Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/495

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This section will be a complete guide to the art of preserving and acquiring beauty. How wide will be its scope can be seen from the following summary of its contents : Beautiful Women in History The Beautiful Baby Beauty Secrets Mothers ought Treatment of the Hair The Beautiful Child to Teach their Daughters The Beauty of Motherhood and Health and Beauty The Complexion Old Age Physical Culture The Teeth The Effect of Diet on Beauty How the Housewife may Pre- The Eyes Ff-eckles, Sunburn serve Her Good Looks Thb Ideal of Beauty Beauty Baths Beauty Foods The Ideal Figure^ Manicure etc., etc. EAUTIFUI^ WOMEN IM MISTORY LADY SARAH LENNOX By MRS. GEORGE ADAM T^HE history of Court beauties is too often a

  • story of plot and counterplot, jealousy,

envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitable- ness. It is refreshing, therefore, to find in such a period of artificiality as the late eighteenth century a figure so thoroughly delightful as that of Lady Sarah Lennox. From the very beginning her story is human, charming, and romantic. Her parents were the happy victims of an absurd marriage. This seeming contradic- tion in terms may be explained by saying that, in order to settle a gambling debt, the second Duke of Richmond, when a boy, was summoned from school to be married to a plain little girl just fetched from the nursery. When the boy saw his bride he exclaimed, " They are never going to marry me to that dowdy ! " After the ceremony a postchaise was waiting af the door, the bridegroom was bundled into this with his tutor, and off he went on the Grand Tour. Husband and Wife Meet He was then Earl of March, and for several years he wandered round the Continent, occasionally casting discontented thoughts to the plain little bride at home. When he came back to England, a good-looking, cultivated young man, he was in no hurry to go down into the country and claim his wife. On the contrary, he stayed in town to have a final fling at the theatre, and did it so thoroughly that he fell desperately in love at first sight with one of the reigning beauties who was seated in a box. This lady was so lovely and so charming, that he went round the house seeking for someone to introduce him, and at last found a friend, who said with some natural be- wilderment, " Do you mean to say that you don't know that that is the Countess of March ? " He was no longer unwilling to present himself before his lady, and no more devoted couple ever figured in history than these two. In fact, the Duchess died of a broken heart a year after her husband, leaving five children, of whom Lady Sarah, then aged five, was the loveliest. Lady Sarah Conies to Court Lady Sarah went to stay with her grown- up sister. Lady Caroline Fox, at Holland House, and the romance of her life began early. When playing one day in Kensington Gardens she broke away from her nurse, and, dashing up to George II., as he proceeded with stately gait down the Broad Walk, cried in French — the only language she then spoke — " How do you do, Mr. King ? What a lovely, big house you have here, haven't you ? " The King was delighted, and carried her off into Kensington Palace. Many was the romp she had with him after that. ' One day he shut her into a great china jar to test her courage, and the only effect it had was to start her carolling the old French rhyme, " Malbrouck s'en va-t-en guerre ! " When she was a little older, Lady Sarah went to Ireland to her grandmother, and did not come back to London till she was fourteen. Hearing of her return, George II. sent for her to Court, in spite of her youth ; and when she appeared, he came to her and began to tease her and play with her as though she were still five years old. Shy and blushing, the poor girl shrank back, and the King, petulantly exclaiming, "Bah ! She has grown quite stupid!" at the top of his voice, added to her confusion. Covered with distress, lovely and modest, she stood there, and it was then that the