Norland Quarterly, The.
[Domestic] Greville, Lady Charlotte. Album of drawings, prose, verse, and printed pieces, many
contributed by her family and circle. 1821-57.
4to.; full calf; all edges gilt; rebacked.
A scrapbook of nearly three hundred pages.
Lady Charlotte Greville’s long life and society connections saw her feature in numerous memoirs of the
period. The daughter of William Cavendish Bentinck, the 3rd Duke of Portland, in 1793 she married
Captain Charles Greville and had four children. In 1820 she enjoyed a passionate, if brief, affair with the
Duke of Wellington and was in Brussels with her husband at the time of Waterloo. Attending the
Duchess of Richmond's ball on the eve of the battle, she was reported walking arm-in-arm with the Duke
when Lieutenant Webster arrived with the dispatch that the French were advancing.
Of particular relevance to this album is the marriage of her daughter Harriet Catherine Greville to Francis
Egerton (formerly Leveson-Gower), first earl of Ellesmere, (1800-1857), the politician and poet, in 1822.
Both the Leveson-Gowers (as they were first known) had literary and artistic interests. Francis Leveson-
Gower published both publicly and privately a number of books of verse and travel books. His version of
Alexandre Dumas's tragedy, “Henri III et sa Cour”, was performed with much success at Covent Garden
with Charles Kemble in the title-role. His later inheritance included not only a large fortune but a
magnificent collection of paintings which was housed at Bridgewater House in London. In his political
career he was a liberal conservative of the Canning school” (“ODNB”). He, his family and other
members of their circle contributed to the album drawings, poems and - of particular interest - prologues
and epilogues from country house theatricals, including one got up at his Phoenix Park residence in
Dublin when Leveson-Gower was Viceroy.
The album has the identifying inscription, “C. Greville from Ld Combermere, Combermere Abbey Jan.
1821.” (It seems unlikely that Lord Combermere would have made such a gift to Charles Greville, her
husband, or Charles Greville, her son, the diarist. A further source of identification is the inscription to
Lady Charlotte Greville on one of the printed pieces - see below.)
Drawings
Over 100 drawings and watercolours, some identified and dated in pencil (at times too faintly to read).
Notable are the following:
Francis Leveson-Gower: approximately 20 pencil sketches often of military manoeuvres, cavalrymen,
etc, some done at Brighton. (Many of the drawings are quite faint.)
James Morier, 1782-1849, the author of “Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan” (1824) and something of
an amateur artist: four signed sketches of continental scenes. (Morier was married to Harriet, the
daughter of William Fulke Greville.)
Lady Wallscourt (two sketches); Harriet Leveson-Gower (interior scene of the drawing room or music
room at Stratfield Saye, the Duke of Wellington's country seat, and a number of other small sketches);
Harriet Lascelles (Harwood House); L. Kerr (a fine drawing after Tiepelo); images of Cawdor Castle,
Trentham Hall and Sprotbrough Hall; a fine view of the Prince D'Arembert and his family seen from the
back, done in Brussels in 1815 (when Lady Charlotte Greville was in the city) with an unidentified
signature; a French postillion in his massive boots; many other images of people and places, some
identified.
Theatricals
Francis Leveson-Gower: “Epilogue.” Two pages, signed E. Ellesmere, opening, “'Tis done - Our short
lived Diana's reign is o'er/and now the curtain falls, to rise no more.” A piece of Shakespearean inspired
theatrics, the text making reference to “Painting” frequenting the walls - perhaps the performance was in
Bridgewater House surrounded by the Earl's collection.
“Prologue written for the Amateur Theatricals for the benefit of the Distressed Scotch & Irish by
Viscount Morpeth.” 12mo. Four pages. By the politician George Wi
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