THE HISTORY OF THE BELVOIR HUNT 



memory with poets and statesmen, and sometimes survive 

 them, for artists and poets combine to immortaHse the charms 

 which have led the world captive. The portraits of the 

 Duchess Isabella leave an impression of grace not unmingled 

 with power, which leads us to think she might have had no 

 small influence on the too short career of her husband. She 

 was not, however, above the follies of the time, and the Duke 

 seems to have thought she assisted nature's colouring with 

 rouge and pearl powder more than was needed, as he suggests 

 for her benefit that another lady, who was known to disre- 

 gard such aids to beauty, nevertheless looked charming. 



Being a Somerset, the Duchess was fond of horses, and 

 seems to have been a skilful whip, for a picture which hangs 

 in the smoking-room at Belvoir shows her with the team of 

 ponies she drove from Kingstown to Dublin when she was 

 Vicereine of Ireland. It is said that she had a particularly 

 lovely mouth, which she considered took its most beautiful 

 curve when she pronounced the letter " p." She, therefore, 

 always drove ponies, and named her favourites Prince, Prin- 

 cess, Prettyboy and Pauline, So runs the legend, but after 

 all it may be only a part of the myth that so quickly gathers 

 round those characters which draw to themselves the atten- 

 tion of their fellows. The Duke was able to give her every 

 opportunity for distinction, for from the very outset of his 

 career he took a leading position in politics. In those days 

 indeed every door was open to a great nobleman, and it was 

 regarded as natural that he should take part in the govern- 

 ment of the country, but beyond this there is evidence that 

 those who were best able to judge thought highly of the 

 Duke's power, for Pitt the younger, who was his friend, 

 sought his help in the difficult task of governing Ireland. 

 The Duke engaged too the friendship of Burke, and it was to 

 the influence of that great man that the poet Crabbe owed 

 his appointment as domestic chaplain at Belvoir. Burke, as 

 we know, had been the first to perceive the genius of 



" England's sternest poet and her best," 



as Byron later called him. At his recommendation, then, 



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