The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-05-25
SOCIAL QUEENS OF LONDON.

separate spheres each of them brilliant, fas-
cinatiHg, and famous. Over one presided
Lady Holland over the second, the Countess
of Charlevile; and over the third-the most
celebrated, perhaps, of the gittering trio
Marguerite, Countess of Blessington. Amid
multitude of differences in their charac-
ters, ambitions, and careers, these ladies',
whose names are now historical, still pos
sessed certain points in common. 1t was
the object alike of each to adorn the social
world in which she was acknowledged su-
preme with all that was best and choicest of
the wit, intellect, and beauty of the day.
There was an identity in the mission
which each of these three titled danes con-
sdered she was destined to fulfil, and if
there was any disparity in the results
which each separately secured, there
at least no antagonism between the means
that were employed. Doubtless the aspira-
tions of Lady Holland, Lady Charleville,
and Lady Blessington were primarily
selfish; but they were imbued with no
small measure of generosity and be-
nefcence as well. Each sought to be sole
and exclusive arbitress in her own world
but each knew that it was only by harmony
and union among her subjects that her par
amount sovereignty could be achieved. If
no despotism could be more absolute than
that exercised by the empress of Seamore
Place or the queen of Holland House, their
followers could have experienced no form of
social tyranny more entirely productive of
comfort to themselves. The authority of
those queens of society rested upon basis of
mutual tolerance and esteem, and enforced
as the prime regulating principles of inter-
course upon the various members of the
crowds who periodically thronged the 'salon"
in Kensington or the drawing-room in May
fair. To rally round her all the available
representatives of wit, intellect, fame,
and to elicit from every Social atom,
whatever its kind or value, any spe-
cies of talent latent within-that was one
object held equally in view by Lady Bles-
sington, Lady Holland and Lady Charlie
lille. To endeavor to bring about pleas
ant rGppT0chemeRt between men of letters
science, or art, hitherto unacquainted, es.
tranged, or isolated-to establish between
them kindly and humane sentiments, or to
restore those sentiments when they had once
been broken-that was the second aspiration
which these social potentates cherished.
Thus the salons of Holland House, Seamore
Place first, and the Gore House afterwards,
and ChaIleville House exhibited the joyful
results of happy union between the spirit
of personal ambition and general philan-
thropy. If it is disputed which could best
lay claim to the latter character, it must be
remembered that, as matter of fact, Holland
House and Charleville House gradually
assumed a special political complexion.
This could never be said of the drawing
room of the Countess of Blessington. 1t re-
tanned its features of brilliant catholicity to
the last.
''It may perhaps seem strange that the
present time should be so entirely without
anything like adequate antetypes of these
famous ladies, with their supreme and I'M
disputed social sway, their glittering and
historical social rendezvous. The late Lady
Pslmerston was perhaps the last of race
of aristocratic danes that has now become
extinct, and her death marked the close
of an era in political sociology. The famous
Wednesday evenings which used to be cele-
brated in the salons of Cambridge House
take as back to an epoch which has con-
clusively vanished from among us, and
are about the most recent instances we
have of direct drawing-room influence upon
political life. The social sove-
reignty exercised by the distinguished
ladies whom we have hitherto had in view,
was, it must be remembered, sovereignty
resting on basis of personal ability, accom-
plishments, and charms Unless Lady Bles-
sington aud Lady Holland had been conspicu-
Gus for the perfection of their manner and
the graceful spell of their conversation they
would have found no willing host of subjects
to give them their allegiance. If society now
is without the social queens of a past reo5nae,
it is surely in no slight degree because those
ties requisite for sovereignty.
Seamore Place, the Villa Belvidere at Naples,
the Palazzo Negrone at Rome, Gore House,
Kensington-all these have successfully been
immortalized by the brilliant countess, to the
first of whose residences as above
enumerated we now propose intro
ducipg the reader. 1t is the height
of the London season some forty years
since, and we are standing in q long library
in the mansion of Seamore Place, whose
sides are alternately covered with rows of
magnifcently bound books and gorgeously
framed mirrors. The window, which Is deep
and runs the entire breadth of the room,
opens upon Hyde Park. There was
no other room in Europe which could boast
of witnessing more brilliant reunions than
those which were then in the habit of
frequently assembling in that library in
Seamore Place. Subsequently Gore House,
to which the Countess of Blessington re-
moved in 1886, was graced by company
more distinguished, perhaps, than that which
met at her first residence, but not more
brilliant or attractive.
IF we would endeavor to picture Lady
Blessington to ourselves at her brightest ant
her best, we must go to her first and leas
snowy of London residences. 1t is one o
her reception nights. She has received
favored few at dinner first, and now as tn
night comes on her rooms begin to fill. Th
salon glitters with stars and is resplenden
with orders of every kind. Not a nation O
the civilized world is without its representa-
tive. There are foreign counts who hav
achieved eminence, and who speak every Euro
pean language, attaches, ambassadors, an
princes. There stands the greatest capitals
in the world, the original, possibly, of Sidoni
of 'Coningsby fame; and there in groups