Who is the duchess of devonshire and why is she making news?”
On Monday 22 June 2009, at the National Memorial Arboretum near Lichfield, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire attended the dedication of a stone seat built with funds donated by individual members of the Women’s Institute (WI). Dowager Duchess of DevonshireThe Dowager Duchess was until the death of her husband the Patron of the National Dry Stone Walling Association, a role that has now been taken on by Prince Charles. She is a lifetime Honorary Member of the Derbyshire branch of the National Dry Stone Walling Association. She has a love of dry stone walling and has been involved in many projects on the estate and has always supported the branch and has always insisted they be represented at Chatsworth events demonstrating their craft/skill. Her Grace has been a member of the WI since she was 14 and making it 75 years or membership this year. She has been proud to be a member and has always supported the DFWI, allowing events at Chatsworth and opened the HQ (Derbyshire House) in Derby.
Amanda Foreman. HarperCollins. [pounds]19.99. 463 pages. ISBN 0-00-255668-5. Amanda Foreman’s biography of Georgiana, wife of the fifth Duke of Devonshire, is the first biography since Brian Masters’ 1981 book and will replace it as the definitive study of the ‘beautiful duchess’ who still fascinates after all these years. Georgiana Spencer was born into aristocratic society, wealth and what we now call ‘privilege.’ After her marriage to the Duke she established herself as a ‘trend-setter’ when it came to the important things of life: hair styles, clothes, hats etc. She also established herself as the leading member of the late eighteenth century fast set which thrived on tittle-tattle, gambling, adulteries and bastards. She dabbled in politics as if it were a game. (Perhaps this may indicate a gene in the Spencer family.) Dr. Foreman is superb in recreating the small, privileged world in which Georgiana thrived. So skilled is she that this reviewer wondered why he was wasting his time
