Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/153

 gs.x.AuG.23,MQ2.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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PORTRAIT OF HARRIETT POWELL.

THE Earldom of Seaforth dates from the year 1623, when Colin Mackenzie, who built the Castle of Brahan in the county of Ross, first bore that title. The fifth earl, however, was attainted for his share in the " events " of 1716, and so lost all his honours and titles ; but his grandson, Kenneth Mackenzie, was created in 1761 Baron Ardeloe and Viscount Fortrose, and in 1771 was advanced to the title of Earl of Seaforth. He it was who raised the regiment called after him the Seaforth Highlanders. As Viscount Fortrose he married, in 1765, Caroline, eldest daughter of the first Earl of Harrington ; but this lady died without male issue in 1767, and was buried at Kensington.

So far we have the peerages and other authorities as sources of information, but it is generally considered that there was a second marriage, of which they take no official cognizance, and in the ' Annual Register ' for 1779 there is an obituary notice as follows : "December, 1779, The Right Honourable Lady Seaforth," upon which laconic entry one peerage queries, in a note, whether this lady may not have been a second wife of the Earl of Seaforth, on whose death the title became extinct. The probability that this was the case is considerably strengthened by a passage in the earl's will to which none of the aforesaid authorities seem to refer. This will was executed at Guernsey on 19 April, 1779, and proved on 4 May, 1785, and from it we find that the earl left the personal property of which he had the power of dis- posing to " Harriett, Countess of Seaforth, my wife." The reference to the Somerset House Register for this will is " Seaforth 274, 1785."* The maiden name of the lady thus mentioned was Harriett Powell, who was a celebrated singer and actress of her day, and whose portrait was painted by three of the chief portrait painters of the period, mezzotints of which portraits are in the Print Room of the British Museum, where they are recognized as those of Harriett, afterwards Countess of Seaforth. No infor.

executed at Guernsey, and the reason of this seems to have been that after the Seaforth Highlanders, commanded by the Earl of Seaforth, had been ordered to proceed to the East Indies, events occurred which caused these orders to be postponed, and the troops were sent for a time -to Guernsey. They afterwards returned to Portsmouth, but it was not until 1 May, 1781, that they embarked for the East. After a most tedious voyage, Lord Sea- forth died suddenly, before the vessels arrived at St. Helena, and he was probably buried at sea. "
 * This will, as mentioned in the text, was

mation seems to be available just at present as to where the original portraits now are, but the dates of the mezzotints are as follows : that after Catherine Read was pub- lished in 1769, that after Sir Joshua Rey- nolds in 1771, and that after William Peters in 1776.

Of late years, however, another portrait of this lady has come under my notice, which, so far as can be discovered, has not hitherto been described or engraved. There does not appear to be any record as to how this portrait came into the possession of the present owner, but it is curious that there should be another painting in the same family, which is known to have been executed seventy-five or eighty years ago, in which this identical portrait of Harriett Powell is depicted as hanging on the wall of the room in the same frame as it is now in. This frame is a very handsome and characteristic one, and dates from the latter part of the eighteenth century, and on the back of it is an old label with the words, "Miss Hariot Powel afterwards Countess of Seaforth " (or Seaford), written upon it in a somewhat illiterate hand.

As to the portrait itself, the pose of the sitter is effective and artistic ; she is repre- sented as looking towards the left, the head and bust only being*depicted, the latter of which is partially draped in a sort of blue fichu. The colour of the hair is a dark brown, and the features quite bear out the apprecia- tive verdict of her .con temporaries as tnose of a sensible and very attractive-looking young woman. The face is well built up, the treatment of the flesh tints is delicate and clear, the eyes are large and lustrous, the colour of the cheeks being heightened after the attractive custom of the period. The size of the canvas, it should be mentioned, is twenty by twenty-three inches.

The next point to be considered is to whom this portrait is to be attributed, and I cannot do better than offer the opinion of a well-known expert who has examined it, and who pronounces it to be a partially finished painting, hitherto undescribed, by the same Catherine Read who painted the other por- trait to which I have already referred. He looks upon it as a very good specimen of that artist's style and quality, and of considerable artistic merit as a painting.

Whatever opinion may be entertained as to the second marriage of the Earl of Seaforth does not affect, we may venture to believe, the identity of this portrait, which must be admitted, I think, to be that of the lady whose name it bears, whether or no she was entitled to the rank and title of " Harriett,