The marriage, however, after a series of negociations which lasted eighteen months, was solemnised at St. Albans in January 1699–1700, the Princess Anne bestowing a dowry of five thousand pounds upon the bride, and her father adding as much more.[[329]]
The young couple appear to have lived happily together, though not without some alloys from the habits and circumstances of Charles Lord Sunderland. Lady Sunderland became the centre of a political and fashionable circle, and, as the “Little Whig,” (so called from the smallness of her stature,) took the lead in that party in the great world. Years afterwards, the solicitude which Swift evinced to conciliate her ladyship’s favour, when, during the struggle for power between the contending parties, the influence of the “Little Whig” might avail his selfish pursuits, proves the estimation in which Lady Sunderland’s fascinations were held.[[330]]
The Lady Elizabeth, Countess of Bridgwater, third daughter of the Earl and Countess of Marlborough, is said to have eclipsed her three sisters in beauty of countenance, eminently gifted as they were in personal advantages, whilst she was inferior to none in excellence of disposition. Her face is described to have been remarkable for symmetry: and its sweet and intelligent expression lent that indescribable charm to beauty which, in Lady Elizabeth, captivated some singular and highly-gifted admirers. Pope ventured to admire, and admiring, first depicted her face, and then her mind.
“Hence Beauty, waking, all her forms supplies,
An angel’s sweetness, or Bridgwater’s eyes.”[[331]]
Yet the poet threw all the drawings which he is said to have made of this amiable lady into the fire. “She was,” says the monumental inscription to her memory in Little Gaddesden church, Hertfordshire, “a lady of exquisite fineness, both of mind and body; agreeably tall; of a delicate shape and beautiful mien; of a most obliging, winning carriage; sweetness, modesty, affability, were met together; whatsoever is virtuous, decent, and praiseworthy, she made the rule of all her actions; her discourse was cheerful, lively, and ingenuous; pleasing, without ever saying too much or too little; so that her virtue appeared with the greatest advantage and lustre; her address was as became her quality, great, without pride; admired and unenvied by her equals; and none condescended with greater grace and satisfaction to her inferiors.”[[332]]
For this accomplished being a suitable settlement in life was provided; and, at a very early age, she was united to Scrope, Earl, and afterwards Duke, of Bridgwater.
If we may judge from the inscription on her monument, this union appears to have been as replete with happiness as the fondest parents could have wished. “Happy,” says the epitaph, “her lord in such a wife; happy her children in such a mother; happy her servants that duly attended upon her. Being arrived at the highest pitch of worldly felicity, in full enjoyment of tenderest love and esteem of her entirely beloved husband, universally admired and spoken of for every good quality.”[[333]]
Such were the terms employed in describing this beloved child of the Marlborough family, whose early fate, like that of her sister, Lady Sunderland, afterwards embittered their father’s old age, and hastened his death by the effects of grief.
His youngest daughter, Lady Mary, Pope’s “Angel Duchess Montagu,” married, in 1705, John Montagu, Duke of Montagu, Grand Master of the Order of the Bath, and the trusted servant of successive sovereigns.[[334]] The Duchess of Montagu became, eventually, one of the bedchamber ladies to the Princess of Males, afterwards Queen Caroline, towards whom her mother, the Duchess of Marlborough, imbibed a strong aversion. “The Angel Duchess Montagu,” beautiful as her sisters, appears not to have verified that name in her subsequent conduct to her mother, with whom she was long at bitter variance. At this epoch of the Duchess of Marlborough’s life, Lady Mary was, however, yet a child, and her mother’s temper had not shone forth, as afterwards it became apparent, in her conduct.