John Galt often attended the salon in the London home of the Blessingtons along with many literary figures of the day. He met Marguerite, Countess of Blessington through their mutual friend, Lord Byron. Galt and Marguerite became friends and kept up a correspondence that lasted until his death in Greenock in 1839. Marguerite, Countess Blessington whom Galt referred to as “the most gorgeous Lady Blessington” (Autobiography 2, p193), from a quote by another admirer Dr Samuel Parr (1746-1825). She led a very interesting life.
Lady Blessington
Marguerite was born Margaret (Sally) Power in Clonmel,
Tipperary in Ireland in 1789. Her father
was a hard living man of the minor local gentry. He kept company with many of the local army
officers and was a drunk and often in debt.
He had no scruples in accepting money in exchange for his daughter. When Margaret was just 15 she was married off
to Captain Maurice Farmer of the 47th Regiment of Foot who was stationed near
their home. Three difficult and violent
months later Margaret had the courage to leave her husband and return
home. A short time later she met another
English officer, Captain Thomas Jenkins, who was a very different sort of
man. She returned with him to his family
home in Hampshire. Not much seems to be
known about her life there.
It was here that she met Charles John Gardiner (1782-1829), Viscount Mountjoy, later created Earl of Blessington, a widower with four children (two legitimate). He fell in love with Margaret and paid Jenkins off. The couple travelled to London where he set Margaret up in a home in Manchester Square. Fortunately for the couple, Margaret’s husband (Maurice Farmer) died in debtors’ prison in 1818 leaving Margaret free to marry. She became Countess Blessington and changed her name to Marguerite with a home in St James Square. It was here that the couple lavishly entertained London society and where they met John Galt in 1821.
Count Blessington owned the Mountjoy Forest Estate in County Tyrone and wanted to return there, but Marguerite had no wish to return to Ireland. In fact, Galt wrote to her on this subject from Liverpool in July 1822. He agrees with her decision and writes in a letter dated 27 July 1822:-
“… I was so distinctly impressed with the repugnance which your Ladyship feels at the idea of going to Ireland, that I entered entirely into your feelings; but upon reflection, I cannot recall all the reasonableness of the argument.”
Galt goes on to write:-
“I really know not what apology to make to your Ladyship for all this impertinence; but somehow, since I have had the honour and pleasure of knowing you and my Lord so freely, I feel as if we were old friends; indeed, how can it be otherwise, for no other human beings, unconnected by the common ties, have ever taken half so much interest in at once adding to my enjoyments and consideration. I am sensible not only of having acquired a vast accession of what the world calls advantages, but also friends who seem to understand me, and that too at a period when I regarded myself as in some degree quite alone, for all my early intimates were dead.”
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| Count D'Orsay |
Later in 1822, the Blessingtons set off on an expensively lavish grand tour of France and Italy. Part of their entourage was a private chef and mobile kitchen. They were joined by the young, handsome Frenchman, Alfred Count D’Orsay who had been a great favourite with London society and reputed to be Marguerite’s lover. (Some speculated that he was the Count’s lover). At Genoa they met with Lord Byron who seemed to have taken to Marguerite. (She would later, like Galt, write a book about him.) However, others she met thought her “vulgar”. They travelled widely and spent time in Naples and Florence. Questions were asked about d’Orsay’s inclusion with the party, and it was explained that he was to marry the Earl of Blessington’s fifteen-year-old daughter, Harriet Gardiner, whom he had never met. However, a large financial settlement eased the bargain, and the couple were married in Naples in 1827 thus d’Orsay became Blessington’s heir as he had no sons. The travellers moved to Paris where the Earl of Blessington died of a stroke in June 1829.
Marguerite returned to London where her reputation had preceded her. However she managed to recreate her salon attracting many famous persons of the day although she was largely shunned by society ladies. She and Galt kept up a regular correspondence and she often commented on his published work. In 1835, already unwell, Galt wrote to her from Greenock:-
“I shall soon have occasion to send your Ladyship my little work, which is now making up, for my unfortunate restlessness of mind must have something to do, and I can do nothing that is not sedentary, for to add to the trouble of entire lameness, my memory is often very ineffectual, and things of the nature of amusements more than business must, I fear, even with convalescence, be my occupation for the remainder of my life, if able to attend to them.”
D’Orsay and Harriet’s marriage broke down in 1838 and, despite a large settlement payment from Harriet (in order that he would have no claim on the Blessington estate), financial crisis loomed. D’Orsay continued to live with Marguerite at Seymour Place and later at Gore House (now the site of the Albert Hall) in London. Many of the literary giants of the time were attracted to her home.
Despite financial troubles, Marguerite was a resilient
woman, and she started writing as a means of earning badly needed money. She wrote novels and contributed to many of
the monthly magazines which were popular at the time. She contributed to Charles Dickens' Daily News.
In 1849 D’Orsay, badly in debt, left for France. The entire contents of Marguerite’s home were sold to pay off her debts. She left for France to join D’Orsay. She died in Paris a few months later in June 1849. Her obituary states -
“Her celebrity and vogue among men of talent arose primarily from her beauty, wit, conversational powers, and highly cultivated mind. But had she possessed no personal attractions … her published works alone would have attracted admirers around her and would have established her claim to be ranked with the most noteworthy of her contemporaries.”
D’Orsay, an artist, took to painting portraits to earn money. He died in 1852 and was interred alongside
Marguerite in Chambourcy, France in the grey stone tomb he designed for her.
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| Burial place of Marguerite, Lady Blessington and D'Orsay |
Marguerite was a strong woman who seemed not to care about what society thought of her. She forged her own path through society and won the admiration of not just John Galt but many of the important people of her day.
Lady Blessington
In what was probably one of his last letters to Marguerite
on 4 December 1838, just five months before his death, Galt writes from Greenock:
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“A London correspondent mentioned you in a way that was exceedingly gratifying. I got your Confessions of an Elderly Gentleman to read, in the perusal of which I enjoyed very great pleasure. It unquestionably does you very great credit indeed. Having been only twice lifted into a carriage during the last 15 months, I am utterly ignorant of the world, for I see only the local paper, and hear only of remarkable news; but occasionally my visitors tell me of what is new in public, and frequently give me cause to be not a little proud in thinking I passed so long ago so correct an estimate of your Ladyship’s powers. But the vagueness of this expression is a proof of how much I would delight in hearing now and then from yourself as to your literary proceedings.”
John Galt by Alfred D'Orsay
There is little doubt that his friendship with the
Blessingtons greatly helped John Galt make contacts during his time in London. His lasting correspondence with Marguerite shows their mutual regard and her letters were obviously a great comfort to him in his latter years.
