At length (June, 1784) a daughter was born to the Duke and Duchess of
Devonshire, whom they christened Georgiana Dorothy. The parents were
so happy in their baby that the mother founded a charitable school in
her honor. The child was a winning little creature, round and rosy and
full of spirits. When she was about two years old the Duchess again
called her former portrait painter's services into use, desiring a
picture of herself and daughter.

By this time, the girlish beauty of the Duchess had faded, and her
slender figure had become somewhat stout. But the new grace of
motherhood was now added to her other charms. As she had been the
model of fashion for all the ladies of England in matter of dress, she
now became a model of motherhood for their imitation. Fashionable
women usually gave over the care and nourishment of their children to
nurses, but the Duchess of Devonshire took upon herself these
tender maternal duties. Thus mother and child were constantly together
and became boon companions. The Duchess had a very lively nature, and
a child could not wish a gayer playmate.

[Illustration: THE DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE AND HER CHILD]

It is in one of their merry romps together that the painter has
represented them. The mother is sitting on a sofa with the child on
her knee, and the two are playing the old game of Ride a Cock Horse to
Banbury Cross. To and fro on her imaginary steed swings the little
rider, supported by the encircling arm of the mother. It is rare
sport, and the child kicks her bare feet and throws up her chubby arms
gleefully. We can fancy we hear the baby voice gurgling with delight,
and the mother smiles at the child's pleasure.

Some years afterward, the poet Coleridge, writing an ode to the
beautiful Duchess, pays a tribute to her motherhood which forms a
fitting comment on our picture:--

"You were a mother! at your bosom fed
The babes that loved you.
You, with laughing eyes,
Each twilight thought,
Each nascent feeling read
Which you yourself created."

It is interesting to compare the picture with that of Lady Cockburn
and her Children which we have already studied. The lighting is
managed in the same way, a curtain being drawn aside at the right,
that we may look beyond the parapet into the open.

It is an important principle in art that in representing any inclosed
space like the interior of a room, there should be some device for
increasing the length of the