Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1869-12-02
The Fortune of a Handsome Face.

Frenchmen seldom marry women for the
sake of their beauty, but among Americans
and Englishmen faces are fortunes to their
possessors. The marriages of the English
Duke of Abercorn's daughters afford a sig
nificant proof of what beauty does for
family. While five of these young ladies'
by no means literally lowered by their
father-are already married to wealthy
peers, and sixth is engaged to the heir of
a duke, the eight daughters of a marquis
are without husbands. Since the days Of
the celebrated Cummings no family has in
this respect been SO famous as
the Hamltons. Indeed, the latter
are the more remarkable of the two
for while there were but two beautiful
Cummings there are seven Ladies Hamilton,
and all of them are beauties. One is the
wife of the Earl of Dalkeith, the heir of
Bold Buccleuch; others are the wives of
the Earls of Ditchfield, Durham and Mount
Edgcombe; another is the affianced bride
of the eldest son of the Duke of Marlboro,
while the youngest was married few weeks
ago to the young Marquis of Landsdowne.
This last wedding excited in the fashiona-
bic and political world vast deal of inter-
est; especially, perhaps, because, while the
youthful bridegroom is the head of a FAM
Gus whig house, his beautiful bride is the
daughter of the most aristoclatic of tories.
TIE marriage was in fact the union of
two great historic houses. The Lansdownes
spring from the ancient Earls of Kerry,
and one of the Marquis peerages dates
from the year 1181. In the seventeenth
century, the then Earl of Kerry, ga sort of
king ia his own country"-as his successor
was long after described by Viceroy of
Ireland-married the daughter of perhaps
the most celebrated self made Englishman
of the 18th century, Sir William Petty, who
rose from the position of an apothecary
to that of physician-general to the army,
and subsequently made survey of Ireland,
on terms extremely favorable to his own
pocket He was, in fact, s'carpet-bag
GER" who contrived to get large grants of
forfeited lands, scattered through various
parts of the south and west of Ireland. In
course of time, by the death of his male
heirs all these estates centered in the heirs
of his daughter. the Countess Of Kerry, and
the vast properties thus acquired are those
alluded to by Mr.. Stewart Trench in the
work which he lately published, called
Realities of Irish Life, with whose pages
many of our readers are no doubt familiar.
During the last century the Lansdowne
famous in connection with English politics
and society rather than with Irish land.
AhO thiio nAoi4uic, - 80
present peer, acquired, besides his celebrity
as liberal and sagacious politician, high
reputation in the character of a munifcent
and judicious patron of art, and popular
leader of intellectual society in high life
Lansdowne House. in London, and Bowood,
in Wiltshire, acquired n social fame little
inferior to that of Holland House, so elo
quently and affectionately described by
Lord Macaulay in his graceful essay COM
memorative of its accomplished owner.
Every Enghshman and foreigner of dis
tinction was a welcome guest in the man
sion of this Mecenas; and probably every
American of eminence who, during the
last twenty years, visited England, has
found himself enjoying the refined hospi-
talities of the representative of the ancient
chieftains of Kerry. The Marquis was
more than once offered dukedom, but, as
Punch once observed thereat:
s'Iord Landsdowne won't be Duke OF Kerry.
Lord Landsdowne is a Wise man, very.
Punch drinks his health III port and sherry.
After the death of the Duke of Yelling
ton Lord Landsdowne became the Queens
adviser in ministerial crises, and upon
other occasions when the counsel of an ex-
perienced and sagacious state sman was de-
manded and died "a few years ago at very
advanced age. His son and successor did
not long survive him, and he in turn was
succeeded by his son. to whose recent mar
riage We have referred.