Lady Bingham was careful of the education and company of her
daughters. The girls were musical, and Lavinia excelled in painting as
well. Walpole writes of her being in Italy, in 1785, with Mrs. Damer,
his sculptor friend, and of her drawing with very great expression. He
was not so complimentary of her music some years before, when he tells
of being invited to Lady Lucan's to hear her daughters sing Jomelli's
"Miserere," set for two voices: "It lasted for two hours, and instead
of being pathetic was eminently dull, until at last I rejoiced when
'_the two women had left the sepulchre_.'"

Shortly after this he tells of rumors of the attachment of George
John, Lord Althorp, brother of Georgiana of Devonshire, to "that sweet
creature" Lavinia. At dinner at Lord Lucan's, Lord Althorp sat at a
side table with the girls and a Miss Shipley. "Pray, Lady Spencer,"
said Walpole, "is it owned that Lord Althorp is to marry--Miss
Shipley?" His next reference to the Lucans is in regard to the wedding
ode printed on the Strawberry Hill press. The poet therein invokes
blessings in this wise:--

"Shine forth, ye silver eyes of night,
And gaze on virtues crowned with treasures of delight.

* * * * *

"Flow smoothly, circling hours,--
And o'er their heads unblended pleasure pour;
Nor let your fleeting round
Their mortal transports bound,
But fill their cup of bliss, eternal powers,