The Toils of Celebrity

Mobs of fans swarming around celebrities in the streets is no new concept.  Just ask the gorgeous Gunning sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, who could barely go anywhere in public without being stared at.  This extreme facet from the new culture of celebrity took many by shock, prompting some amusing poetry.  After being mobbed in the park for the umpteenth time a satirist imagined Maria petitioning the king for protection from her fans:

'Shut, shut up the Park I beseech you;
Lay a Tax upon staring so hard;
Or, if you're afraid to do that, Sir,
I'm sure you will grant me a Guard!'

The Boon thus requested was granted:
The Warriors were drawn up with care;
'With my slaves and my Guards I'm surrounded,
Come, stare at me now if you dare!'

The poem puts me in mind of the ever-obnoxious TMZ, I like to think of it as a predecessor.  In the end Maria did end up having to hire body guards in the form of the (very official) Brigade of Guards.  However, her personal escorts only served to attract more attention.  No surprise there!

Inveraray Castle

I was lucky enough to visit one of the homes previously featured in my Country Homes collection this past weekend and it was so gorgeous I could not resist sharing.

Inveraray Castle is the current seat of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll but this fairy-tale castle was built in 1746 and rebuilt again in the Victorian era after a fire.  On the outside it looks like a gothic fortress but inside you will find it to be covered in gorgeous Neo-Classic splendor.  Inveraray was the home of one of the beautiful Gunnings sisters, Elizabeth who was so taken with her that he married her on the same day that he met her despite the fact that she was low-born.  One does not have to try hard to imagine the elegant duchess wafting from room to room in her newly-built castle in the Scottish countryside.

My favorite room was the tapestry room. In the center was a portrait by Hoppner of Elizabeth's daughter as Aurora

There was also what I like to call a "man room" which tend to entertain gentleman friends moreso than tapestries.

The dining room was all sorts of Neo-Classical

I was also surprised to find the portrait of Georgiana's granddaughter, Lady Sutherland, who followed in her grandmother's political footsteps was housed in Inveraray.  It literally took my breath away!

The residential quarters of the house where I managed to see Elizabeth's portrait through a window.  How could they hide such a thing from public view!

An entry-bridge fit for a duchess

Country Homes: Inveraray Castle

Location: Scotland
Famous Inhabitants: Elizabeth Campbell, Duchess of Hamilton and later, Argyll
Website: http://www.inveraray-castle.com

Hamiltons Hamiltons and MORE Hamiltons!

Are you getting confused by the many Hamiltons you encounter on this site? There's the infamous Emma; Douglas and Elizabeth from the very beginning; and recently, Elizabeth Gunning. It's almost as if every other Scottish person in the 18th century was a Hamilton, but they scurry around so fast causing scandal here and there that it is difficult to keep track of them! Well for both your and my convenience I've arranged a sort of Dummy's Guide to Aristocratic Hamiltons of the 18th Century. Hold on to your hats folks, this could get complicated.

Let's begin with the lady who is responsible for most of the spawning. Yes, lady. Anne Hamilton, 3rd Duchess of Hamilton (1631-1716). Anne was a Duchess of Hamilton in her own right, that is she was given the title through birth rather than marriage. Her father bequeathed her the title because he knew his time was near and he had no heirs. Normally the Duchy of Hamilton would just go extinct during his death but this happened during a messy time with the uprooting of the crown, etc. etc. so the 1st Duke of Hamilton took advantage and gave his daughter the peerage he worked so hard to earn. That also meant all of his minor peerages followed with the duchy making her also the Marchioness of Clydesdale, Countess of Arran, Lanark and Cambridge, the Lady Aven, Innerdale, Machanshire and Polmont. As you can guess, Anne had no problem finding a husband after that. She married William Douglas (those Douglases get around too!) 1st Earl of Selkirk and they had a litter of children. But for sanity's sake we will only follow two, the eldest surviving and the youngest.

Let's begin with the youngest since that line is slightly less complicated. Anne's youngest son was Lord Archibald Hamilton (1673-1754). He didn't do anything of real notoriety excepting the fact that he married three times, two of his wives having the last name of Hamilton. I told you they breed like rabbits! His third and surviving wife, Jane (oh I hope I don't make this any more confusing!) bore him the heirs he wanted and some daughters too. His youngest daughter, Jane was the mother of the Beautiful Mary Graham.

Archibald's third son was named Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803) who became very successful as an ambassador to Naples and was known for his love of antiques. He married Catherine Barlow who gave him no heirs and left him a lonely widower in 1782. William fell in love and married again nine years later to a woman much younger than him, who was better at giving Horatio Nelson children than she was with her own husband, Lady Emma Hamilton (1761?-1815).


Now back to the eldest of Anne's brood, James 4th Duke of Hamilton (1658-1712) was, ah never mind, not important. But his grandson is of some interest, for it was James the 6th Duke of Hamilton (1724-1758) who fell in love with Elizabeth Chudleigh and then madly in love with Elizabeth Gunning, whom he quickly married. At James' death the title passed to his two year old son, James George who died in his teens leaving the duchy to his younger brother, Douglas 8th Duke of Hamilton (1756-1799). A portrait of the dashing Douglas and his stunning wife, Elizabeth by Joshua Reynolds is one of my personal favourites, unfortunately it was destroyed and we only have (luckily) a black and white image of it. The couple divorced in 1794 and Douglas died five years later without an heir.

The last 18th century Duke of Hamilton I will speak of briefly (goodness there were so many!) was Douglas' cousin who was Alexander 10th Duke of Hamilton (1767-1852) was said to be quite the dandy. He also had a keen interest in ancient Egypt. So interested, in fact, that he willed himself mummified and buried in a sarcophagus.

That about does it for Hamiltons in the 18th Century 101, believe me, there has got to be at least one I'm forgetting. And no, it's not that Hamilton on that we see on US currency!

Tart of the Week: Elizabeth Campbell

Elizabeth Gunning was born in 1734, a year after her sister Maria. Being so close in age, the sisters were best friends and a true duo. This especially rang clear when their mother, unable to afford raising them, moved the girls to Dublin to become actresses.

Elizabeth and her sister may not have necessarily been good actors, but they did become very popular and were soon known as "The Beauties." Even Peg Woffington was seen with the Gunning sisters. As proof of just how popular Elizabeth was, when James Duke of Hamilton (who had just been jilted by Elizabeth Chudleigh) met Elizabeth he wanted to marry her that night, and marry her he did. He called a local parson who refused to marry the couple without a license or even a ring. This didn't deter the lovestruck duke who brought Elizabeth to Mayfair Chapel and with a bed curtain ring, made her his duchess in a clandestine ceremony. Oh the scandal! It all seemed way to easy. A mere actress who couldn't even afford her own trousseau was now one of the grandest Duchesses in Scotland.

Elizabeth promptly retired from the stage, and her wedding ring was likely replaced with many jewels. Elizabeth enjoyed her new position as a Duchess and now used her charisma to be a successful society hostess. She also fulfilled her wifely duty of providing her husband an heir and spare. But sadly, their marriage would end prematurely. While out hunting, the handsome 33 year old Duke caught a bad cold which killed him. The young beautiful was now a widow.

She got over the loss very quickly, for before James' body could even begin to decay she was already engaged...to another Duke! While so many aristocratic mothers lost sleep over trying to get their daughters married to any sort of peer, Elizabeth made it look all to easy to capture these men of the highest rank's hearts. This duke was Francis, the Duke of Bridgewater who was very young and, of course, wealthy. However the engagement was short-lived when Francis told Elizabeth that in order for them to marry, she would have to give up her acquaintance with her sister, Maria. Elizabeth was all, "screw you Bridgewater!" and he died without a wife or an heir almost fifty years later.

Our gorgeous heroine did not have to wait quite so long to find love (or at least a husband) again. A year later she was married. The lucky guy this time was another Scotsman, John the Marquess of Lorne, a strapping soldier. Since he ranked under her, Elizabeth was still considered the dowager Duchess of Hamilton which she would go by until 1770, when John became the Duke (of course) of Argyll.

The saucy beauty was finally done marrying the richest men in Scotland but she continued to break hearts at court while she served Queen Charlotte as a Lady of the Bedchamber for 23 years. While she went through the heartbreak of loosing her sister to lead poisoning in 1760 she also happily had four of her sons succeed to Dukedoms and became a baroness in her own right (something highly unusual). Not bad at all for a second-rate actress!