Aristocrats (60 page)

The south front of Holland House showing the portico outside Caroline’s dressing room where she had a greenhouse and an aviary.

Emily in masquerade costume before her marriage; the undisputed beauty of the family.

Grandeur without style: Carton House, County Kildare. Now the back, this was the front when Emily lived there.

James Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare and than Duke of Lenister, painted by Ramsay in 1762. Kildare liked Ramsay because he ‘had not a picture of anyone I ever saw, but I knew’.

Leinster House, Dublin. Another gloomy mansion, it was built between 1745 and 1747 and originally known as Kildare House. Emily’s children were mostly born here.

The Duke of Richmond’s fireworks in 1749 celebrated peace in Europe and in his own family. Richmond House is on the left, the family were on the terrace and the King in the Royal Barge with a crown on its roof.

Meissen snuff box with a portrait of Caroline inside, presented by Henry Fox to the Duchess of Richmond as a reconciliation present in 1748. Relations between them continued to be frosty.

The third Duke of Richmond, already a lover of dogs and women on the grand tour in Rome, painted by Batoni.

Thomas Conolly, painted by Reynolds in 1759, when he was 21. ‘Sure he is a tiresome boy,’ Caroline exclaimed.

Tom Conolly in his natural habitat, painted by Robert Healy in 1768, leanly muscular in racing gear and jockey’s cap.

Castletown House, loved and decorated by Louisa for 60 years, at the turn of the century.

Louisa Conolly in magnificent court dress, painted by Ramsay in 1759: Caroline praised her height, bearing and ‘pretty’ figure.

Four faces of Louisa: 23, sweet and plump, painted by Reynolds in 1764.