18 Lift tun/ letter* of FraiH-i* d alt on 



50 he married the widow of Colonel Edward Sacheverel Pole. This 

 lady, Elizabeth Collier by name, was famous for her wit and beauty ; 

 Darwin made passionate poems (see Plate XI) to her even before liei 

 husband's death, and when she was ill he is reported to have spent the 

 night outside her chamber window. Elizabeth Collier (see Plate XVII) 

 must have been a noteworthy beauty in her day and had many younger 

 suitors when Erasmus Darwin won her after only six months of widow- 

 hood. In old age she was a striking figure to her grandchildren, 

 spending her days wholly outdoors supervising her gardeners and 

 labourers at Breadsall Priory, and her house was visited by her 

 grandchildren with the greatest enjoyment. Of her ancestry we 

 can piece together but little, and that tradition, not certainty. 

 Family tradition states that she was a natural daughter 1 of Charles 

 Colyear, second Earl of Portmore (see Plate XIII). Lord Portmore 

 was a very well-known social figure in his days. He was one of 

 the leading men on the turf in its early period, and his name occurs 

 repeatedly in the old form of racing namely, matches between two 

 horses, agreed for a certain date between two owners. First as 

 Captain Colyear and then as Lord Portmore from 1720 to 1760 we find 

 him engaged in such matches with the Duke of Leeds, Sir Nathaniel 

 Curzon, Lord Godolphin, etc., all notable figures in the early horse 

 racing and horse breeding world. It was a world which centred chiefly 

 round Newmarket Heath, and was largely self-contained. When 

 Peregrine, the Duke of Leeds, dies, his widow Juliana marries Lord 

 Portmore ; their daughter, Lady Caroline Colyear, marries Sir Nathaniel 

 Curzon, and the son of Peregrine, Thomas fourth Duke of Leeds, marries 

 Mary Godolphin in 1740, and ultimately comes into possession of Gog- 

 Magog House (with the grave of the Godolphin Arab) near Cambridge. 

 In such environment we have to look for the mother of Elizabeth Collier, 

 who is reported to have been the governess to the Duchess of Leeds' 

 daughters, Lady Caroline and Lady Juliana. It is significant of the 

 higher sense of responsibility of those days, combined as it was with 

 much greater looseness of morals, that we find in the family records that 

 the natural children were often brought up in touch with members of 

 the legitimate family and provided for in much the same way. Thus we 



She was brought up in good society under the charge of a Mrs Main waring of 

 Farnham, of whom Elizabeth Collier always spoke with great affection, and whom she 

 occasionally visited. 



