THE SKETCHER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2894, 25 August 1909, Page 78

THE SKETCHER.

THE GEORGIAN ERA.

I Great beauty and considfera/ble wit, power of observation, and a lkitle cynicism are a dangerous combination in a woman. The beauty dazzles t!he men ; women, maybe rivak, are inclined to depreciate the intelligence ; and there is a certain superstition that a "beautiful Tfoman must be shameless and as innocent as she usually looks when she is young. When, therefore, HelesLna Trench, was passing through the drawing rooms of every court and capita! of Europe in the closing years of titoe eighteenth cen' tury and the beginning of tihe nineteenth, there were few who could have guessed that th© pretty wife, and l tie then more fascinating widow, whom every eligible young man was running after, was a keen, vigilant, and not always charitable observer, and tihat in the secrecy of her ohambar and in the silence 0$ the night she was noting down the follies, the weakj nesses, the eccentricities of those with ' whom sbe bad been exchanging her bewitching smile a few hours before. Pos- ; sibly these companions would have been still more surprised 1 if tihey could have realised 1 that this lady was capable of writing pages which would be the delight of men of such high lotesrafry taste as ' Edward Fitzgerald, and thait some of her portraits, indeed, would pass into history and become immortal — mot altogether, perhaps, to the advantage of the persons delineated. Mr John Fyvie's book, ("Wits, Beaux, and Beauties of the Georgian Era," by John Fyvie ; illustrated) contaims several admirable sketches, and is a brilliant picture of the times with whiicih it deals. I purpose' talking only one chapter, that dealing with Mrs Trench and her ddary, and must refer my readers to the book iteelf for accounts ot others who strutted thedr brief period on the stage of the G^o-rgia-n era. Melestn-a Cbevenix wara a Dublin girl. She came of a Huguenot stock, of whom there sore abundant remindleirs in various parts of Ireland. She was bom in 1768. , Her father was a clergyman- and the son of a bishop ; her mother was the daughter of an archdeacon. Her parents died when she was quite young, and she tvas brought up alternately by her two ecclesiastical grandfathers ; and this atmosphere of «elf -control and of tranquillity impressed her and remained a constant warning, a safeguard, and a retreat from tbe glare, tumult, flighitineas, and coarse/mess of the epoch into which she was 'barn. In^, dl&dd, there is always something of a struggle going on in the mind of this lady — a dweller in courts and in "tbe most fasbdonaJble eociety, and at fcHe same time a serious woman, a weH-regulated woman, anil a natural and instinctive enemy of all that was loose, irregular, arad unhealthy. .The background of tbe parsonage in her i earliest and most impressionable years is I always tibere, and it was well for heir that it was go.

— Brutalisedi Society. —

, Fot Meleeina Ohevenix was born into a rough time. Through the pages of her journal one can hear the hiccoughs, the roysterings, the coarse amours of the detestable eighteenth century, and of tbe scarcely less detestable first quainter of the nineteenth. And as the young lady travelled over the Continent, and was a favourite guest at the Courts of Germany and Ausuria, she had an abundance of scenes to describe which revealed even a more brutalised society than that which existed in Englaawl -when George 111. was mad and George IV was Prince Regent. The daughter of the tiarsonage was married to a young soldier, a Colonel St. George, one of the then omnipotent squirearchy in Ix'eland, with good 1 estates in bath Ireland and England. They spent their early days of marriage in Danai^an, a good old Irish mansion, and •would have been ha>ppy if only they could have been left alons, for Meiesdna throughout her life always boasted that she did not know what it was to be bored even in solitude, and that she always loved *he solitude of two. However, there breaks in upon the solitude of the loving young honeymooners an invasion from the Viceregal Court of Dublin, and this incursion enables one to form 6ome picture of what life in the highest circle of the ganrison in Ireland was at this moment: About two months after our marriage we invited for a Ohrifrt.mas party th« Duke and Duehigss of Rutland/ with fche suite that attended him as Lord-lieu-tenant. Lord Wesmeath, Lord Fitzgibbon, General Pitt, General Ccnyngham, some of the prettiest women, with a group of the gayest young men . I thought myaelf in ElyßJuan "or half the first week ; but the charm was scon broken, and I grew weary of turning night into day, for no obvious reason, as all hours in the 24 were equally free from interruption, of listening to the double entendros of Mrs and Lady , and of playing commerce with a party of women impatient for the hour of 11, whidh usu-ally brought the mem in a state very unfit far the conversation or

even the presence of our ccx.

It is no inviting picture, these emptybeaded women bored and silent and impatient until they were joined after dinner, and as kite as 11 o'clock, by these niccoughkfg Tony Lumpkinses, rising unsteadily and reluctantly from their port. Th« prophets who are always denouncing our decadents and oar Smart Set had better ftbmk before they malce such nnfavourable contrasts ol society of the. past, and reaii} a few such memoirs as those of our diarist. Theif contrasts win be less glaring and less sell-confident. Mrs St. George certainly .would not have dhared their views if ahe had survived to our times. She is outspoken in her detestation of life as it was lived in the Irish capital in the dying eight-

eenih century. Hit bad net bean that the birtlh of a son turned her thoughts to the anxieties and duties of iier home, and to the absorption of her own being in that of a child, she exrpfpes9ss the fear that she might have lost" all her better nature in the vortex of the social maelstrom of these days. She confesses with some remorse to late hours at night, to lajtte rising in the morning, to laying aside every aoccanpKshmenit and every study, to never opening a book unless when her hair was being dpsssed, to, never touching her piano unless when she was requested iby h«r husband to do so — and this piece of self-neglect is made more inexcusable by the fact that sihe could play the piano very. well. And tih&a. enter into the midst of all thds whirl illness arad death, for her husband sickens, aaid, after a lingering illness, dies:

— Melesina's Journal. —

Hare, then, is our yomug lady, just 22 years of age, extraordinarily beautiful, very clever (though prolbably few people suspect it), and her chairms set forth .b 4(11 tih^- added bea

oiio* y _x€ uty which mourning brings to a pnefcty Traman.She is comfortably off, she nas only one child, and she is brilliant enough in conversation to add to her attstraatdveness. But the young widow is appajrenrtily very im"pressioraable. Sh* travels — sometimes to London from the country, sometimes on the CoDtixteiyt, — and evteryvpihere dhe> makes some resounding conquest. There is a good specimen of that everlasting conflict between ■tihe little girl of fibe parsonage- and the gran<Je dame wlho loves society and' is loved by it in tite following passage from her journal. She is writing about & trim £o London •.

. . . Tranquillity and reflection, strengthen, my desire of living in the comobry, because I think I could there adop* a consistent .pian- of doing good, - and see its effects. In town one may be of use in a desultory way, but ncit to the same extent, or with the same pleasure. One is divided from the ob- ; jects one serves. Those times are post 1 when everything I saw, every person I i met, every employment J engaged in ■amused, improved, or interested 1 "me. I no longer study character and seek friends ; an indifference is creeping over me. I -see all around me acting a part, pursuing tihey know not wfliat, yeifc as eager in the pursuit of it as if eternal happiness depended on it. An anxiety to go everywhere, to know everybody, to associate with those above them in position, seems a marked feature of tiie polished inhabitants of Londom. Like •flies caught in a bottle of honey, all ax© smothered in disgusting streets, and all aa». trying to rise above each other, no ma*ter how. The distinetians of vice and virtue are broken down; "welldressed, well-bred, -well-equipped" is a passport to every door. The affected lipdeed homage paid to virtue, while every knee 'bows to Bad wtoeaevex he appears clad in puii-pie and t fine linen, spreads <a varnish over vice which only throws it out in stronger colours and darker deformity. I was made for a better life.

As the reader sees, this extract is taken from. Melesdna's joum-al. Tit was imm>ediately after the death of her first husband that she began to keep a ddaory, amdi it is some extracts from the pages of thas diary — unfortunately, the greater pant of these pages are lost — .that went to make her famous journal. " This observant critic is not the least like the typical and legendary blue-stocking. She does not weaor spectacles and dress dowddly ; on the contirary, she is so weJl gowned that wherever she goes, and especially when shegets into the terrific ill-taetes of Germany, she is harried by other ladiee for the-naone of her dressmaker and for the pattern of her clothes. Here, for instance, is .one of the entries in the journal :

Just as I was ~goinp to dinner lime. de Haugwitz, tlie wife of tih*e Chief Minister, who introduced herself to me last night by an encomium on my dress, sent her tailor for tb>3 pattern of my gown, bagging thait this person, whom, in a raote he showed me, she calls mon ami, would engage me to put it onibat he might see what a good effect it had.

I will pass over most of her personal j adventures, for I am anxious to get to the I passage in her journel vrhich I regard i as most irater&sfci<ng and historic. In Hanover the Regent — a son of George II — J falls hopelessly in love with the pretty ' Iri&h widow ; but the Marriage Act stands in his way, and Sirs St. George, as she was, is no* a Catholic like Mrs Fitzherbert, or a light 0' love like Lady Jersey, to take up such an ambiguous attitude j towards a royal admirer as George IV had got other ladies to take up with him. Mrs St. George admires the Prince, and there are abundant testimonies in her journal to his charms, real or imaginary ; but sfhe went after a time on her travels, and gc«ss to the Court of Branswdck, then to that of Berlin, noting with appropriate comment the looseness of morals, but not forgetting to note also the abyss in which rank ultimately the apparently enduring and dazzling glories of the women. who had consented to become royal favourites. She reserves herself foot* a good young Irishman named Trench, Whom she marries, bears children to, and adores in. her tranquil fashion. Perhaps it is this perfect self-control and thas severely •well-regulated character and life that makes the pages of her journal lively, reading ; it w the good apprentice commenting on the life and career of the bad, apprentice. The good apprentice is represented in tfaa* age by Mrs Trench, the idle apprentice by poor Lady Hamilton.

••Nelson.-^

M the. Court of Dresden it Is Shot Mrs Trench has the great experience by which she is destined to survive. For there Kibe meets Nelson, fresh from bis triumphs and j&amered aai curigiw txs^atmti **

the Me^iterraneaai, and Lady Hamilton, in the zenirth of heT beauty and of her complete control of the hero. ' And here is what Mrs Trench has to say: Dined at the Elliot's with only the Nelson party. It is plain that Lord Nelson thinks of nothing but Lady, Hamilton, who is totally occupied by the same object. She is bold, forward, coarse, assuming, and vain. Her figure is colossal, but, excepting her feet, which are hideous, ♦Tell-shiaped. Her bones are large, and she is exceedingly embonpoint* She resembles the bust of Ariadne ; the shape of all her features is fine, as is the form of 'href head, and particularly her ears • her teeth" are a little irregukur, but toleiafoiy iwhsfee ; her eyes light blue, with a brown spot" in one, which, though, a defect, takes thing away from her Seaiaty of expression. Her eyebrows and her hair are dark, and her complexion coaa-se.' Her expression is strongly marked,- variable, and -interesting; her movements in common life ungraceful ; her voice loud, yet not disagreeable. Lord Nelson is a little man, without any- dignity, who, I suppose, must" resemble wJiet Suwarrow wjas in his youth, as he is like all theEiotures X have seen of that General, ady Hamilton takes possession of him, and be is a willing captive, the most submissive and devoted I have seen. Sir William is old, infirm, and all admiration of his wife, and never spoke today but to applaud her. Miss Cornelia Knight seems the decided flatterer of the two, and never opens hex mouth but to Show forth their praise ; and Mrs Cadogan, Lady Hamilton's mother, is — what one might expect. After dinner we had several songs in honour of Nelson, written by Mdis Knighit, and sung by Lady Hamilton, She puffs tha incense full in his face, but he receives it with pleasure, and snuffs it up very cordially. Tbe songs all . ended in a sailor's way with "Hip, hip, hip, hurra !" and a bumper with the last drop on the nail — a ceremony which I had never heard of or seen before.

— Lady HamiMocn. —

I have warned the reader that these passages must be slightly discounted by tha vast difference between the temperament of the critic and tine criticised. And yet there is something strangely and almost affrightingly lifeukie in tbe picture this sharp-eyed, (Sharp-penned lady draws of Lady Hamilton e>nd; of Nelson. It U tihe sailor ashore after has long voyage and his Poll ; none the less likely' to be a true picture of life because the central figure in it is one of the finest, most, 'attractive, a>nd most heroic heroes in history; for, alter all, ail tihds dfoes not prevent Nelson from having the nature of the average man outside his genius;' few fighting men, but have their moments of descent -mto the gutter. On the woman Mrs Trench's journal is .severer then on the man, Lady Hamilton comes out of these pages very coarse, very common, very vulgar ; and- she probably had that side in her character, too. Here is what Mrs Trench says, after taking breakfast with Lady Hamilton and seeing her representations of the best statues and paintings extant: *

She assumes their attitude, expression, and - drapery with great facility, swiftness, and accuracy. Several Indian shaiwle, a chair, some antiqu vases, a wreath of roses, a tajntjourine, and a few children are her whole apparatus. She stands at <me end of the room,

with a strong light to her left, and every window closed. Her hair — which, by the way, is never clean — is short, dressed like an antique; and ncr gown a simple calico chemise, very easy, with loose sleeves to the - wrist. She dis-

poses the shawl so as to form Grecian, Turkish, and otiher drapery, as well as a variety of turbans. Her arrangement of the turbans is absolute sleight-of-hand' — sihe does it 00 quicMy, so easily, and- so well. It is a beautiful performance, amusing to the moat ignorant, and highly interesting to lovers of art. Tha chief of her imitations are from the- antique. Each representation lasts about 10 mimiXes. It is remarkaible that, though coarse and ungraceful in common life, she 'becontfes highly graceful, and even beautiful, during this performance. It is also singular that, in' spite of the accuracy of her imiia■tfldn of the finest ancient draperies, her usual dress' Is tasteless, vulgar, loaded, and unoficoming. She has borrowed swsral of my gowns, and idmires mj, dTess, which cannot natter, as her own is so frightful. Her waist is absolutely between her shoulders. After showing Tier attitudes she sang, and I accompanied 1 . Her "voice is good and very strong, but she is frequently out of tune ; her expression- strongly marked and various, but she has no shake, no> flexibility, ai:d no sweetness. She acts her songs, which I think the last degree! of bad taste. All imperfect imitations are disagreeable, and to represent posing jvitih the eyes fixed on. a book, andl the person confined to a spot, must al-» ways be a poor piece of acting manque. She continues her demonstrations of friendi?ihip, pays .me many coanplimente, botlh when I am aibeent and present, and said many fine things about my accompanying her at sight. Still, sine does not gain upon me. I think her bold, during, vain even to folly, and stamped! with the manners of 'her first situation! much more strongly than one would suppose, after having represented! Majesty aad lived in. good company 15 years. Her ruling piaßsions seem to me vanity, avarice, and lov& for her plea* sores of the table. She showed » great) aridity for presents, and has actually obtained some at Dresden By the com.-) mon arti6ce*~of adtmiring and longing. This passage also has Us bitterness :"

All the company, except their party and myself, -went away before dinner, after which Lady Hamilton, vrbo de-

claxed she was passionately fond of champagne, took such a portion of it as astonished me. Lord Nelson wfs not behindhand, and called :nore vociferously :than" usual for -^on-gs in his own praise, and, after many bumpers, proposed "The Queen of Naples," adding, "She* is my queen ; she is queen to the backbone." Poor Mr Elliot, who 'was anxious the party should uot expose, themselves more than they had done already, and wished to get over the last day as well as he hod done the rest, endeavoured to stop ih«s effusion of champagne, and effected t with some difficulty, but not till the lord and lady, or, as he calls them, Antony and Moll Cleopatra, were pretty far

gone. And then here aTe Nelson and his party after they have escaped from even the slight restraints of a small \ierman Court, when Nelson once more finds himself in the. freedom of that element on whish he achieved such imperishable laurels: The moment they wiere on board there ■was an end of the fine arts, of the attitudes, of the acting, the dancing, and 'the singing. Lady Hamilton's maid began to scold in French about some provisions which had been forgot 5n language quite impossible to Tepeat, osing certain- French words which were never spoken but by men of the lowest class, and roaring them out from one boat to another. Lady Hamilton began bawling for an Irish stew, and her old 'mother set about washing- the- potatoes, which she did as cleverly as possible. were exactly' like Hogarth's actresses dressing in a barn, I "do protest that. I 'am not quite so Shocked as Mrs Trench. What man could afford to have himself photographed by a process so cold, so cruel, 'n every moment of his life? It is poor Nelson on a spree ; but he didn't go on the epree till be had worn out body, soul, and nerve in fighting, as no man ever did before or since, tjhe circumambient enemies of his country. Let us be just, and leave cant, and grudge not to Nelson bis '.ittle spree. •- T. P.'s Weekly.