Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/320

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NOTES AND QUERIES, [9< s. XL APRIL is,

ascribes it to that lady, adding, in a note to the list of illustrations to vol. i., " This pic- ture has been wrongly described as a portrait of Lady Whitmore." In the face of this con- flict of authorities, it would be well if we could learn more of the history of the picture than has hitherto been made available. The records of Windsor Castle, from which the picture was removed to Hampton Court, may have something to say on the subject.

In a former reply (9 th S. x. 396) I referred to Mr. G. Steinman Steinman's ' Althorp Memoirs,' which, with his lives of the Duchess of Cleveland and of Mrs. Middleton, forms the best existing commentary on Grammont. It may perhaps help to clear up the diffi- culties of the question if I quote the account of Lady Whitmore's portraits in full :

There are portraits also of Lady Whitmore-

the bank, her left holds up her dress of dark lavender against her bosom. A replica of this painting is at Chirk Castle, and another at Narford Hall, the last inscribed ' Lady Anne Hamilton, Countess of Southesk.'* It has been engraved in mezzotinto by Watson, 1779, plate 1 ft. 8 in. by 1ft. 2 in. ; by Hall, in stipple, for Mrs. Jameson, as the Countess of Southesk; by Claessens for Harding's, and by Bocquet for White's 'Gram- mont,' under the name of the Countess ; and by bcnven, both as this lady and as Lady Whitmore, for Carpenter's edition. "The four last engravings are of half length. Shineker and Bocquet have also engraved for Harding and White a half-length of of Sir Brook Boothby, Bart.' Colonel Myddelton- Biddulph has a half-length of Lady Whitmore, taken three months before her death. A mezzo- tinto, engraved by Trye, 1762, size 20 in. by 14 in., lettered 'Frances Brooke, Lady Whitmore,' and overlooked by both Bromley and Granger, repre- sents a lady who may have reached the age of twenty-five. She wears a close cap, beneath which her hair is confined, pearl drop earrings, round her neck a ruff, tied in front by a bow of ribbon. Her dress is low, but over it, and concealing her shoulders, is a tippet, or cloak, the ermine collar of which she holds between the thumb and first finger of her right hand. It does not resemble the other p ^ r -n ltS T f J her ' nor is the dress such as was worn in 16/0. Lady Whitmore had dark hair."-' Althorp Memoirs,' 1869, pp. 20-22.
 * a? Whltf nore, 'from an original in the possession

Mr. Steinman does not state that the mezzotint engraved in 1779 was engraved under the name of Lady Southesk. The por- trait in Mrs. Jameson's * Beauties ' undoubt-

made in crayons, which Claessens engraved from
 * "Horace Walpole had a copy of this portrait,

H!I/?< R med i r ? ng 1 r rP f i^ existence at Narford null JBiog. Hist, of England,' Sup., 1774 f 546) Mrs. Jameson chooses to infer ('Beauties, 5 ' 1838, lid I 7 l that b th Walpole and Granger acknow- [G S S ] aa authentlc P rtrai t of Lady Southesk."

edly was, and I venture to quote that lady's remarks :

"When the accompanying portrait was first copied and engraved for publication it was supposed to represent Frances Brooke, Lady Whitmore, the younger sister of Lady Denham, by which name the portrait has been traditionally known in the gallery at Windsor. But on examining the duplicate which exists at Narford, in the possession of Mr. Fountaine, and referring to the authority of Horace Walpole and Granger, there can be little doubt that it represents a woman much more notorious Anne, Countess of Southesk. By this title the picture has always been distinguished at Narford since the days of Sir Andrew Fountaine, the first possessor, and the contemporary of the original ; and by this name it has been recognized as an original by Horace Wal- pole. The copy made in crayons by his order is now at Strawberry Hill, and noticed in his cata- logue as that Lady Southesk who figures so disgracefully in De Grammont's ' Memoirs.' " 'Beauties,' ed. 1833, p. 136.

The question for decision is whether the traditional ascription to Lady Whitmore at Windsor and Hampton Court, or that which prevailed at Narford Hall, is the more likely to be correct, and until further evidence is forthcoming 1 fear it must remain an open one. It will be observed that Mr. Steinman points out that Scriven engraved this picture for Carpenter's edition of Grammont both as Lady Whitmore and as the Countess of Southesk. An examination of these engrav- ings shows that the faces vary very con- siderably, and that while the general arrangement of the drapery is the same, in the latter the hand is not employed to hold up the dress. These variations may, however, be only due to the fancy of the engraver.

George Digby, Earl of Bristol, married the Lady Anne Eussell, the sister of the Hon. Edward Russell, who had become the second husband of Mrs. Brooke, the mother of Lady Denham and Lady Whitmore. He was, there- fore, a kind of step-uncle to these ladies. I have not the dates of his embassies to Spain, and cannot say if either of them accompanied him to that country. Frances Brooke, Lady Whitmore, could not have been born earlier than 1642 or 1643, and was, therefore, only about seventeen or eighteen years of age at the Restoration. I understand from Z. (9 th S. x. 451) that the lady painted by Zurbaran, who died in 1662, was an older woman than the " Miss Brooks " of Grammont. She may have been Elizabeth Acton, wife of Sir Thomas Whitmore, first baronet of Apley, and father of the husband of Frances Brooke. W. F. PRIDEAUX.

CANUTE AND THE TIDE (9 th S. xi. 189). Camden, writing in 1604, gives one of the