Dorothy Margaret Stuart

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

It is, as Lord Melbourne hinted to Queen Victoria, 'a little curious that so many good-looking children should have been born of the union between George III and Queen Charlotte.' His florid youthful comeliness soon passed, leaving him with protuberant eyes and pendulous lips, and even the Queen's best friends could not describe her as anything but plain. Yet these two found themselves in course of time surrounded by a family of seven sons and six daughters all of whom were, at least in their earlier years, more than passably handsome. This study by the noted biographer Dorothy Margaret Stuart was the first full length account of the six princesses. Fanny Burney exclaimed, with characteristic fervor, 'Never in tale or fable were six sister princesses more lovely!' and a visitor from America wrote in 1788, 'The four eldest princesses are thought surprising beauties. They are certainly handsome' When Gainsborough was painting the series of family portraits he spoke with rapture of the royal children.The six Princesses were so spaced in order of time that they tended to fall into two equal groups: the elder Charlotte Augusta Matilda, Princess Royal, born in 1766; Augusta Sophia, born in 1768; Elizabeth, born in 1770: and the younger-Mary, born in 1776; Sophia, born in 1777; and Amelia, born in 1783. This biography provides a full account of all of the six princesses.

Dorothy Stuart approaches her subject along four main roads: archaeology, history, legend and literature. The cat emerges by turns as a goddess, an enigma, a playmate and a friend. The Ancient Egyptian Mau is here; the enchanted cats of Irish legend; the Gib of Gammer Gurton's Needle. Hodge and Selima, Jeffry and Dinah refused to be left out; but there are less familiar examples, too: the cat which voluntarily shared the Earl of Southampton's captivity in the Tower; the kitten in whose defense John Keats had a standup fight with a brutal butcher-boy of Hampstead; the delinquent who at dead of night gnawed the strings of her master's lute. Graymalkin, the witches' familiar, comes into the picture; and we catch fascinating glimpses of two furry sympathizers licking the tears from Florence Nightingale's cheeks, and of Cardinal Richelieu solemnly adding something on behalf of a cat and her kittens to the modest pension assigned by His Eminence to Mademoiselle Marie de Gournay, Montaigne's 'polished female friend'. Dorothy Margaret Stuart is better known for her elegant and polished biographies, but in this short book we see a lighter side of her pen in an appreciation of feline company.

Elizabeth Foster, 'Bess' is one of the larger than life characters that occasionally flits across the pages of history. Born in 1757 as Elizabeth Christiana Hervey, the daughter of the eccentric Frederick Hervey, Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry, she led a privileged life and married John Thomas Foster in 1777. Following their separation, Foster took her infant sons from her and the distressed Bess led a bitter life, made more tolerable by the kindness and affection shown to her by her best friend, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. The friendship developed into a further intimate friendship with 'Canis' the nickname given to the Duke by Bess and Georgiana. Soon they were living in a menage a trois resulting in two illegitimate children, which Bess bore in exile in France, terrified of discovery and social ostracism. The births were successfully kept secret, and the children themselves grew up without knowing who their true mother was. The children were Caroline St. Jules, and a son, Augustus (later Augustus Clifford, 1st Baronet), who were later raised at Devonshire House with the Duke's legitimate children by Georgiana. Two years after Georgiana's death in 1806, Bess married 'Canis' and the couple lived together in happiness at Devonshire House and at Chatsworth, but the happiness was short-lived, for after only 21 months 'Canis' died. Bess spent much of the remainder of her life in Italy. Fluent in French and Italian, and living abroad for many years, Bess maintained a voluminous correspondence, and as a consequence an amazing picture has been built of this amazing woman, the friend of Marie Antoinette, the Prince Regent and many in the top circles of society in England, France and Italy. Following John Foster's death, she was re-united with her beloved Frederick and Augustus, and much of the correspondence in later years is between her and her influential sons.