"
Fox was elected for the Tory borough of Westminster, and great was the
rejoicing at Carlton House. A _fete_ was given on the grounds the day
following, and the ordinarily well-apparelled Prince appeared in a
superb costume of the radical colors, blue and buff. This was the
period of the Duchess's greatest glory, as well as of her most superb
charm of personality; and it was about this period that Gainsborough
painted his perennially delightful presentment of her. She was then
twenty-seven years of age, and had been married ten years. Wraxall
wrote what is probably the best contemporary description of her: "The
personal charms of the Duchess of Devonshire constituted her smallest
pretensions to universal admiration; nor did her beauty consist, like
that of the Gunnings, in regularity of features, and faultless
formation of limbs and shape; it lay in the amenity and graces of her
deportment, in her irresistible manners, and the seduction of her
society. Her hair was not without a tinge of red; and her face, though
pleasing, yet, had it not been illuminated by her mind, might have
been considered an ordinary countenance."
It is said of Gainsborough that, while painting the Duchess, "he drew
his wet pencil across a mouth all thought exquisitely lovely, saying,
'Her Grace is too hard for me.'"
The lady later knew the cuts of comment, and the keen pain of
justifiable jealousy.
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