OTT & Encounters with the COTERIE

 On her 1st Visit to MELLS- with Edward Horner

 Ottoline writes of her 1st visit to Edward Horner's MELLS in THE EARLY Memoirs. It is an interesting and telling-retelling of the visit she made with her husband Philip-a Liberal MP to the Conservative territory of MELLS. The visit preceded the first WAR- when the Coterie -(See LITTLE AUGURY today here)

She was filled with dread at the thought of the Horner's politics along with the family's  thoughts on Art & Literature. Remember- OTTOLINE was the daughter of the heir to the title -Duke of Portland & her step brother ultimately inherited the title, becoming the 6th Duke. Ottoline had grown up at Welbeck, was well traveled and by this time- 1909-she had met & mingled with many notables of the day.

  another weekend with the ASQUITHS-1913

We were "WAYFARERS IN LIFE-OUTSIDERS & I felt rebellious against their cynical political views...They had the power  of making those who had not as yet public approval; they had the power of making those  who were not of their intimate circle feel the pain of sheepish inferiority."
OTTOLINE said her curiosity triumphed and packed her best dresses that suddenly seemed like 'Picturesque Rags '& she claims to have been quite self conscious about them.
(I'm surprised-though it does show us the vulnerabilities of  Our OTT. Surely she was always conscious of her deficiencies in  education-but never one would think her wardrobe!)
She was however-as it seems on most occasions- Camera Ready, and would photograph Katherine Asquith time and again over the years. Ultimately the Ladies must have connected despite Ottoline's misgivings and forged a friendship.

"I see ourselves sitting in the loggia talking... a brave effort to transpose myself  to their key"

"Across our path would come Lady Horner's son, Edward, who at that moment had the dazzling beauty of a Greek athlete. His beauty was indeed too perfect to be more than transient.

 It was fated never to fade, for early in the war he was one of its thousands of victims, He & Raymond Asquith, whom I can still see sitting in the loggia, in a long basket-chair, reading D. H. Lawrences' novel The White Peacock, which he admired."

  
OTTOLINE remembered him a having "a streak of charming gentleness & tenderness, but it was not easy to find the way to it through the armour of skeptical cleverness that had been hardened & polished by Oxford & the smart set in London who flattered & admired him...Whatever Raymond thought & did was followed by the other young Olympians-the Grenfell Brothers, Patrick Shaw Stewart, Edward Horner and others. He drove the foremost chariot...LIFE was 'too gloriously happy' to see that... hideous creature... that came into our very presence.. & it... appeared to those Young Men as one clad in bright armour, radiant & beautiful, beckoning them to come to new adventure-'to a glorious picnic', as one of them described it.

images are from the NPG collection here
READ the LADY DIANA MANNERS & THE COTERIE POST at Little Augury here

to a young Lady : Margaret Cavedish Holles Harley

A Letter to A Lady from Matthew Prior at Little Augury here

 

 Edward Harley, the Second Earl of Oxford & daughter Margaret

by C.F. Zincke 1727

Dorelia, Augustus & Ottoline

Join little AUGURY to read about another of OTTOLINE's LOVE-the Welsh painter AUGUSTUS JOHN- here

Dorelia & Ottoline, 1909

Augustus JOHN's Portrait of OTToLINE

 Augustus John, 1919

later in LIFE

photographs from the NPG, here

COLOUR SignaTures

" You Beat us ALL at COLOUR! "Henry Lamb

SEPIA

signature INK COLOUR

painting by Maura Robinson here

OLD ROSE & VERMILLION

handmade papers for correspondence

 from GREER Chicago here, 

OBM would have loved this bespoke Chicago shop here

remembrance

the years 1904 & 1906 I will pass one side-save to say they were disagreeable and painful, at this time they do not appear to ME very significant..

Perhaps I shall return to them if days of Health are given to Me.


Twins were born on May 18th, three days later the boy child, christened Hugh died. Julian the surviving twin would be an only child.

photograph from Ottoline's personal scrap books at the NPG, here.

CHRISTMAS At WELBECK, the 6th Duke

Ottoline's brother-Portland's estate of Welbeck at Christmas

Christmas is one of the events of the season at Welbeck and the Household Ball its main festivity. The Ball is held to celebrate the Duke's birthday, which falls on December 28th. It is held in the vast underground picture-gallery, with the subjects of the old painters looking down from their canvases upon the gay dancers-

Winifred Anna Cavendish Bentinck (née Dallas Yorke),

6th Duchess of Portland,1912 

portrait by Philip de László

Choice exotics, stately palms and seasonable shrubs add to the variety of the decorations. The band is almost hidden in a bower of foliage in the centre of the great saloon, and there are 500 guests of all ranks of society from peers and peeresses to the humblest domestic servant.

THE PICTURE GALLERY

About ten o'olock the Duke and Duchess appear with their house party, and dancing commences with a Circassion Circle. The Duke has the housekeeper for partner and the Duchess the house-steward, while the aristocratic guests find partners among other chiefs of departments in the Welbeck household.

 Winifred-again

portrait by John Singer Sargent, 1902.

 With midnight comes supper, served in two adjacent underground rooms, that owe their excavation to the grim hobby of the old Duke. All the festive party sit down to supper at the same time, the Duke's French chef providing the menu. The house-steward presides and proposes the health of the ducal family. This is welcomed in the manner it deserves and then dancing is resumed in the picture-gallery.

On another evening the children on the Welbeck estate are invited to a party when the head of a giant Christmas-tree is reared in the centre of the ball-room, laden with toys for distribution to them, and the pleasures of the entertainment are varied with the tricks of a conjurer and ventriloquist. Thus is afforded a glimpse of the happy relations existing between the Portland family and their retainers.


this Christmas story from Nothinghamshire history here