There was seen The Hon. Miss Georgiana Spencer, at the age of six, and again a later portrait of her as the Duchess of Devonshire,—­she of the then irresistibly seductive manners,—­and her mother, Countess Spencer, of whom Walpole wrote as being one of the beauties present at the coronation of George III., in 1761.  There, too, was Anne Luttrell, daughter of Simon Luttrell, Baron Irnham, who married, first, Christopher Horton, and, secondly, the Duke of Cumberland, brother of the king.  Of her Walpole wrote:  “There was something so bewitching in her languishing eyes, which she could animate to enchantment if she pleased, and her coquetry was so active, so varied, and yet so habitual that it was difficult not to see through it, and yet as difficult to resist it.”  And here was another widow who captivated royalty, Mrs. Fitzherbert, who was a daughter of Walter Smythe of Bambridge, Hampshire, and married, first, Edward Weld, secondly, Thomas Fitzherbert of Synnerton, Staffordshire (who died in 1781), and was said to have been married to the Prince of Wales (George IV.) in 1785.  And there also was a more notorious beauty, Miss Grace Dalrymple, afterwards Mrs. Elliott,—­though divorced later, and becoming the mistress of various aristocrats, notably the Duke of Orleans.

The Duchess of Montagu, granddaughter of the great Duke of Marlborough (one of the Churchills,—­a family prolific of beauties), was there seen.  Several pictures of the painter’s wife (who was a Miss Margaret Burr), of his youngest daughter, Mary, afterwards Mrs. Fischer, and one of his friend, Miss Linley, went to augment this superb congregation of beauties shown.  Portraits of Garrick,—­that intensely interesting Stratford portrait,—­Earl Spencer, Pitt, Earl Stanhope, Colonel St. Leger, George IV., Duke of Cumberland, George III., Earl Cathcart, Canning, Dr. Johnson, Fox, and several showings of himself, made up a body of work unsurpassed in importance by that of the president of the Academy himself.

Gainsborough was born in 1727; he moved to Bath, in its most brilliant period, in 1760.  He died in 1788, but had ceased contributing to the Academy four years before, because of a disagreement with the hanging committee.  His portraits of ladies were always picturesque and individual, each differentiated from each of his own works as well as from that of other painters.

This portrait of the Hon. Mrs. Graham is delicate in color, yellowed somewhat by its long seclusion from the light,—­and will remain one of the most delightful and spirituel creations of the old-English school.

[Illustration:  Emma, lady Hamilton by Romney]

Lady Hamilton