GARDENS OF CELEBRITIES 
of any distinction. She retained the confidence of the Whig 
leaders to the end of her life, and while the Duke haunted 
‘* Brooks’s,” the Duchess entertained at Devonshire House and 
Chiswick House, in every way seeking to advance the interests of 
her party. In this connection I may repeat a story told of the 
manner in which, aided by others, she manceuvred to secure the 
election of Sheridan into ‘“‘ Brooks’s,’’ when he entered the House 
of Commons in 1789. Membership of that famous Whig club 
was a passport to the great Whig houses, also to Carlton House, 
where the Prince of Wales—estranged from his father—held inde- 
pendent court. At the ballot, one biack ball was sufficient to 
exclude, and George Selwyn, the wit, and the Earl of Bessborough, 
were determined to keep out Sheridan. In order to upset their 
plans it was necessary to secure their absence on the day of elec- 
tion. Therefore urgent messages, inventing the alarming illness of 
a relative, were sent to each of the two members who had intended 
to keep out the brilliant dramatist, and orator. The ruse succeeded, 
for each trusted to the other being present to black-ball—and 
Sheridan was elected. 
When Fox was seeking the suffrages of the electors of West- 
minster Georgiana personally canvassed the slums, and purchased 
a vote from a burly butcher, with a kiss. 
Her Grace was an inveterate card-player, and lost heavily, 
but the Duke paid her debts two years before her death. Of him 
it may be said that his fame was somewhat overshadowed by that 
of his brilliant wife, of whom it is hinted he had scon grown tired: 
he does not seem to have been a man of lively parts, and he was 
chiefly remarkable as being the husband, in succession, of two 
charming and distinguished women, his second Duchess, the Lady 
Elizabeth Foster, a great friend of Georgiana, who had declined 
the hand of Gibbon, possessing mental gifts above the average. 
It was owing, I believe, to Georgiana, that the wings to 
Chiswick House, designed by the architect Wyatt, afterwards 
President of the Royal Academy, were added in 1788, at a risk 
of destroying the symmetry of the Palladian house, that the 
result has amply justified. But although such an ardent Whig, 
the beautiful Duchess was patriotic enough to lament the death 
of Pitt, and to entertain Dr. Johnson—hardened old Tory as he 
was—at Chatsworth; there is no record to my knowledge of his 
180 
