The Lady In Red: An Eighteenth-Century Tale Of Sex, Scandal, And Divorce by Hallie Rubenhold Read Free Book Online

each other in attention and politeness’ to his rich wife. The ambitious baronet had finally arrived in the situation he had envisioned for himself. The rumoured acquisition of £70,000 had permitted him to step on to society’s centre stage.
    On the occasion of his marriage Sir Richard had commissioned a portrait of himself to commemorate the momentous event. Painted against a backdrop of Appuldurcombe’s rolling landscape, the full-length canvas was to serve as a metaphorical calling card, or a public proclamation of his identity and ambitions. He posed as he wished the world to view him, in
the uniform of the South Hampshire Militia; as a gentleman, a landowner, a man of feeling, a soldier. When he entered the studio of his friend, the artist Joshua Reynolds, he was twenty-four and exuded the excessive confidence of youth. In painted form, he stands composed, yet comfortable with his gloves and hat removed, his hands folded in front of him and his feet positioned ballet-like in a practised exhibition of genteel poise. His erect stance speaks of his impeccable breeding, the lengthy sword at his hip a reminder of his masculinity. With his slightly turned head, he regards his viewers with restraint, if not a hint of imperiousness. His emotions, unreadable in his expression, are tucked stoically into the recesses of his mind.
    Seymour’s image had also been committed to canvas. The commission had probably been proposed by Lady Fleming and Mr Lascelles around the period of her engagement. Earlier that year, Reynolds had painted a full-length portrait of her sister, gliding across an Arcadian scene dressed as the classical goddess, Aurora. The picture of Jane, which hung at the Royal Academy’s summer exhibition, had been intended to advertise her charms to the titled bachelors of Britain, but the companion piece featuring Seymour would have been devised to celebrate her wedding. The work, which is now lost, is believed to have depicted the younger of the two Miss Flemings swathed in the coloured robes of antiquity, ‘in a repetition of the Diana motif.’ The two images with their Roman allusions would have suited the neo-classical interiors of Harewood perfectly, had the portrait of Seymour not been presented as a gift to her husband and sent to hang in his collection on the Isle of Wight.
    The creation of these likenesses–of the confident, commanding Sir Richard and his serenely elegant wife–represented their first step in what they hoped would be a steady social climb. Much like Lady Fleming and Edwin Lascelles, the couple were determined to turn the attention they had won through their marriage to their advantage. Together they launched themselves headlong into a frenzy of improvements and activities. For the baronet, the most significant of these was the renovation and extension of Appuldurcombe.
    Shortly after his return from his grand tour, Sir Richard had directed his attention to completing the Isle of Wight house. Work began immediately, bringing to fruition the seventy-year-old plans his cousin had drawn up for its edifice. The house, which consisted of a central block flanked by projecting wings, contained a marble-floored great hall with a low ceiling that cried
out for lifting. In this period of ‘enlightenment’ the prevailing fashion was to draw in illumination through the windows and to create open, airy spaces. Accordingly, the great hall was transformed into a bright area for the reception of visitors. To the north and west ends of the house Worsley also added a series of rooms, a spacious kitchen and a broad dining parlour. Beyond these additions, Sir Richard’s alterations were mostly cosmetic, but no less particular. While he allowed his cousin’s early eighteenth-century designs to dictate the exterior, he had no intention of permitting the heavy, baroque forms of his grandfather’s generation to displace the current fashion for light, neo-classical embellishment. In order to make the décor