“30th. After dinner I walked to Arundell House, the way very dusty, (the day of meeting of the Society)[184] ... where I find very much company, in expectation of the Duchesse of Newcastle, who had desired to be invited to the Society; and was; after much debate pro and con, it seems many being against it; and we do believe the town will be full of ballads of it. Anon comes the Duchesse with her women attending her; among others the Ferabosco, of whom so much talk is that her lady would bid her show her face and kill the gallants. She is indeed black, and hath good black little eyes, but otherwise a very ordinary woman I do think, but they say sings well. The Duchesse hath been a good, comely woman; but her dress is so antick, and her deportment so ordinary, that I do not like her at all, nor did I hear her say anything that was worth hearing, but that she was full of admiration, all admiration. Several fine experiments were shewn her of colours, loadstones, microscopes, and of liquors: among others, of one that did while she was there turn a piece of roasted mutton into pure blood, which was very rare. After they had shown her any experiments, and she cried still she was full of admiration, she departed, being led out and in by several Lords that were there; among others, Lord George Barkeley and Earl of Carlisle, and a very pretty young man, the Duke of Somerset.”
[184] The Royal Society.
Here is some evidence from another source.
There was a masquerade at Court and that very smart and amusing courtier, Count Grammont,[185] was talking to the King. “As I was getting out of my chair,” he said, “I was stopped by the devil of a phantom in masquerade.... It is worth while to see her dress; for she must have at least sixty ells of gauze and silver tissue about her, not to mention a sort of a pyramid upon her head, adorned with a hundred thousand baubles.”
[185] Memoirs of Count Grammont, Bohn, p. 134.
“I bet,” said the King, “that it is the Duchess of Newcastle.” [186]
[186] It turned out to be somebody else, but this shows the King’s opinion of the Duchess’s style of dress.