My Friends and Acquaintance
Lady Blessington III
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III.
LADY B. AT PARIS DURING THE REVOLUTION OF 1830.—HER RETURN TO
ENGLAND.—SKETCH FROM THE RING IN HYDE PARK.
In the June of next year (1828) we again find Lady Blessington at Paris, after an absence of more than six
years; and here it was her destiny to witness the events of the last days of the old
Bourbon dynasty, and this in the almost daily presence of and intercourse with those
personal friends and near family connexions who were the most devoted and chivalrous of its
supporters,—the Duc and Duchesse de Guiche, the
Duc de Grammont (father of the Duc de
Guiche), the venerable Madame
Crauford, the Duc de Cazes, Prince Polignac, &c.
The splendour and luxury with which Lady
Blessington was at this, as at all other periods of her marriage, surrounded
by the somewhat too gorgeous taste of her doting husband, may be judged of by a brief
description of her own chambre à coucher and ![]()
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dressing-room, in the superb hotel (formerly that of Marshal Ney) which they occupied in the Rue de Bourbon, its
principal rooms looking on the Quay d’Orsay and the Tuilleries gardens. The bed,
which stood as usual in a recess, rested upon the backs of two exquisitely carved silver
swans, every feather being carved in high relief. The recess was lined throughout with
white fluted silk bordered with blue embossed lace, the frieze of the recess being hung
with curtains of pale blue silk lined with white satin. The remainder of the furniture,
namely, a richly-carved sofa, occupying one entire side of the room, an écritoire, a bèrgere, a book-stand, a Psyche-glass, and
two coffres for jewels, lace, &c., were all of similar fancy and
workmanship, and all silvered, to match the bed. The carpet was of rich uncut pile, of a
pale blue. The hangings of the dressing-room were of blue silk, covered with lace, and
richly trimmed with frills of the same; so also were the toilette-table, the chaiselongue, the dressing-stools, &c. There was a salle-de-bain, attached, draped throughout with white muslin,
trimmed with lace, and con-![]()
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taining a sofa and bèrgere covered with the same. The bath of white marble was inserted in the
floor, and on the ceiling was painted a Flora
scattering flowers with one hand, and suspending in the other an alabaster lamp, in the
shape of a lotos.
The whole of the vast hotel occupied by the
Blessingtons during the first year of this their second lengthened
residence in Paris, was fitted up with a luxury and at a cost no less lavish than those
bestowed on the rooms I have just described. But it is proper to state here that Lady Blessington herself, though possessing exquisite taste
in such matters, by no means coveted or encouraged the lavish expense which her husband
bestowed upon her; and in the case of the particular rooms just described, he so managed as
not to let her see them till they were completed and ready for her reception. Indeed,
Lady Blessington had, in all pecuniary matters, much more of
worldly prudence than her lord. The enormous cost of entirely furnishing a hotel like that
in which they now resided, may be judged of by what was said to be the original cost of the
ornamental ![]()
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decorations of the walls alone, including mirrors,—namely,
a million of francs.
With this year the more than queen-like splendours and luxuries of Lady Blessington’s life ceased. In 1829 her husband
died, leaving her a jointure of 2500l. a-year, and a large amount of
personal property in the shape of furniture, plate, pictures, objects of vertú, &c. After witnessing all the excitements of the “Three
Days” of July, 1830, and partaking personally in some of the dangers connected with
them, Lady Blessington, at the close of the autumn of that year,
returned to England, there to reside uninterruptedly till within a few weeks of her death.
The following sketch was taken from the Ring in Hyde Park, at the period of
Lady Blessington’s London life now referred
to:—
Observe that green chariot just making the turn of the unbroken line of
equipages. Though it is now advancing towards us with at least a dozen carriages between,
it is to be distinguished from the throng by the elevation of its driver and footman above
the ordi-![]()
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nary level of the line. As it comes nearer, we can observe the
particular points that give it that perfectly distingué appearance which it bears above all others in the throng.
They consist of the white wheels lightly picked out with green and
crimson; the high-stepping action, blood-like shape, and brilliant manège of its dark bay horses; the perfect style of its driver; the height (six feet two) of its slim,
spider-limbed, powdered footman, perked up at least three feet above the roof of the
carriage, and occupying his eminence with that peculiar air of accidental superiority, half
petit-maître, half plough-boy, which we
take to be the ideal of footman-perfection; and, finally, the exceedingly light, airy, and
(if we may so speak) intellectual character of the whole set-out. The arms and supporters
blazoned on the centre panels, and the small coronet beneath the window, indicate the
nobility of station; and if ever the nobility of nature was blazoned on the
‘complement extern’ of humanity, it is on the lovely face within—lovely as
ever, though it has been loveliest among the lovely for a longer time than we shall dare
call to our own recollection, ![]()
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much less to that of the fair being
before us. If the Countess of Blessington (for it is
she whom we are asking the reader to admire—howbeit at second-hand, and through the doubly
refracting medium of plate-glass and a blonde veil) is not now so radiant with the bloom of
mere youth, as when she first put to shame Sir Thomas
Lawrence’s chef-d’œuvre in the form
of her own portrait, what she has lost in the graces of mere complexion she has more than
gained in those of intellectual expression. Nor can the observer have a better opportunity
than the present of admiring that expression; unless, indeed, he is fortunate enough to be
admitted to that intellectual converse in which its owner shines beyond any other female of
the day, and with an earnestness, a simplicity, and an abandon, as
rare in such cases as they are delightful.
The lady, her companion, is the Countess de St.
Marsault, her sister, whose finely-cut features and perfectly oval face bear
a striking general resemblance to those of Lady B.,
without being at all like them.
It is perhaps worth while to remark here, ![]()
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in passing,
that Lady Blessington’s peculiar taste in dress
and in equipage was not only in advance of her time, but essentially correct: in proof of
which it may be stated, that though their early results stood alone for years after they
were first introduced, they at last became the universal fashions of the day.
Lady Blessington was the first to introduce the beautifully simple
fashion of wearing the hair in bands, but was not imitated in it till she had persevered
for at least seven years; and it was the same with the white wheels, and peculiar style of
picking out of her equipages; both features being universally
adopted some ten or a dozen years after Lady Blessington had
introduced and persevered in them.
Eleonora Craufurd [née Franchi] (1750 c.-1833)
The daughter of a Tuscan tailor, after an adventurous career on stage and at court she
married the French Royalist Quintin Craufurd and was the grandmother of Count
D'Orsay.
Elie duc Decazes (1780-1860)
French Royalist prefect of police (1815) and prime minister (1819).
Marguerite Gardiner, countess of Blessington [née Power] (1789-1849)
After a separation from a first husband in 1818 she married the Earl of Blessington; they
traveled on the Continent, meeting Byron in 1822; her best-known work,
Journal of Conversations with Lord Byron, originally appeared in the
New Monthly Magazine (1832-33).
Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830)
English portrait painter who succeeded Joshua Reynolds as painter in ordinary to the king
(1792); he was president of the Royal Academy (1820).
Michel Ney, first Duc d'Elchingen (1769-1815)
Marshall of France who covered Napoleon's retreat from Moscow and led the Old Guard at
the battle of Waterloo, for which he was tried and executed by firing squad.
