Page:Hutton, William Holden - Hampton Court (1897).djvu/170

108 name brought back to mind the fights of the Middle Ages, and wife of Charles II.'s son, the Duke of St. Albans; the Countesses of Peterborough, Ranelagh, Dorset, and Essex (the last a Bentinck), the Duchess of Grafton, Lady Middleton, and Miss Pitt.

Lady Diana de Vere, Duchess of St. Albans, in her quiet russet gown, with graceful yellow drapery depending from her arms, is a charming figure. As a toast, within a few years of the painting of this picture, Halifax wrote the lines for her—

"The line of Vere, so long renowned in arms,

Concludes with lustre in St. Albans' charms;

Her conquering eyes have made their race complete;

They rose in valour and in beauty set.""

The Countess of Essex, a Bentinck, is not nearly so attractive. Much prettier is the Countess of Peterborough, the wife of the famous general and beau. She is in blue and crimson; her white, rather dissipated-looking face at once arrests attention. The Countess of Ranelagh in white, Miss Pitt in yellow, and the Duchess of Grafton (who was the daughter of the Arlington of the Cabal), the Countess of Dorset (a Compton) in orange, with a mantle of blue satin and ermine, are less interesting; but Mrs. Middleton (no one is quite sure who she is) is charming as a shepherdess.

If Mary had the Beauties of her court painted to please her husband, he was not behind in employing Kneller to immortalise himself. In the same room in