Star.
London, England, 1826-10-14 00:00:00

THE HAMPTON COURT BEAUTIES.

PROM THE NEW MONTHLY MAGAZIN&
(Concluded from the STAR of yesterday.)

THE COUNTESS OE DORSET.—Lady Mary Compton,
daughter of Compton Eirl of Northampton, and second
wife of Charles flack ville, Earl of Dorset.
This Earl of Dorset, the Mwcenas of Prior, was one
of the most celebrated men of his time; he was the ge-
nerous patron of the witty and the learned; himself a
poet and a man of wit, and so amiable in his temper
and manners, that he was universally beloved. " I don't
*now how it is," said Lord Rochester once, a 8 but Lord
Dorset may do what he will—he is always in the right."
He was brave, generous, and charitable even to a fault.
Charles the Second, who was fond of his society, and
admired his wit, " seemed to court him to be a fa-
vourite; but be would not give himself the trouble that
belonged to that post : he hated the Court, and de-
spised the King, when he saw be was neither generous
nor tender-hearted."* He wrote some personal satires
so severe, that he might justly have been styled
" The best-natured roan, with the worst-natured Muse."
It was this Lord Dorset who first introduced Nell
Gwyn at Court, in order to shake the influence of the
Duchess of Cle►eland,in which she was partly successful.

The first Countess of Dorset was the beautiful Miss
fagot, so celebr.rteA in the Memoirs of De Grammont.
On her death he marrieJ Lady Mary Compton, "famed
for her beauty and admirable endowments of mind."
She was a w iman of gre it sense and spirit, and distin-
guished herself by the share she took in the escape of
the Princess Anne. The Princess, after her husband
had joined the Prince of Orange, was left in London,
and, hearing of the King's approach, she was so struck
by the apprehension of his displeasure, that she ex-
claimed to her friend, Lady Marlborough, 66 that rather
than meet the face of her injured father, she would jump
out of the window.' The same night she escaped in
the Earl of Dorset's carriage, assisted and supported by
the presence of mind and affectionate attention of the
Countess, " who furnished her with everything," and
with her husband attended her to Nottingham.

The Countess of Dorset died a short time after her
marriage, in the full bloom of her youth and • beauty.
;She left a son, and a slaughter, afterwards Duchess of,
Beaufort.

This portrait must, by a comparison of dates, have
been painted only a few months before her death. The
figure is singularly elegant and graceful, the face beau-
tiful, but rather insipid, and not at all expressive of that
intellectual power for which this Countess was remark
able. The drapery is rich, trimmed with jewels and
ermine ; but the whole tone of the picture is too sombre,
and the back-ground (a fine bit of landscape) is almost,
lost in black shadows ; a little cleaning and varnishing
would probably remedy this, which is more the effect
of time and damp than the fault of the painter.
LADY MIDDLETON.—This is so beautiful a picture,
that we cannot help regretting the more that so little
is known of the original. There was a Countess of
Middleton in this reign celebrated for her beauty ; but,
as her husband was a staunch Jacobite, who never could
be prevailed upon to court the rising sun, it is very un-
likely that the picture of his wife would be admitted
into William's Gallery of Beauties. There wet eno less
than five Baronets of the name of Middleton living at
tie same tia.e, so that it has become almost impossible
to identify the origifial of this lovely picture. Lady
Middleton is represented as a shepherdess, with a crook
in her hand: this was the affected taste of the day, and
is the only fault of the picture. The figure is beautiful
on a small scale ; the features, soft and delicate, ss ith a
look of pensive sweetness; the drapery, painted with ex.
treme richness of colour, and the landscape free, airy,
and brilliant ; most unlike the usual style of this master,
in which the back-ground is almost always sacrificed to
the head. The colouring has suffered less in this picture
than in any of the others.
THE Dt.ctress OF Sr. ALBANS.—Lidy Diana Vere,
daughter of Aubrey de Vere, twentieth and last Earl of
Oxford of his family.t
This beautiful woman, the sole remaining representa-
tive of her illustrious race, was the greatest heiress in
riches and blood in the three kingdoms. Cbarles the
Second early cast his eye upon her for one of his sons,
and she was united in 1694, to Charles Beaucleit, Duke
of St. Alban's, natural son of the King by Nell Gwyn.
She was extremely young when she first appeared at
Court in the reign t f William the Third, and appears
to have been as amiable and innocent as she was lovely.
Lord Lansdown passes her over with a slight allusion,
as "rich in charms;" but she found a better admirer in
Addison, who has given her a distinguished place among
the toasts, written tor the Kit-Cat Club.
" The line of Vert-, so long reuown'd in arms,
Concludes with lu4tre in St. Alban's charms;
kler conquering eyes have made their race complete,
It rose in valour, and in beauty set."

And again,—
The.saints above can ask, but not bestow,—
This saint can give all happiness below."
Aubrey de Vere, Earl of Oxford, the father of this
beautiful Duchess, lived to distinguish himself in five
successive reigns, by the facility with which he adapted
himelf to the tastes and manners of all. Ile was sin-
gularly handsome, and possessed of many personal and
courtly accomplishments; but he had neither wit, nor
talent, nor principle. In the reign of Charles the
Second he became enamoured of a beautiful young
actress, who played so inimitably the part of Roxana
in Lee's " Rival Queens," that she was known by no
other name. Lord Oxford long besieged her with
prayers, with presents, with every temptation he could
devise ; but the yuung Sultana had virtue, spirit, and a
respectable mother to protect her, and his offers were
, treated with the disdain they deserved. At length he,
proposed marriage, promising to acknowledge her as
his wife, and they were privately united, in the presence
of witnesses, who signed the contract. Shortly after-
wards the unfortunate girl discovered that she had been
betrayed by a false marriage ; that the pretended Cler-
gyman wus Lord Oxford's trumpeter, and the witness
his drummer, both of whom disappeared immediately
alter the ceremony, She loudly exclaimed against
such unheard-of perfidy ; she threw herself at the feet
oldie King, and besought his justice and compassion—
in vain; in that profligate court all stratagems of gal-
lantry were accounted lawful; and what had a pretty
actress to do with virtue? it was, "erre impertinence,
sore obstination inouie." She met with no redress,
scarcely even with pity, but went home to her poor
mother, and died broken hearted. Lord Oxford plumed
himself on his conquest : and it does not appear that
• Runlet's History.
Reckoning from the Conquest ; but the Verse were Saxon
Earls before the time of Edward the Confessor.
f " Elk n'esse qu'i se Meyer," adds Miss Hobart 3 who relates
the story in De Grammont.