated by her mind, might have been considered ordinary." (Wraxall, vol. i, p. 7). Her poem on the Passage of the mountain of St. Gothard is referred to by Coleridge in tlie lines, " O lady nursed in pomp and pleasure Whence learned you that heroic measure ?" G.E.C. and V.G. {") Mrs. Delany writes, 6 June 1 774, "The Duke's intimate friends say he has sense, and does not want merit — to be sure the jewel has not been well polished."