The Painted Child of Dirt 145 did or did not arise from a desire to hide the evidence of ill-health which must have been there. He was a brother of the handsome and witty Carr, and the second son of the Earl of Bristol. He himself was evidently good-looking, though almost as many gruesome jests were levelled at his cadaverous appearance as at that of old Samuel Rogers. In dress, in wit, and in that stoical determination to meet every event with a smile, he was essentially a Beau. He is described as being "singularly handsome, fair and effeminate," his features clearly cut, "the forehead lofty and intellectual, the mouth at once delicate and satirical, the eyes full of repose and thought." Fair as he was, he habitually painted his face, and paint in those days was an extraordinary thing. Many people used white lead to produce "a beautiful fairness," and more than one great lady was said to have died from this poisonous aid to beauty! Of these one was Lady Coventry, the elder of the lovely Gunning sisters, who died at the age of twenty-seven from a disorder said to have been caused by the quantity of paint she laid on her face. It was regarded as almost indecent among women not to paint, and the result was a most obvious effect of pinkness and whiteness which to-day would be thought more suitable for a clown than for any one else. Pope, who hated Hervey because of his warm friendship with Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, wrote of him as "the painted child of dirt," saying another time, "his face is so finished that neither sickness nor passion. could deprive it of colour." The ballads of the day styled him "Hervey the Handsome." When a young man Hervey spent some time in the country in "the perpetual pursuit of poetry," much to his father's annoy ance, and Pope seizes upon this taste for poetry in one of his Satires : The lines are weak, another's pleas'd to say. "Lord Fanny " being Lord Hervey. In the "Dunciad," too, referring to a dedication made by a writer to Hervey, he alludes to Hervey as Narcissus and a blockhead : There march'd the bard and blockhead side by side, Unlike the professional Beau, Hervey was intellectually brilliant. He was also a linguist and a politician, ambitious of advancement. He fought at least one duel. An anonymous pamphlet, probably by Sir William Yonge, had been published, severely criticising Mr. Pulteney, and that gentleman declared Hervey to be the author: so another anonymous pamphlet appeared, this time defaming Lord Hervey. The latter challenged Mr. Pulteney to deny the authorship of it, and that gentleman replied that he would stand by every word in the pamphlet. Of course there was nothing to be done but to fight a duel, and the two met one Monday morning in Upper St. James's Park, which we now name the Green Park. They were both slightly wounded, and Hervey would have been killed but that Pulteney's foot slipped, upon which the seconds declared the duel at an end. The second offending pamphlet gave Pope the subject for an invective against Hervey in his "Epistle to Arbuthnot," where, bestowing upon him the name of Hervey, Fair of Face 147 Sporus, he twists every virtue, vice, or defect into a thing of shame : P. Let Sporus tremble A. P. What! that thing of silk? Sporus! that mere white curd of ass's milk? Satire or sence, alas! can Sporus feel? Yet let me flap this bug with gilded wings, In mumbling of the game they dare not bite. As shallow streams run dimpling all the way. And as the prompter breathes the puppet squeaks; Half froth, half venom, spits himself abroad. In pun or politics, or tales or lies, Or spite, or smut, or rhymes, or blasphemies. A cherub's face-a reptile all the rest! Beauty that shocks you, parts that none can trust, The poet Gay wrote of him in a very different strain upon his marriage with "the beautiful Molly Lepell," a maid-in-waiting much admired at Court. Now, Hervey, fair of face, I mark full well With thee, Youth's youngest daughter, sweet Lepell. He was, as has been said, a great favourite with Queen Caroline, who was in the habit of requiring his society each morning after breakfast that she might talk over affairs, and further indulge in gossip and confidences concerning those about her Court and things which interested her. This made Hervey so useful as an intermediary with the Queen, who was a greater ruler than the King, that Walpole could not give him the preferment he desired, though after her death the post of Lord Privy Seal was allotted him. The Queen had a real affection for this courtier, for in spite of his painted face and affectation of manner she knew him to possess sound judgment and to be a faithful friend. She was frequently heard to say: "It is well I am so old, or I should be talked of for this creature," she being fourteen years the senior; and in his Memoirs Hervey tells us that she used to call him "her child, her pupil, and her charge." Walpole declares that the "virtuous Princess Caroline" was deeply in love with him. Like Brummell, nearly a century later, Hervey had an irreparable quarrel with the Prince of Wales, probably concerning an intrigue with Miss Vane, a maid-of-honour much favoured by the Prince. When Frederick, Prince of Wales, married, Hervey wore a suit of gold brocade worth something between £300 and £500. This was in 1736, and to judge from descriptions the actual gorgeousness of men's dress must have been equal to anything in the time of Charles II. Thus, at the reception on the Wednesday following the marriage, the men wore gold stuffs, flowered velvets, embroidered or trimmed with gold; waistcoats of exceedingly rich silks, flowered with gold of large pattern; long open sleeves, with a broad cuff, and skirts stiffened so as to stand out in imitation of ladies' hoops. White A Mere Bag of Sand 149 silk stockings and a wig tied behind with a large flat bow were then the fashion. All his life Hervey suffered from a liability to epileptic attacks, his father ascribing his ill-health to the use of "that detestable and poisonous plant, tea, which had once brought him to death's door, and if persisted in would carry him to the grave." He dieted himself severely, drinking only water and milk tea, eating very little meat, and that only chicken; bread, water, and asses' milk formed his fare sometimes, which gave to Pope his opportunity of calling him "a mere cheese curd of asses' milk." Many are the allusions in contemporary writers to Hervey's thin white face. Walpole, at his downfall in 1742, said bitterly of him that he was "too ill to go to operas, yet, with a coffin face, is as full of his little dirty politics as ever." And a little earlier the Duchess of Marlborough wrote in a letter: "Lord Hervey is at this time always with the King, and in vast favour. He has certainly parts and wit, but is the most wretched, profligate man that ever was born, besides ridiculous; a painted face and not a tooth in his head." When George II. was having a stormy voyage over the Channel to Hanover, no news being obtainable of him, the Prince was openly spoken of as the Successor, at which Queen Caroline was very depressed, saying that her son "was such an ass that one cannot tell what he thinks." "On the contrary, Madam," said Lord Hervey, "he is a mere bag of sand, and anybody may write upon him." To which Her Majesty replied that such writing could easily be rubbed out. Hervey was a devoted friend to the Queen up to the moment of her death, and in spite of the innuendoes concerning him and Princess Caroline was a true friend to the Princess, for whom his wife showed continued affection. |