Nelson's Lady Hamilton by Meynell, Esther (cheapest way to read ebooks .txt) 📗

painters. In the drawing-room, there was a portrait of Emily Bertie, in the character of Thais, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds for Mr. Greville, and re-touched in certain points by the famous artist before it left the easel, to put it altogether in harmony with the young connoisseur's conceptions of the beautiful and true. In this salon might also be seen folios of rare engravings and unsurpassably fine mezzotints, bits of sculpture in marble and bronze, the cabinet of antique coins which Mr. Greville had brought together with infinite trouble and pleasure, and the fine collection of mineralogical specimens, which showed that the gentleman, who was very much of a connoisseur, was also something of a savant."

But without doubt the " choicest treasure " of Mr. Greville's collection was neither the Sir Joshua nor the minerals, but Emma herself. At this time she was close upon eighteen years old, and her beauty was blossoming towards its most exquisite period—a beauty radiant and fresh as the lilies of the field, the kind of beauty that " so draws the heart out of itself as to seem like magic," in the words of Richard Jefferies. She had that rare loveliness which is at once classic in outline yet sensitively mobile and changing in expression. No wonder Sir William Hamilton said of her that she was " finer than anything in antique art. 1 ' Her gift for dramatising emotion in her famous "Attitudes" will be referred to

later; but it is sufficiently proved by the extraordinary variety and expressiveness of her poses in Romney's pictures: she personifies all the moods, and not as is done in so many conventional paintings, where an " Allegro " can hardly be distinguished from a " Penseroso," but with real feeling and exquisite adaptability. Hayley, who knew Emma well, says in his " Life of Romney," " The talents which nature bestowed on the fair Emma led her to delight in the two kindred arts of music and painting; in the first she acquired great practical ability; for the second she had exquisite taste, and such expressive powers as could furnish to an historical painter an inspiring model for the various characters, either delicate or sublime. . . . Her features, like the language of Shakespeare, could exhibit all the gradations of every passion with a most fascinating truth and felicity of expression. Romney delighted in observing the wonderful command she possessed over her eloquent features."

Her colouring was of the pure and perfect kind that goes with warm, auburn hair, and this same hair was almost the greatest of her many beauties, growing in delicious lines from the broad, low forehead, and flowing almost to her heels—the hair of a true " Bacchante." Her eyes were grey—the " colour of genius," as it has been called, and in her own way Emma certainly was

24 NELSON'S LADY HAMILTON

a genius ; but her eyes must have been the kind of grey that was capable of deepening and brightening, for they have been described as both violet and blue. Some critics considered her " beautiful and uncommon mouth " the most exquisite of her features. Take her all in all, and it will be admitted that the old Bishop of Derry was right, if not particularly reverent, when he said that the Creator was in a " glorious mood" when He made Emma.

It was this radiant creature that Greville established in the retirement of Paddington Green. Pettigrew speaks of the "splendid misery" of her life at this time, but the words are singularly ill-chosen. Her life was neither splendid nor miserable, but probably as complete an example of simple domestic happiness, in spite of the lack of the proper domestic tie, as could be found in the London of that day. Only good management kept the household running, as Greville insisted it must be run, on about a hundred a year, while Emma's own allowance for dress, charity, and amusements, was some ^30 yearly. She had two maidservants, whose wages were £8 and £g a year— wages, it must be remembered, were much lower then than now. " Splendid misery " hardly fits this modest establishment and this strictly limited income. Some of the household account-books in Emma's handwriting remain, and the sums

AS A "BACCHANTE

GEORGE ROMNKY

spent are amusingly small: apples, 2d. ; mangle, 5^f. ; cotton and needles, gd. ; coach, is. ; poor man, d.

After living with her for three years, Greville was able to say of the girl whose wildness and extravagance had been too much for Sir Harry Fetherstonehaugh, " She does not wish for much society, but to retain two or three creditable acquaintances in the neighbourhood she has avoided every appearance of giddiness, and prides herself on the neatness of her person and the good order of her house; these are habits both comfortable and convenient to me. She has vanity and likes admiration; but she connects it so much with her desire of appearing prudent, that she is more pleas'd with accidental admira-' tion than that of crowds which now distress her. In short, this habit, of three or four years' acquiring, is not a caprice, but is easily to be continued/' And a little later he says, " She never has wished for an improper acquaintance. She has dropt every one she thought I could except against, and those of her own choice have been in a line of prudence and plainness, which, tho' I might have wished for, I could not have proposed to confine her."