Asaph; Lady Charlotte Campbell, daughter of Elizabeth Gunning;
Viscountess Andover; Lady Langham; the Countess of Euston, one of the
three beautiful Ladies Waldegrave, painted by Reynolds; the Duchess of
Rutland. These are indeed "a select series of ladies of rank and
fashion." And with these must be classed that sweet ideal face of Mrs,
Arbuthnot, known as "Marcia." At this late date it gives us greeting
from how many a parlor wall! Its tender charm makes perpetual appeal
to the passer-by from how many a print-shop window!

There seems to have been bitter feeling between Hoppner, who was an
intense Whig, and Lawrence, who knew no politics, but was all things
to all men. "The ladies of Lawrence show a gaudy dissoluteness of
taste, and sometimes trespass on moral as well as professional
chastity," and "Lawrence shall paint my mistress and Phillips my
wife," were the two rapier phrases Hoppner thrust at his rival. But it
is recorded that thenceforth Lawrence's commissions from fair sitters
multiplied.

Sir Thomas was a finished flatterer. No man ever knew better, except
it was Lely, how to pay the compliment of the brush. This form is the
substantial, the lasting compliment for which golden guineas are
gladly paid. Grace and elegance are the hall-mark of his every
picture. But the artist was a courtier in speech and manners as well,
and this got him into trouble once. He was attentive to the ill-used
Princess Caroline,--markedly attentive! A royal commission inquired
into his conduct, but absolved him from the charges of wrongdoing.
When Lady Grosvenor, who had become Marchioness of Westminster, was an
old lady, in 1881, she wrote in a letter to Lord Leveson Gower her
recollections of the painter: "His manners were what is called
extremely 'polished' (not the fault of the present times). He wore a