781), and
was said to have been married to the Prince of Wales (George IV.) in
1785. And there also was a more notorious beauty, Miss Grace
Dalrymple, afterwards Mrs. Elliott,--though divorced later, and
becoming the mistress of various aristocrats, notably the Duke of
Orleans.

The Duchess of Montagu, granddaughter of the great Duke of Marlborough
(one of the Churchills,--a family prolific of beauties), was there
seen. Several pictures of the painter's wife (who was a Miss Margaret
Burr), of his youngest daughter, Mary, afterwards Mrs. Fischer, and
one of his friend, Miss Linley, went to augment this superb
congregation of beauties shown. Portraits of Garrick,--that intensely
interesting Stratford portrait,--Earl Spencer, Pitt, Earl Stanhope,
Colonel St. Leger, George IV., Duke of Cumberland, George III., Earl
Cathcart, Canning, Dr. Johnson, Fox, and several showings of himself,
made up a body of work unsurpassed in importance by that of the
president of the Academy himself.

Gainsborough was born in 1727; he moved to Bath, in its most brilliant
period, in 1760. He died in 1788, but had ceased contributing to the
Academy four years before, because of a disagreement with the hanging
committee. His portraits of ladies were always picturesque and
individual, each differentiated from each of his own works as well as
from that of other painters.

This portrait of the Hon. Mrs. Graham is delicate in color, yellowed
somewhat by its long seclusion from the light,--and will remain one of
the most delightful and _spirituel_ creations of the old-English
school.

[Illustration: EMMA, LADY HAMILTON by ROMNEY]

Lady Hamilton

With the name of Lady Hamilton is ever associated the names of
England's most famous sailor and of one of her most famous painters.
Hers was a life redolent of ill-repute. Though her beauty was great,
it served her for ill purposes; but she came by her lack of character
by heredity. She was born in 1761, the daughter of a female servant
named Harte, and at the age of thirteen was put to service as a nurse
in the house of a Mr. Thomas of Hawarden, Flintshire. She found
tending children a tedious task, and forsook it. At sixteen, she went
to London, and became a lady's maid there. Her leisure time was spent
in reading novels and plays, which inspired a love for the drama. She
early developed a rare ability for pantomimic representation; and
this became a favorite form of entertainment in drawin