Lord and Lady Essex are both keenly interested in sport and in animals. They have no town house, but entertain a great deal in their beautiful Hertfordshire place.
The young Countess of Craven is the daughter of an immensely wealthy American couple, Mr. and Mrs. Bradley Martin; even before their daughter's marriage, they generally spent half the year in Europe, and their entertainments and house parties became notable for almost "Ouidaesque" lavishness. Mrs. Bradley Martin possesses the most valuable collection of jewels belonging to any American woman. Her rubies alone are valued at £40,000, and a fan which she gave her daughter, and which is encrusted with pearls, rubies, emeralds, and diamonds, is intrinsically worth £2,000.
Since the marriage of Miss Cornelia Bradley Martin to the fourth Earl of Craven, the young American countess has taken a prominent place among the country hostesses of the day. She has already entertained Royalty several times.
One of the most attractive American women who have made their home on this side of the Atlantic is Lady Terence Blackwood, the pretty young daughter-in-law of the Marquis of Dufferin. Before her marriage, Miss Flora Davis was for some time a member of the American colony in Paris, and her marriage took place while Lord Dufferin still occupied the British Embassy.
Miss Davis, though the daughter of a very wealthy man, was not, in the ordinary sense of the word, an heiress; and since her marriage she and her husband, who is Lord Dufferin's second son, have lived quite quietly either in a pretty flat in Paris, or more lately in Cadogan Square, where their house is one of the prettiest in London, each room representing a different period, the curious and valuable furniture having been a present from Lady Terence's father.
Lady Naylor-Leyland is the most beautiful American in society. As Miss Jennie Chamberlain her loveliness was the talk of two continents, and her beauty has an exquisite setting in her present London house, for her father-in-law was one of the foremost art collectors in Europe.
Mrs. Arthur Paget takes a very leading place among the American women who have made England their home, for to exceptional loveliness she joins great vivacity and charm of manner. This latter quality is probably owing to the fact that her mother, Mrs. Paran Stevens, was always surrounded in New York by a circle of intellectual and interesting people.
Mrs. Arthur Paget is celebrated for her wonderful collection of jewels, which includes a rope of the largest pearls in the world. She is also very fond of emeralds, and is often seen wearing a tiara of these beautiful stones. Like Lady Naylor-Leyland, she is a very successful London hostess, and she has revived the fashion of poudré and fancy dress balls. Colonel Paget is a cousin of Lord Anglesey.
The same year that witnessed the marriage of the Earl of Essex to Miss Adele Grant witnessed another interesting Anglo-American alliance, that of Miss Mary Caroline Cuyler to Sir Philip Grey-Egerton. Lady Grey-Egerton, who is the proud mother of twin sons, born two years after her marriage, is very fond of society. She is an enthusiastic cyclist.
Ignota.