The hostess of the evening was the handsome Lady Caroline Petersham,
bride of the Earl's eldest son. Lady Caroline had been one of the
"Beauty Fitzroys," and had been a favorite belle in town before her
marriage.

"When Fitzroy moves, resplendent, fair.
So warm her bloom, sublime her air,
Her ebon tresses formed to grace
And heighten while they shade her face."

Walpole wrote of her in his poem on "The Beauties." The raw Connaught
girls outshone this dazzling hostess.

Their "first night" was an auspicious success. The début was
applauded, and the players praised. They were adjudged fitted to star
the social capital, so to London they went, in June, 1751. Their
reception was magical. The West End went almost mad over them. When
they appeared at Court, the aristocracy present was indecorous in its
efforts to view the dominant beauties. Lords and ladies clambered on
any eminence to gaze. The crowd surged upon them, and it was with
difficulty they entered their chairs because of the mob outside. The
gayety of Vauxhall Gardens was incomplete without them.

Their campaign was a short and eminently active one; Elizabeth
triumphed first. At a masquerade at Lord Chesterfield's, in February,
1752, James, the sixth Duke of Hamilton and Brandon, who was enamoured
of the younger Irish girl, wished to marry her at once. A clergyman
was asked to perform the ceremony then and there. He objected to the
time and place and the absence of a ring. The Duke threatened to send