Page:Biographical catalogue of the portraits at Weston, the seat of the Earl of Bradford (IA gri 33125003402027).pdf/141

 seventh Earl of Shrewsbury, and was succeeded by his second son, Henry Frederick.

No. 5.

DOROTHY, COUNTESS OF SUNDERLAND.

''Crimson dress. Pearl ornaments. Pillar in the back-ground.''

BORN 1620, DIED 1683-4.

It has been well said of this beautiful and exemplary woman, that she is even (like the old Italian masters of painting) better known to posterity by her sobriquet than her name, for there were more than one Lady Sunderland, but only one 'Saccharissa.' The poet, therefore, may lay better claim to the title of godfather than the sponsors who held the infant Dorothy at the font. She was the eldest of the eight daughters of Robert Sidney, Earl of Leicester, of that name, by Dorothy, daughter of Henry Percy, ninth Earl of Northumberland. Lord and Lady Leicester bore a high character for 'integrity and refinement of breeding at the Court of Charles the First, while in private life they shone a bright example of domestic harmony.' Lady Leicester was a provident as well as a tender mother, and she entertained early projects in the matter of an advantageous marriage for her daughter, while Dorothy was still very young. At sixteen the girl was renowned for her beauty, and already surrounded by suitors. There appears to have been a talk at Court of the probability of a match with my Lord Russell, the heir of the house of Bedford; and Lady Leicester writes from the country to her lord at Court, in 1635:'It would