31 chapters
6 hour read
Selected Chapters
31 chapters
Dandiacal
Dandiacal
What a delightful fellow is your complete dandy. No mere clothes’ prop he, the coat does not make the dandy; no mere flâneur in fine garments; far more than that is our true dandy. Though there is not any authority for making the statement, we do not think that we are wrong in asserting that on the day when Adam first complained to Eve that she had not cut his fig-leaf breeches according to the latest fashion dandyism was born. It is not dead yet, only moribund, palsied, shaking and decrepit wit
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
I JOCUND YOUTH
I JOCUND YOUTH
It is the habit of historians to pay little heed to the childhood and the training of the kings, conquerors, statesmen and the other big folk whose achievements they record and whose characters they seldom fathom or portray. But perhaps they are right just as perhaps sometimes they are accurate. It is easier to judge correctly and with understanding the boy and what really were the influences that affected his development, when we know the performances of his maturity, than it is to trace in the
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
II SHE
II SHE
Even the ardent D’Orsay, while he was thus preparing himself for his life-work and laying the foundation upon which he was to raise so superb a fame, could not in the hours of his highest inspiration have dreamed that Fate was deciding his future in the person of a lovely Irish peeress, the cynosure of London society. Such, in fact, was the case. In the year 1821 he visited England and met with the woman who held his fortunes in her beautiful arms. Margaret, or as she preferred to be called, and
12 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
III MARS AND VENUS
III MARS AND VENUS
In France—a youthful son of Mars; in England—Venus at her zenith. D’Orsay paid his first visit to London in 1821, as the guest of the Duc de Guiche, to whom his sister, Ida, was married. De Guiche, son of the Duc de Grammont, had been one of the many “emigrants” of high family who had sought and had found in England shelter from the tempest of the Revolution, and had shown his gratitude for hospitality received by serving in the 10th Hussars during the Peninsular War. Landor, writing some twenty
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
IV THE PRIMROSE PATH
IV THE PRIMROSE PATH
In November 1822, D’Orsay again met Lady Blessington. Apparently it was at Blessington’s express desire that the house in St James’ Square was shut up; its glories were dimmed with holland sheetings; the mirrors that had reflected so much of youth and love and beauty were covered; the windows that had so often shone with hospitable lights were shuttered and barred. On 25th August a start was made on a Continental tour. Blessington was satiated with the turmoil of pleasures that London afforded,
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
V BYRON
V BYRON
Genoa was reached on the last day of March 1823, and Lady Blessington, as also doubtless D’Orsay, because of the sweet sympathy between two hearts that beat as one, was enraptured with the beautiful situation of the town, in her Journal breaking forth into descriptive matter which must be the envy of every conscientious journalist. Their entrance was made by night, and they found lodging at the Alberga del la Villa , a house situated upon the sea front, bedecked with marble balconies and the roo
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
VI PILGRIMS OF LOVE
VI PILGRIMS OF LOVE
“The Pilgrims from St James’ Square” travelled onward through Florence to Rome, from which latter city they were driven in haste by the heat and the fear of malaria; so to Naples where they arrived on July 17th. It was from the hill above the Campo Santo that they gained their first view of the town where they were to spend so many happy hours. On the brow of the eminence the postilions pulled up the horses, so that the travellers might at their leisure survey the wonderful panorama; the towers,
13 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
VII MARRIAGE
VII MARRIAGE
Here stands D’Orsay, jeune premier , the hero of this comedy à trois , with the limelight full upon him; supported by Marguerite, Lady Blessington, as leading lady, of whom Landor said to Crabb Robinson:—“She was to Lord Blessington the most devoted wife he ever knew,” which either speaks badly for the wives known to Walter Savage or more probably shows that he was as blind in the matter of the lady’s virtue as he was with regard to her age, which in 1832 he declared to be about thirty. Probably
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
VIII ROME
VIII ROME
Early one night in December 1827, the Blessingtons, the D’Orsays and Marianne Power arrived in Rome to find that the palace hired for their accommodation was entirely unsuitable and insufficient. House-hunting once again was the order of the day, the outcome being the renting of the two principal floors of the Palazzo Negroni for six months at one hundred guineas per month. Additional and doubtless unnecessary furniture was hired at a further cost of twenty guineas. It is quite amusing to hear o
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
IX PARIS
IX PARIS
Back again in Paris, which lay blistering under the hot summer sun. Rooms were secured at the Hôtel de Terrace in the Rue de Rivoli; noisy quarters, and Lady Blessington was not fond of noise. “On entering Paris,” says Lady Blessington, “I felt my impatience to see our dear friends then redouble; and, before we had despatched the dinner awaiting our arrival, the Duc and Duchesse de Guiche came to us. How warm was our greeting; how many questions to be asked and answered; how many congratulations
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
X A SOLEMN UNDERTAKING
X A SOLEMN UNDERTAKING
Our hero henceforth will occupy the centre of the stage, as a right-minded hero should do, beside him the shadowy figure of his wife gradually fading away into the background until at last quite invisible, and that of the flamboyant personage of the widow of our hero’s dead patron. Truly ironical; while Blessington lived and was an “obstacle” in the way of the course of true love there had seemed to D’Orsay to be no other way of settling his fortunes than to marry one or other of Blessington’s d
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
XI SEAMORE PLACE
XI SEAMORE PLACE
The London in which D’Orsay was destined to spend the majority of his remaining years, and of which he became so distinguished an ornament is far away from modern London, farther away from us, in fact, in manners, customs and appearance than it was from the metropolis of the England of Queen Elizabeth. Astounding is the change that has come about since the year 1830; the advent of steam and electricity, the stupendous increase of wealth, the extension of education if not of culture, wrought a re
17 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
XII HANDSOME IS—
XII HANDSOME IS—
What manner of man was D’Orsay at this period of his life, when he was treading so gaily the primrose way of pleasure as a man about London town? What were his claims to the reputation he gained as a dandy and a wit? How did he appear to his contemporaries? That he was generally liked and by many looked on with something approaching to affection there is ample evidence to prove. Was ever a social sinner so beloved? Was dandy ever so trusted? He was strikingly handsome in face and figure, of that
21 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
XIII A LONDON SALON
XIII A LONDON SALON
What have been the causes of the decline and fall in London of the salon as a social and sociable institution? It is a difficult question to answer. Our hostesses are as lovely, as charming, as cultured and as hospitable to-day as ever they were; our men as gallant and as fond of feminine society; where then lurked the seeds of decay? A successful salon depended upon the brilliancy of the conversation of those who frequented it; a salon without wit would be as a pond without water, or a sky at n
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
XIV ROUND THE TOWN
XIV ROUND THE TOWN
D’Orsay was able to be almost anything to any man, or any woman. He was highly accomplished in every art of pleasing, and endowed with the ability not only to enjoy himself but to be the cause of enjoyment in others. He was popular undoubtedly, wonderfully so, and with a wide and varied range of men and women. But there were also many who despised him, looking askance at one who so openly defied the most sacred conventions of society, and who, in many ways, was accounted a mere adventurer. His m
13 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
XV GORE HOUSE
XV GORE HOUSE
Early in 1836 Lady Blessington moved from Mayfair out to Kensington, or—as it then practically was—from the centre of the town to a suburb, from Seamore Place to Gore House, which in Grantley Berkeley’s blunt phrase became “the headquarters of the demi-monde , with the Countess of Blessington as their queen.” She wrote to Landor, describing her change of home, that she had “taken up her residence in the country, being a mile from London.” The house stood close down to the roadway, occupying part
17 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
XVI STARS
XVI STARS
Lady Blessington reported that in June 1838, London was “insupportable. The streets and the Park crowded to suffocation, and all the people gone mad”; but in the same month Dizzy writes in a different key: “We had a very agreeable party at D’Orsay’s yesterday. Zichy, who has cut out even Esterhazy, having two jackets; one of diamonds more brilliant than E.’s, and another which he wore at the drawing-room yesterday of turquoises. This makes the greatest sensation of the two.… Then there was the D
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
XVII COMPANY
XVII COMPANY
There is both amusement and interest in the record of the year 1839, during which all pretence at a separate establishment was cast aside, and the D’Orsay-Blessington alliance was publicly acknowledged by the gentleman taking up his residence in the lady’s house. D’Orsay went down this year to Bradenham, on a visit to the Disraelis. It is not uninteresting to know that Bradenham and Hurstley in Endymion are one and the same place, and thus described:— “At the foot of the Berkshire downs, and its
17 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
XVIII MORE FRIENDS
XVIII MORE FRIENDS
Not only in the sports of the town but also in those of the country, and with equal success, did D’Orsay indulge, paying many a pleasant country visit. Thus in January 1840 he was down in Staffordshire hunting and shooting with Lord Anglesey, Lord Hatherston and other good sportsmen, and at the end of the same year he spent some weeks in the country with Lord Chesterfield. At Chesterfield House in town, too, D’Orsay passed many a pleasant hour with the generous, kindly Earl. D’Orsay had a fondne
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
XIX NAP
XIX NAP
Charles Sumner writes in March 1840: “Lady Blessington is as pleasant and time-defying as ever, surrounded till one or two of the morning with her brilliant circle.… Prince Napoleon is always there, and of course D’Orsay.” Says Edmund Yates, writing of the great folk in Hyde Park at a later date:— “There, in a hooded cabriolet, the fashionable vehicle for men-about-town, with an enormous champing horse, and the trimmest of tiny grooms—‘tigers,’ as they were called—half standing on the footboard
24 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
XX W. S. L.
XX W. S. L.
Walter Savage Landor, who was born in 1775, lived on hale and hearty till 1864. As he himself wrote:— He was, as we have seen, the very good friend of both D’Orsay and Lady Blessington, whom he first met when he was living in Italy. In a letter to Lady Blessington, in 1837, Landor presented her with his autobiography in brief:— “Walter Landor, of Ipsley Court, in the county of Warwick, married first, Maria, only daughter and heiress of J. Wright, Esq., by whom he had an only daughter, married to
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
XXI THE ARTIST
XXI THE ARTIST
It behoves us now to pay some attention to D’Orsay’s claims as an artist; if he had posed simply as an amateur, silence would be possible, but he worked for money, entered the lists with other artists, and therefore laid himself open to judgment. In his own day he was highly thought of by many—here we have what was written of him in La Presse on November 10th, 1850, when D’Orsay’s bust of Lamartine was exhibited:— “M. le comte d’Orsay est un amateur de l’art plutôt qu’un artiste. Mais qu’est-ce
12 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
XXII LETTERS
XXII LETTERS
D’Orsay, had he devoted his time and his mind to the matter, could doubtless have attained high eminence as a painter and sculptor, but he was wise and refused to be bitten by the temptation; he well knew that there are many artists, but few dandies. The gifts that other men would have cultivated exclusively, he used to heighten and perfect his genius as a master of dandyship. It is perhaps the highest attribute of genius to be able to recognise genius—in oneself; only mediocre men are modest. M
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
XXIII EXCHEQUER BONDS
XXIII EXCHEQUER BONDS
D’Orsay might have been a great artist and a great man of letters; of his genius as a financier there is no doubt. He solved the question of how to obtain unlimited credit; he paid such debts as he did cancel with money which legally was his, but which almost any other man would not have cared to touch. Lord Blessington is said, when he persuaded D’Orsay to abandon his career in the French army, to have undertaken to provide for the Count’s future, and he fulfilled his promise at the expense of
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
XXIV SUNDRY FESTIVITIES
XXIV SUNDRY FESTIVITIES
There cannot, indeed, be any question but that D’Orsay possessed the gift of fascination; his personality was one that compelled both admiration and attention. It is impossible to define or describe wherein exactly lies this power of personality. Of two women equally beautiful and apparently equally attractive, one will fascinate and the other will not, but it surpasses the ability of even those who are fascinated to say wherein is the difference between the two charmers. D’Orsay had charm, and
16 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
XXV SUNSET
XXV SUNSET
Sunset of the glories of Gore House came in the year 1849, a cold, bitter sunset, presaging a stormy morrow. Lady Blessington was nearly sixty years old, well-preserved indeed, but Time’s footsteps are crow’s-feet. D’Orsay was nearing fifty. Darby and Joan; only the former at fifty is more than ten years younger than the latter at sixty. Behind all the gaiety of Gore House there had long been a dark background, ever growing more sinister. Without the harassment of any cares it would have been di
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
XXVI THE END OF GORE HOUSE
XXVI THE END OF GORE HOUSE
Before following D’Orsay to Paris, we will witness the end of the Blessington régime at Gore House. The harassed lady’s creditors swarmed round her; she had given bills and bonds in anticipation of her jointure for something like £1500; Howell & James’ account seems to have amounted to £4000!! Money-lenders, bill-discounters, tax-collectors, tradesmen of every kind, all rushed in to see what could be saved. In the event it was found impossible to avoid a sale of her goods and effects. On
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
XXVII PARIS FOR THE LAST TIME
XXVII PARIS FOR THE LAST TIME
Lady Blessington returned to the city where her husband had died; D’Orsay to serve under another Napoleon than he to whom he had once aspired to render duty. Lady Blessington took a suite of rooms in the Hôtel de la Ville l’Evêque, but shortly moved into an appartement in the Rue du Cerq, hard by the Champs Elysées, which she furnished, partly with some of the salvage from the sale, and where she lived very cosily upon her jointure. The following letter is from Henry Bulwer:— “ May 6, 1849. “I w
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
XXVIII D’ORSAY IN DECLINE
XXVIII D’ORSAY IN DECLINE
In April 1849, D’Orsay writes to Dr Quin from Paris:— “ 38 Rue de la Ville l’Eveque. “ Mon bon Quin ,—J’ai eu un départ imprévu heureusement, que je suis safe de ce côté. Il a fallu que je me décide de partir à 3 hrs de la nuit pour ne pas manquer le Dimanche. Ces dames vous racontent qu’une de mes prèmieres pensées ici ont été pour vous. Vous le voyez par ce peu de mots—aimez moi toujours de loin, car je vous aimais bien de près.—Votre meilleur ami, “ Alfred .” The death of Lady Blessington was
15 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
XXIX DEATH
XXIX DEATH
In the early part of 1852 a trouble of the spine became apparent, causing poor D’Orsay much pain and sickness, which he bore with admirable and uncomplaining patience. In July the doctors ordered him to Dieppe, whither he went accompanied by the faithful Misses Power; but it was too late; death was evidently at hand. At the end of the month he returned to Paris, to die. On 2nd August, the Archbishop of Paris visited him, and on parting, embraced him, saying: “J’ai pour vous plus que de l’amitié,
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
XXX WHAT WAS HE?
XXX WHAT WAS HE?
Witnesses have been heard for the defence and for the prosecution; the defendant himself has been examined and cross-examined; what is the verdict? Lamb has told us that we must not take the immoral comedies of the Restoration seriously. His argument does not bear precisely upon the case in point, but it is of assistance. Lamb, speaking of plays, whereas we are writing of history, says: “We have been spoiled with—not sentimental comedy—but a tyrant far more pernicious to our pleasures which has
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter