Gordon book

14 The Gordon Book
husband's stay-at-home tenants with the touch of sympathetic appre-
ciation which can never be forgotten.
Scattered up and down the gossip of her time you will find in-
numerable references to her Grace. In fact, few figures in the
eighteenth century admit of a clearer portraiture, and yet nobody has
taken the trouble to paint a picture of the witty Duchess. In lieu of
a definite canvas, I have simply strung together a few of the impressions
of her contemporaries, for they speak much more directly than I could
possibly do.
It adds greatly to a clear conception of her Grace's personality if
one remembers that Jane Maxwell was not born in the North, which
is built, I take it, on qualities essentially antagonistic to her methods.
She was the second daughter of Sir William Maxwell, the third baronet
of Monreith, in Wigtownshire ; and her mother was a Blair. She was
born in Hyndford's Close, in Edinburgh, and was brought up vigor-
ously, and in comparative poverty — -which, however, in no way damped
her enormous spirits. She was an inveterate optimist ; in girlhood, a
bit of a hoyden ; as a mature woman, energetic to a fault. Luck came
to her as a girl of eighteen, for she won the hand and heart of the
greatest nobleman in the land, namely, the fourth Duke of Gordon,
who had succeeded his father at the age of nine. The marriage took
place in Edinburgh on October 23rd, 1767, at the house of her brother-
in-law, Fordyce of Ayton, who had married her elder sister ; and from
that day to the time of her death, forty-five years later, she was a figure
to be reckoned with in the world of fashion.
The Duchess was a wonderfully pretty girl, and became a hand-
some, rather than a beautiful, woman. Even in 1800, when she was
almost fifty, a critic, who was the soul of candour,
Her Beauty. . . .
writing in Public Characters, says : —
Her Grace is somewhat above the middle size, very finely shaped, though
now considerably embonpoint. Her face is oval, with dark, expressive eyes,
very regular features, fine complexion, and a most engaging expression.