A GREAT LADY

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22307, 22 January 1938, Page 16

A GREAT LADY

(srIUIALLT TTBITTKir FOR ?B«S3.) [By G. M. L. LESTER]

A great lady.—There is perhaps no phrase in the English language which stirs so keen an anticipation of delight, the embodiment of all that is good, gracious, and charming, enhanced by the background of a great position. Those of us who have been fortunate may have met one or two in our life's pilgrimage; but of these it is not permitted to write. Nevertheless, there are many great ladies, long since passed away, who, in folded paper and dusty volume, have left memories of what they were and how they lived. In some of the great houses even now we may see that which delighted their eyes and touch the very things their hands once handled. On a world changed by the changes of 300 years, one such looks down from the walls of the picture gallery of the lordly house of Woburn, in which she once lived and reigned as queen.

As you tramp through the great gallery, a little bored with the housekeeper's glib recitative of the wicked Earl, the bloody Marquis, the merits of painters great and small, there are three pictures which arrest and strike you, pictures which, each in its degree, tell something of the life history in the seventeenth century of Anne. Countess of Bedford, whose noble portrait by Van Dyck is the finest of the three. Sir Peter Lely first introduces us, and for only £6O, the original price of this fine oicture. to William, fifth Earl and afterwards Duke of Bedford. Van Dyck has preserved the grace and charm of his countess: and an unknown artist. R. Walker, has left us his debtors by recording the strong, dark face of the man who, through a long lifetime, was the good genius of the house of Russell. Tutor, man of business, confidant and friend, John Thornton must have been a remarkable man. The Earl of Bedford First, then, the Earl, who, clothed in the full robes of the Garter, stands so proudly in Lely's picture. He, too, was a remarkable man, for he lived in the reign of Charles I, through the turmoil of the Commonwealth, into the boisterous times of the second Charles, steadily increasing his power and his possessions, incurring no other blame than that which attaches to those who devote their life to pushing their family fortunes. He was head of the great house of Russell, whose influence on the destinies of England was pomparable to that exercised in our own time by the house of Cecil-under the kindly nepotism of the last Lord Salisbury. In character ht represented a type which lived again in the good Lord Shaftesbury of the Victorian era. In the secrecy of his chamber, in the presence of his God, he was humble and sincere. In public he was haughty, even arrogant; nor did he disdain in-his public dealings the guile which in the great is called diplomacy. His personal habits were simple almost to the pitch of austerity; yet he believed that he owed it to his position to live magnificently. He was zealous for the public interest, but saw to it that the public interest marched in step with his own.

For the position which he was to occupy he was trained almost from infancy; and when he returned tc England after two years of foreign travel he was a sturdy Whig, a convinced Puritan, and the- complete pattern of a great gentleman of his time. A somewhat mechanical figure, you will think, and yet romance met him in the way. When he reached home it was expedient that he should marry; so far he and his parents were agreed. Who, then, should be his bride?

The problem is stated thus by a contemporary gossip: My Lord Russell, this winter come from beyond the seas where he hath spent two years: a handsome, genteel man, and there is much looking on him. There are three young ladies ripe of marriage: it is thought he will settle upon one of 'them: my Lady Elizabeth Cecil, the Lady Anne Carr, and the Lady Dorothy Sidney—yet the voice goes that he bends somewhat towards the Lady Anne Carr. though it is said that his father has given him the admonition to choose anywhere but there.

The voice was right in every particular. Lord William had fallen in love with Anne Carr, with the steadfast love of a man who knows his mind, and his father forbade the match. Anne Carr was beautiful, no doubt, well endowed, of noble birth: but her family history on the moral side was deplorable. She was the daughter of the dissolute Countess of Somerset, the granddaughter of the infamous Countess of Suffolk. Lord Bedford, in his place in the House of Lords, had heard the Countess of Somerset confess herself a murderess. Moreover, there was more than a little doubt as to Anne's paternity. For nearly two years father and son held their ground. At last the old Earl, perhaps secretly pleased that he had begotten a son even more obstinate than himself, and bearing in mind, too, the advocacy of King Charles and his Queen and the fact that the bride would bring no mean dowry, £ 1000 down and £9OOO to follow, at last gave way. William and Anne were married in St. Benet's Church, Paul's Wharf, London. It was at this time that Van Dyck's fine portrait was painted. By the irony of circumstance, the Lady Anne, simple, modest, and charming, hangs on the wall in company with the portraits of her dissolute mother and her terrible grandmother. His Wife What, then, of Lady Anne? She lived happily ever afterwards; and her life was so blameless that we can glean but little of her history. Yet to have lived blamelessly was for her a great achievement. Her husband was an able man of restless ambition and of an ingrained Puritanism which must have grated harshly at times on the sensibilities of her mother's daughter. At any rate, a difficult man to live with. Yet there is ample evidence that their love, begun so romantically, endured till death, and that Anne gave her William the comfort and support of a loyal and devoted wife. She lived through the fears and anxieties, for herself, her household, and her family, of outbreaks of plague and smallpox. She faced the vicissitudes and perils of the Civil Wars, hasty flights, threatened sieges, with the magnificent courage Jthat seems to Have been the birthbright of the women of her time. She bore the burden, in part at least, of the efficient administration of the widespread organisation which controlled her husband's household and estates. At last, when as a fast aging woman she received the tragic news of the execution of

The Life Behind a Portrait by Van Dyck

her favourite son, Lord William, she wilted and died, worn out in the loyal service of her magnificent Lord.

But can we get no nearer to thisl great lady than this mere recital of the bare facts of her life? Perhaps the account books of the Russell j estates during the time of her life may help us. On the houses she lived in. Bedford House in the Strand, Woburn, Chenies. and many another, we need not linger. They were like many of the great houses of the time. Only Woburn, her true home, will tell us something of the manner of her life; for it was there that lived that remarkable man. John Thornton, tutor of her sons, adviser of her husband, and to her a faithful and devoted servant and friend. A Great Servant There is something extremely interesting in the bond between the great Countess and one who in those days counted little higher than a servant. That the Countess consulted him, confided in him, and trusted him there is evidence in letters that are still preserved. That he served her loyally, perhaps lovingly, there is no doubt. She was a beautiful woman; he, as his portrait shows, was a strong, virile, handsome man. Was there perhaps an element of romance in their friendship? If there were, we may be sure it was blameless and flourished in a region beyond the reach of scandal. Be that as it may, he lived at Woburn in his own rooms; and it was at Woburn that the Countess found her truest home. To Thornton she entrusted the entire education of her children, both boys and girls. The girls remained with him longest; and of these the Ladies Anne and Diana seem to have been his favourites. When Anne, wandering in the exotic gardens of Woburn, ate a handful of poisonous berries and died, he gave his whole heart to Diana, with whom he kept up an intimate correspondence, long after she became Lady Alington and entered the great world. The education of the boys was not so simple. According to a curious plan which he had worked out with the Earl, after being grounded by Thornton they were scattered over the educational world. Two went to Westminster, two to Cambridge, and two to the Continent. Nevertheless their education was still the care of their old tutor, who by correspondence with his puprls and their teachers kept touch with every step in their progress. But we must return to Lady Anne. Was she a reader or did she prefer the .learned talk of John Thornton, as they walked in the park and gardens at Woburn? The accounts for, books bought for the library will help us. In an age which produced Suckling, Herrick, Lovelace, and George Herbert, to say nothing of the mighty Milton, there is no mention of a single dramatist or poet. It is less surprising that in this Puritan household there were no works of fiction. What, then, had the Countess to read? It may be thought that, with a busy ambitious husband, a stiff and learned tutor, and a library of theological works, she must have led a dull life in the peaceful times which she spent at Woburn. Life at Woburn But I do not think her life was dull. No life could have had a more beautiful setting than the parks and [gardens at Woburn. Both Earl and ! Countess v/ere enthusiastic gardeni ers. The frequent visits of the great, even, to Charles I and hi? I Queen, must have been an ever-re-curring excitement. The nursery of children, of which the Countess had the joy and John Thornton most of the responsibility, must have things moving in the house. It was an age of masques and revels; and I have no doubt the children shared in them.

Then there was for the Countess the excitement and interest of her husband's enterprises for the improvement of his estates, the draining of Thorney Marsh, the building of Bedford House and Covent Garden Market. The management of so great an estate must have been full of interest. It is true that every department had its salaried head and that the careful Earl supervised every item of expenditure, signing every statement of account with his bold signature of Bedford, not to mention marginal notes as pithy and oointed as those which delighted or dismayed Foreign Office clerks in the days of Lord Palmerstori. Nevertheless I . think we may trace Lady Anne's influence in the fact that all the Russell retainers, from the estate agent to the stable-boy, remained with their master till they were pensioned or died. It must have been the Countess, too, who arranged for their seemly funerals, going so far in the case of Dixy Taylor as to supply not only rosemary for sprinkling the coffin but also 25 gallons of claret and 14 bottles of Canary to assuage the mourners' grief. Lord Bedford, though careful, was no niggard where his wife was concerned. Sums of £SO. £25, and £lO figure regularly in the estate accounts as paid to the Countess, welcome freshets of spending money to add to her own fortune. Bills for £3OO spent on an ornament of roses studded with diamonds and £IB2O for a necklace of Oriental pearls speak well for his generosity. Nor was he unmindful of the smaller pleasures so grateful to women. The accounts show regular parcels of dainties from Paris, children's toys from London, China tea at more than a sovereign a pound, and in addition lovely tea-sets and tables from China.

Finally, the Countess had the interest of good works. Collections to ransom Christian slaves, and to convert the heathen Turk went hand in hand with hospitality shown to the French Huguenot refugees, as sincere and generous as that which ja our own times great ladies afforded to the homeless Belgians. On the whole, I do not think that the Countess was dull. At last, as all great ladies must, she died. The glory of Woburn departed. The Earl had his business, his ambitions, and his gout. John Thornton had nought but memories. Nevertheless, he loyally transferred his devotion to the tragic widow of his favourite pupil. Lady William Russell, and ended his days in extreme old age, a faithful servant of the house of Russell. His memorial remains in the dark, strong face which looks down on the portraits of those he j loved, in the picture gallery at Woburn.