She was at that time just over twenty-one years old, married to a man who systematically insulted and neglected her and spent his time with the lowest and most degraded of the women of his acquaintance. The Prince of Wales was in his eighteenth year, very susceptible, and he was at once attracted by this lovely woman, little more than a girl, who acted superbly and with such artless grace. In this way an acquaintance was commenced, Viscount Malden being employed as an intermediary, and ripened into a closer affection.
She, however, hardly met the Prince until he had his separate establishment in Buckingham House, as during the time when he lived at Kew he was kept under the strictest regulations. From the 1st of January, 1781, he was, however, his own master, and Mrs. Robinson shared his establishment, and was at the height of her beauty and position.
The attachment only continued for some two years, when the Prince, having vowed perpetual devotion to his Perdita, and made her many presents and more promises, suddenly transferred his affection to Mrs. Grace Dalrymple Elliott and absented himself from Mrs. Robinson.
He paid no attention to her misery, nor in any way assisted her in her distress, though he had given her a bond for £20,000 when she quitted the theatre at his desire to live with him. She eventually, however, obtained, through Charles James Fox, an annuity of £500 a year, and devoted herself to literature.
She had a very devoted daughter who lived with her, and in the presence of this daughter she died in December, 1800, and was buried at Old Windsor by her own particular desire.
In the picture in the Wallace Gallery she is represented in the walking costume which she assumed when she played the part of Perdita, wearing a handsome lace bonnet and carrying a huge muff. The face is one of peculiar sweetness, and the eyes have an arch look, mingled with thoughtful pathos, which is peculiarly attractive.
The face is wonderfully painted, the modelling being subtle and very dexterous; while the harmony of the whole work is most noticeable. The picture is one of Romney's most successful works in its charm of colour and sweetness of expression.
The remaining three of our illustrations are taken from the gallery of the Duke of Sutherland at Trentham, and are reproduced by kind permission of their noble owner, and of his Grace's representative, Mr. Bagguley.
The chief of the three is the important portrait group of Children dancing in a Ring, one of the most famous groups that Romney ever executed. The tall lady with the tambourine is Lady Anne Leveson-Gower, third daughter of the Earl Gower who afterwards became first Marquess of Stafford, by his second wife, Lady Louisa Egerton. She became eventually the wife of Vernon Harcourt, Archbishop of York.
The four dancing children are her step-sisters and step-brother, the children of the earl by his third wife, Lady Susan Stewart—the Ladies Georgiana, Charlotte, and Susan Leveson-Gower, who became respectively Lady G. Eliot, the Duchess of Beaufort, and the Countess of Harrowby. The young lad is Lord Granville Leveson-Gower, afterwards elevated to the peerage as the first Earl Granville, the father of the late well-known statesman of the same name.