and often in after years alludes to his old home, its associations, and his “Kensington Gore breakfasts.”
Great is the contrast Gore House next presents: strange are the mutabilities of a metropolitan mansion. After the philanthropist, a few unknown persons held the place ere the next celebrity, one of a totally opposite character, reigned. Lady Blessington—for to her allusion is made—came here in 1836; and the opposition of ideas called forth by such persons seems to have suggested to James Smith his
GORE HOUSE: AN IMPROMPTU.
Mild Wilberforce, by all beloved,
Once own’d this hallow’d spot,
Whose zealous eloquence improved
The fetter’d Negro’s lot;
Yet here still slavery attacks
When Blessington invites:
The chains from which he freed the Blacks,
She rivets on the Whites.
Lady Blessington came to Gore House in 1836; and the brilliant circle which thronged around her in Seamore Place was increased with the greater capabilities of the new residence. Haydon, writing February 27th, 1835, says, “Everybody goes to Lady Blessington’s. She has the first news of everything, and everybody seems delighted to tell her. She is the centre of more talent and gaiety than any woman of fashion in London.” To Gore House came novelists and dramatists, artists and actors, statesmen and refugees. Here Louis Napoleon, just escaped from captivity at Ham, first came for the shelter of an English roof; and afterwards—deep lesson too—a few years later she went forth as privately perhaps as her guest had entered, from the palace of which she had been Queen, to seek in the capital of him whom she had harboured, that support she had so freely bestowed on him; the late refugee then having an empire rapidly falling into his hands; her object was not gained, and on this occasion “hope left a wretched one that sought her.” Lady Blessington finally quitted Gore House April 14th, 1849.
Marguerite, Countess of Blessington, was daughter of Edmund Power, a coarse, unfeeling squire of Tipperary. She was born September 1st, 1790, and at fifteen married to a Captain Farmer, as brutal a character as her father. They separated in 1807, and he, compelled to go to India, died there.
Being denied a home under her father’s roof, she for some years lived in seclusion and study, but becoming acquainted with the Earl of Blessington, married him in February, 1818. Then another phase of her life commenced, and their mansion in St. James’s Square was the resort of the most fashionable of the day. Her beauty at this time was very great, and afforded a theme for the pen of Byron, and the pencil of Sir Thomas Lawrence. With the poet she became acquainted during her well-known continental tour, during which the introduction to D’Orsay also took place. Lord Blessington dying at Paris in 1825, his widow remained there till after the Revolution of 1830, when she returned to London.
Connected with the story of Lady Blessington, that of Count D’Orsay is intimately woven. He was a great favourite of Lord Blessington, whose daughter by his first wife was, when quite a young girl, fetched from school to marry him; and a promise also is said to have been given from the Count to his Lordship, and from the Count’s mother to Lady Blessington, that they (the Count and her Ladyship) would never leave each other. Be that as it may, they lived together for above a quarter of a century, and increase of years seemed still stronger to consolidate the engagement. D’Orsay led a gay and extravagant life in London, considerably beyond his means, in great measure appearing to consider his patronage sufficient payment. He undoubtedly possessed great abilities, was an excellent artist, and a humourist of the first water. But his conduct to his wife was cruel in the extreme; she was spurned by him entirely; he still pocketing an income from her father’s estates! For a long time he could only make his exit from Gore House on Sundays, for fear of arrest, and his extravagancies vastly accelerated the day of retribution. He and Lady Blessington retired to Paris, and Gore House was stripped of its contents by public sale. There, whatever was the cause, they met not with the reception anticipated. Lady Blessington died soon after, on June 4th, 1849. D’Orsay designed her monument, and in little more than three years after his career was ended. He died July 1st, 1852.
Gore House became, in 1851, Monsieur Soyer’s “Symposium for all Nations.” Here that celebrated minister of the interior provided international feasts, farewell banquets, &c.; and various amusements in the highly-decorated rooms conduced to the public pleasure. The gardens were beautifully laid out and ornamented with sculpture, while the interior testified to the industry and taste of Madame Soyer in the art of painting. In February, 1852, all was again dismantled, its Baronial Hall and Encampment of all Nations being sold by auction.
Gore House was shortly afterwards purchased by the Royal Commissioners of the Great Exhibition of 1851. The whole estate comprised about twenty-one acres, added to which were Gray’s Nursery Grounds, Park House, and Grove House, and various market-gardens, the grounds of Cromwell House, and other lands belonging to the Earl of Harrington and the Baron de Villars. Acts of Parliament were passed legalising the plans of the Commissioners, and in accordance various old footpaths, &c., were stopped, and houses removed. A complete revolution has been effected, two magnificent roads leading from the Gore to Cromwell Road at Brompton have been formed, and at length Gore House itself was doomed. Its materials were sold by lots on July 17th, 1857, and soon after the building was removed.
Grove House, adjoining Gore House, was for many years the residence of Lady Elizabeth Whitbread, widow of the celebrated statesman. With Gore House it has, since 1852, been used for schools and offices of the department of Science and Art.