THE DUCHESS-COUNTESS. 93 



at tlie close of tlie eighteenth century, raised at her own 

 expense a regiment of her clansmen — the 93rd or Suther- 

 land Highlanders. A few years after her marriage, her 

 husband — then Marquis of Stafford — was appointed 

 ambassador to the court of Louis XVI. at Paris, and a 

 time of anxiety and trouble set in for the young married 

 pair. Lord Ronald Gower says of the Duchess-Countess 

 at this period of her history — 



"Although few of her letters have been preserved, they bear the mark of 

 liaving been written by no ordinary character. Her sympathy for, and the little 

 assistance that she was able to render to, the unfortunate Queen of france are 

 historical, and are still remembered with gratitude in the Faubourg St. Germain. 

 Unluckily, the letters she wrote during the period of her Imsband's embassy 

 are few and short. No diary of that tremendous period by her has been found, 

 although she is reported to have kept one ; perhaps when escaping from Paris 

 it was considered prudent to destroy it. I have always regretted not having 

 been able to see her; but, having been born some years after her death, I can 

 only picture her from the description of those who had the good fortune of know- 

 ing her, A stately, yet gracious lady was she. In her own country she was 

 regarded as a kind of chieftain, and as Maria Theresa was styled the Empress 

 Queen, so Elizabeth Sutherland was known as the Duchess-Countess when in 

 later years her husband was raised from the Marquisate of Stafford to the Duke- 

 dom of Sutherland. Byron, a good judge of woman's looks, was introduced to 

 lier at Holland House in 1813 — in her turban days. 'She is handsome,' he 

 writes of her in his journal, 'and must have been beautiful, and her manners,' 

 he adds, *are princessly.' In 1793 she is described as follows in her passport, 

 when with husband and children she had to escape from Paris : ' Madame 

 Elizabeth, Cor.desse de Sutherland,'' runs the passport, ' epouse de M. VAmhassa- 

 deur d'Angleterre, agee de 27 ans, taille de cinq pieds, cheveux et sourcils chatain 

 dair, yeux bruns chatains, nez bien fait, bouche petite, menton rond, front bas, 

 visage un peu long.^ So serious had things become in that capital, that it was 

 considered necessary to chalk up on the doors of the Embassy the words 

 ^ Ambassade d' Angleterre'' to protect the place from the mob. It was during 

 their hurried journey to the coast that, I believe. Lady Sutherland destroyed the 

 journal of her sojourn in Paris. They were arrested and brought before the 

 llevolutionary tribunal at Abbeville, but allowed, after some trouble, to proceed 

 on their way to England. Lady Sutherland was something better than a mere 

 lady of old lineage and vast possessions, with titles in her own right and royal 

 blood in her veins. For she possessed remarkable talent, and had she not been 

 born a peeress, and had she not become the wife of the richest patrician in 

 England, she might perhaps have left a distinguished name amongst the women 

 whose talents are known to all in their country and century. Those who have 

 seen her beautiful landscapes will not think this praise extravagant. They are 

 worthy of the hand of a professional painter, and are the more remarkable when 

 it is remembered that the particular branch of art in which she excelled — scenery 

 in water-colours, and which has since her day attained such excellence in this 

 countrj' — was seventy years ago practised by but a few artists, and by still fewer 

 amateurs. Of these drawings, or rather paintings, the Duchess-Countess left 



