Amanda Foreman - The Duchess

Charlotte Spencer had remained his mistress until at least 1778, but what had happened to her then remains a mystery; it is known only that she died shortly afterwards. Georgiana’s thoughts on the situation have not survived – she almost certainly knew of the relationship: articles about it had appeared in the Bon Ton Magazine and the Town and Country Magazine. The latter had declared, ‘it was the greatest paradox’ that the Duke must be the only man in England not in love with the Duchess of Devonshire. After Charlotte’s death the Duke sent for their daughter and her nurse, Mrs Gardner. It was not uncommon among aristocratic families for a husband’s illegitimate children to be brought up by his wife. Georgiana’s cousin Lady Pembroke was generous towards Lord Pembroke’s bastard children until he proposed giving them the Herbert name. Georgiana was in raptures at the prospect of adopting the girl. She met her for the first time on 8 May 1780 and told her mother:

she is a very healthy good humour’d looking child, I think, not very tall; she is amazingly like the Duke, I am sure you would have known her anywhere. She is the best humour’d little thing you ever saw, vastly active and vastly lively, she seems very affectionate and seems to like Mrs Gardner very much. She has not good teeth and has often the toothache, but I suppose that does not signify as she has not changed them yet, and she is the most nervous little thing in the world, the agitation of coming made her hands shake so, that they are scarcely recover’d today. 35

The Duke, Georgiana wrote, was also ‘vastly pleased’ with the little girl. Lady Spencer was baffled by her daughter’s excitement. ‘I hope you have not talk’d of her to people,’ she warned, ‘as that is taking it out of the Duke’s and your power to act as you shall hereafter choose about her.’ Georgiana was sending the wrong message to the Duke, she thought; she would do better to appear neutral about the child. 36 Georgiana ignored her advice; little Charlotte was all she had of her own to love, and she didn’t care where the girl came from. However, her gambling sharply increased just before Charlotte’s arrival and continued afterwards at the same level. ‘You say you play’d on Sunday night till two,’ wrote Lady Spencer in distress. ‘What did you do? I hope you are not meant by the beautiful Duchess who has taken to the gaming table and lost £2000. Pray, my dearest G. take care about play … and deserve to be what I doubt you are, whether you deserve it or not, the idol of my heart.’ 37

Charlotte had no surname but Georgiana resisted any move which might alert the child to her irregular background. ‘We have not been able to fix on a name,’ she wrote to Lady Spencer, ‘but I think it will be William without the S if it will not look too peculiar.’ 38 The usual practice was to use the father’s Christian name or, if he had several titles, one of his lesser ones, in the place of a surname. After much discussion they agreed on Williams instead and decided to present Charlotte as a distant, orphaned relation of the Spencers.

Meanwhile both George and Harriet became engaged. The twenty-two-year-old George confessed that he was ‘out of his senses’ over a certain Lady Lavinia Bingham. 39 Although Lavinia had no money of her own, and did not come from a particularly distinguished family – her father, Lord Lucan, was a mere Irish peer – the Spencers made no objection to the match. At first glance she seemed to be a good choice. She was pretty in a conventional way with blue eyes and fair hair, talkative, intelligent and possessed of a strong sense of propriety, which Lady Spencer applauded. Less obvious until later were her more unattractive traits: she was highly strung, vindictive, hypocritical and a calm liar who maintained a veneer of politeness to her in-laws while freely abusing them in conversation elsewhere. She was also neurotically jealous of anything which diverted George’s attention from herself and loathed Georgiana and Harriet. Georgiana tried not to show her misgivings even though she could sense Lavinia’s dislike. ‘My Dearest Dearest Dearest Brother,’ she wrote on 9 May 1780 after the announcement of their engagement. ‘Happiness, ’tho’ not to be had directly, is in store for you – That every hour, every minute of your life may be full of happiness is the sincere and fervent wish of my heart for it loves you dearly in the double character of friend and brother.’ 40

Harriet’s engagement took place two months later, in July. She was now an attractive nineteen-year-old, tall like Georgiana, slim, and the image of Lord Spencer with his dark eyebrows and pale skin. She was quieter than her sister, more analytical and less prone to flights of fancy, and she still worshipped Georgiana with a devotion which bordered on fixation. Most people compared her unfavourably to Georgiana – a judgement Harriet had made little effort to correct since childhood. Yet on her own she revealed herself to be every bit as individual in her character: passionate, vulnerable, witty and intuitive. Georgiana had never shared her parents’ dismissal of her sister and now, ironically, it was Georgiana’s appreciation of her that was helping to show Harriet in a more glamorous light. The Morning Herald and Daily Advertiser put it neatly in saying that Harriet ‘never appeared to greater advantage than on Thursday at the Opera; without detracting from her ladyship’s good graces, part of this effect may be imputed to comparison – her sister, the Duchess not “being by”.’ 41

Her choice was the Duke of Devonshire’s cousin Frederick, Lord Duncannon, the eldest son of the Earl of Bessborough. She explained to her friends that ‘he was very sensible and good tempered and by marrying him she made no new connections, for now her sister’s and hers would be the same.’ 42 Georgiana was slightly surprised by her sister’s choice. Even though the Cavendishes had been pushing for the match she had not thought him the type of man to attract Harriet. He was quiet, not particularly good looking, and not even financially secure – his father was known to have mortgaged all his estates. Harriet admitted to her cousin that his proposal had come as a surprise; she had ‘not the least guess of [his regard] till the day papa told me, for from your letters I thought his coming to St James’s Place was merely on Miss Thynn’s account.’ 43 She added sadly:

I wish I could have known him a little better first, but my dear Papa and Mama say that it will make them the happiest of creatures, and what would I not do to see them happy, to be sure the connections are the pleasantest that can be … when one is to choose a companion for life (what a dreadful sound that has) the inside and not the out is what one ought to look at, and I think from what I have heard of him, and the great attachment he professes to have for me, I have a better chance of being reasonably happy with him than with most people I know. But there are some things which frighten me sadly, he is so grave and I am so very giddy … I will not plague you any more with my jeremiads for I am very low, pray write to me. 44

Lord and Lady Spencer approved of the marriage because of the Cavendish connection, and probably influenced Harriet more than they realized, but they were also concerned about the couple’s financial situation. Harriet’s marriage portion of £20,000 went to pay off part of Lord Bessborough’s £30,000 debt. She would be left with a mere £400 a year pin money and £2,000 a year joint income with her husband. 45 Lady Spencer begged Georgiana not to lead her impressionable sister into bad habits, and above all, to keep her away from the Devonshire set. ‘I am sure I need not assure you of my doing everything in the world (should this take place) to prevent her falling into either extravagance or dissipation,’ she promised. 46