ELIZABETH CRAVEN AND HER WORLD

I am very grateful to a reader for sending this image of a very little known drawing of Elizabeth Craven. The drawing, in profile, was done when she was still very young, certainly no more than  sixteen, by an unknown artist. It was kept as an heirloom in the Craven family until 1984, when it was auctioned at Phillips' in London along with other paintings that were part of the estate of the 7th Earl of  Craven.  The reproduction is from Phillips' auction catalogue, where it is attributed to the "school of Romney" but the drawing is unsigned. The drawing gives us a meticulous, almost photographic, image of what the young Elizabeth - who was then Lady Elizabeth Berkeley - looked like. This is the face that her future husband, William Craven, fell in love with, for better or worse. At the same auction further paintings by Thomas Beach  of Elizabeth's children   were sold and are presumably now in private collections. Many thanks for this, Stephen! ...

It is extraordinary how Elizabeth Craven seemed to get to meet all the most famous, or in some cases, infamous, people of her time. The French actress Hyppolite Clairon is another example. Craven knew her well -  only too well as at one time they were rivals for the same man. Born Claire Josèphe Hyppolite Leris, into a humble family, the actress's performances in classical tragedy created a storm of success from the very first time she appeared at the Comédie Francaise. She excelled at performing the lead roles in the plays of Racine, Corneille and Voltaire. Voltaire was living in Paris at the time and became one of her most ardent admirers. She adapted her first name into a stage name "Clairon" which means a clarion call, very suitable for someone who was not shy of the limelight!          In her old age she published her Memoirs, which included the singular story of how she had been haunted by the ghost of a disappointed lover. The story was alread...

Engraving by William Ridley, based on Sir Joshua Reynolds'  portrait of Elizabeth Craven. What did Elizabeth Craven really look like? There are quite a lot of surviving portraits of her, but they are not very like each other. When she was aged sixteen, she was painted by the Continental artist Angelica Kauffman, who was only in her early twenties herself. Kauffman was an exception to the rule that all professional artists had to be men, and her depictions of society ladies as mythological goddesses were fashionable in Georgian high society. She chose to portray Elizabeth in the guise of Hebe, goddess of Youth, in classical robes that show off her dazzling white skin and delicate hands. The features are indistinct and somewhat conventionalized, but if you compare them to the next picture,  an oil sketch by George Romney,  it is plausible that both depict the same person.  Lady with a Lyre: Elizabeth Craven by George Romney c.1770....

    There were a lot of actresses on the English stage in Georgian times who attracted noble, rich and sometimes powerful admirers. Some of them - quite a lot - became mistresses. This one did even better for herself, and married an Earl.     She is Louisa Brunton, celebrated comedic actress, Jane Austen fan and Countess of Craven. Unlike many others who trod the boards, she was not interested in liaisons or a quick legover in return for a few jewels and a bunch of flowers. No! She was virtuous, and she was smart. She was also, let's face it, lucky.      There were lots of rich admirers who were married already and others whose families would have put a firm foot down to prevent such a misalliance. The heir to a noble house was usually supposed to marry some titled girl whose ancestry - and dower - were worthy of his.     The noble admirer whose eye Louisa caught was none other than William, Earl of Craven, who was quite a catch from ...

After its period of being used as a hospital during the Second World War, Benham House was left empty and almost derelict for a long time. But these delightful reminiscences written by Nicolette Craggs, who spent much of her childhood there, reveal that even then it had a particular charm and held her spellbound. Childhood In Benham Valence  - a Memory of Benham Park. It was in April 1950 that I was born in the Victorian wing of Benham Valence - actually in the flat above the garages - a very primitive dwelling with no bathroom or indoor toilet. Unfortunately the whole wing was found to be in such bad repair that it was demolished completely in the 1980s.  The great house of Benham Valence itself lay empty and neglected save for the scant attentions of the then caretakers - either the Mildenhalls or the Husbands.  My memory fails me on this. My father Dick Clark was a forester for Suttons Estates.  Whilst my family lived there they made fr...

Elizabeth Craven had four daughters and three sons. The girls were named Elizabeth, Maria-Margaretta, Georgiana and Arabella, and of the four of them Maria was certainly the most socially successful.   The Hon. Maria Margaretta Craven, later Lady Sefton. She was popular and after making a brilliant marriage became one of the patronesses of the celebrated Almack's Club, whose balls at Almack's Assembly Rooms were more exclusive than the Court itself.  This miniature portrait shows Lady Sefton when young and she is a striking beauty, with some resemblance to her mother in the long neck and shape of the nose. Her hair appears to be very black, but in fact she is wearing a headband of black lace, and a black-trimmed stole, suggesting that she is in mourning. When you look closely her hair is actually chestnut brown, not unlike her mother's.      The girls had rather a difficult time as teenagers as their parents separated, and the girls were lef...