The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-10-26
wEppnp no DUKES ANp nARLs.
The Brilliant Marriages of Some En-
glish Actresses.
From the Neto York Star.

From the Neto York Star.
Never we're the relations between society
aud the stage more intimate than they are
at present A promising young Swedish
singer was few days ago married to Mr..
Achorn, young barrister of high standing
in Boston, and the news comes to hand of
all engagement between Miss Geraldine
TJlmar, Messrs. Gilbert and Su1livan's lead
ing lady at the Savoy theater, London, to
MIR. Kellogg, a gentleman of standing in
New York society. Yet several years have
elapsed since an actress has made a really
brilliant marriage Since Victoire Bale
became Duchess of Frias, wife of Spanish
grandee of great personal attractions as
well as immense wealth, hardly one lady Of
the English-speaking stage, either as
actress or vocalist, has made what might be
designated a splendid match.
Still, during the last quarter of a cent
urv. many actresses have married well and
happily. Miss Helen Faucit married Sir
Theodore Martins, now a knight COM
mander of the bath. They are both ex-
ceedingly popular with Queen Victoria, and
are frequently her guests at all of her pal
aces. Miss Kate Terry, sister of Ellen,
forsook the stage to make an eminentlY
happy marriage; and Miss Florence Terry,
another sister, has followed her example
Other distinguished condolences have mar
ried within the profession, but no magnifi-
cent piece of matrimonial good fortune, as
estimated by the worldly standards of
rank and wealth, has, with the exception
already referred to, fallen to the lot of
the English-speaRing stage since the fifth
Earl of Essex took for his second wife Miss
Catherine Stephens, the acc mplished lady
who, until very few years ago, was an
ornament of London society. 1t is true
that the peerless actress of light comedy,
Mrs. Nesbitt, was married in 1874 to the
late Sir William Boothby, but Louisa Gran
stoun Mcnamara, the brilliant beauty with
the silvery laugh, was almost as uufortu-
nate in her second as in her first marriage.
In the first blush of her beauty she became
the wife of a minor, Mr.. Henry Nesbitt, of
the First Life Guards, and heir to large
fortune. This gentleman was killed by
being thrown from his carriage, and left
her penniless. Several years after she had
returned to her profession she married Sir
William Boothby, who died two years
later, leaving his widow in such Indifferent
circumstances that she found it necessary
to again return to her profession.
The number of brilliant marriages yet
unmentioned is by no means large. Until
the end of the last century, the tone ac-
centuated by Mr.. Gilbert in comedy and
Tragedy" was the tone of society generally
No person of condition offered to marry
''Narcssan Olddeld, who, nevertheless, lay
in state in the Jerusalem chamber, and was
buried in Westminster Abbey; or Mrs
Bracegirdle, described as being of 'lovely
hight; or Mrs Abingdon, the famous Miss
Prue aud Lady Teazle, painted by Sir
Joshua Reynolds during his presidency of
the Royal Academy of Arts; or Miss Mount
oV.1 1.
or 1.-The Olive" described as being in the
receipt of venison ''up to her elbows in cur
rant jelly and gratitude; or Mrs Peg
Wellington; or Mrs. Jordan, the queen of
romps and hoydens, who looked out charm
ingly from Romney's canvas as it hung on
the walls of the Royal Academy.
Then came revulsion of feeling and
peers sought their wives upon the stage
Tennyson had not written the line teaching
that as the husband SO the wife is, and was
in fact, not born when the twelfth Earl of
Derby married his second wife, Miss Eliza
beth Farren. Her personal appearance is
made clear to this age by the engravings
of the magnificent full-length portrait by
Sir Thomas Lawrence, in the possession of
her grandson, the present Lord Wilton, as
is that of Harriet Meltol by the many adj
mirable pictures of her treasured by the
Baroness Burdett- Coutts. There are carica-
lures of Miss Farren, of course; notably
one Of DARBY and JOAN" and another
representing the Earl of Derby and his
countess at Christie's auction house, already
an extremely fashionable resort between
eighty and ninety years ago.
The daughter of an Irish apothecary, who
became an actress, Elizabeth Farren, other
wise Eliza and Betsy, made her mark in
London in Colmau's comedy of Separate
Maintenance" in whic she played Lady
Newbury." Curiously orgh, Miss Farren
became, like another aud perhaps greater
actress Nine. Sarah Bernhardt, the talk of
the critics and of the town on account of
her excessive thinness. She abode in Suffolk
street, Pail Mall. with her mother and sis
ter, and lived on shoulder of mutton and
slices OF boiled beef, but was prudent
enough to resist the advances of the great
politician, Charles James Fox, and of the
Earl Of Derby, known as the ''Obese Earl. :"
Lord Derby waited for years until his wife
died, and then married Miss Farren, who
held the train of the Princess Royal, now
ex-Empress Frederick of Germany, at her
wedding. She was a clever woman, who
conducted herself well, bided her time, and
eventually won the position she coveted.
Ten years after Miss Farren's marriage,
Miss Louisa Brunton, celebrated actress,
became the wife of the first Earl OF Craven.
The next actress to make a brilliant match
was Miss Harriet Mellon, the daughter of a
Lieut.. Mellon of the royal navy and of the
Irish wardrobe-woman of strolling COM
pany Of comedians. There was no doubt
ABOUT the beauty of this waif whose father
had long since sailed away to the West
indies to die of yellow fever. Harriet Mel
Ions schooling was of the toughest
description. She wandered about with
her mother, the wardrobe woman,
and her second husband, Mr.. Entwistle, a
musician in the theatrical orchestra,
but she picked up some education,
nevertheless, and, after appearing as Little
Tickle" and Priscilla Tomboy" in the
Romp," she was introduced to no less a
person than Richard Brinsley Sheridan,
whose Lydia Languish" she was per-
mltted to play, when Drury Lane theater
numbered among the company Mrs. Sid
ddons, Miss Farron, Mrs. Jordan, Mrs.
crouch, John and Charles KEN lie, SWEET,
hannlster and Braham. By degrees her
Deaty-for she was never a great actress
made It's impression, and Harriet Mellon
Wa was allowed to play 'Volante' in "The
honeymoon" and Mrs Ford" in "The
merry Wives of Windsor" in the latter of
which characters she was painted.
She became one of the glories of Drury
Lane Iheater, and the friend Of the Ladies
Dale, Guilford and Burdett. The father of
tne latter, Thomas Coutts, the banker, mar
T Tg Miss Mellon, gave her Holy Lodge,
tihughgate, for a residence, and finally died.
9he afterward married in 1872 the ninth
Duke of st. Albanis Lady Morgan also a