More on the Countess of Warwick

Frances Evelyn, the wife of Lord Brooke, who, on the death of George Guy Greville a few days ago, inherited the proud title of Earl of Warwick. It is said that she is the one woman of whom the Princess of Wales has ever condescended to be jealous.

SHE SHOCKS THE PRINCESS

But the Prince is Not Troubled With Ennui When Countess Warwick Is About

Many sensational stories have been told in England and elsewhere of Frances Evelyn, the wife of Lord Brooke, who, on the death of George Guy Greville a few days ago, inherited the proud title of Earl of Warwick. It is said that she is the one woman of whom the Princess of Wales has ever condescended to be jealous. It is a jealousy of a twofold character, since the Princess sees in the new French Countess not only a rival in the Prince's affections, but also in the leadership of English fashion. It is difficult to know which of these two things affects more strongly the Princess.

Then, too, Lady Brooke is a very brilliant woman. Her conversation is of the most sparkling brilliancy, and besides this it is marked by a freedom from conventionality which horrifies the somewhat straitlaced Princess, who has inherited all the love of etiquette of her mother, old Queen Louise of Denmark. The Prince of Wales is most easily bored, The one thing of which he stands in the greatest dread is ennui, and if there is any one person more than another in England who is capable of driving dullness away it is the beautiful and witty Countess of Warwick.

The Prince of Wales has, during his married life of over a quarter of a century, had many of those flirtations which the French so appropriately term aventures, and on one memorable occasion he has even been brought into court as the corespondent in a divorce case. Notwithstanding this, and notwithstanding the flagrancy of his liaisons both in England and on the continent, the Princess has never condescended to manifest any signs of jealousy until the Countess of Warwick appeared upon the scene. Should the Queen die at the present moment and the Prince ascend his mother's throne there is no doubt that the Countess of Warwick would become quite as important and as influential a personage in shaping the will of the Monarch and the destinies of the nation as were the Marchioness Cunningham in the case of King George IV and the Duchess of Portsmouth in the case of King Charles II.

The friendship between the Prince of Wales and the Countess of Warwick dates from the period of her marriage in 1881. The latter took place in Westminster abbey and was the only ceremony of the kind in which a son of the Queen has acted the part of best man to a commoner, for such the present Earl of Warwick was at the time. The Prince who officiated in this capacity was the youngest brother of the Prince of Wales, the late Duke of Albany, who was mentioned at one moment prior to her marriage as likely to become the Lady Frances Evelyn's husband. The Prince of Wales likewise attended the marriage and was the first of all present to sign the register.

It was a very notable function, for the bride was at the time the greatest heiress in London, having inherited the whole of the fortune of her enormously wealthy father, the Hon. Colonel Maynard, whose widow subsequently married the late Earl of Rosslyn. Almost immediately after her marriage, the Countess—or Lady Brooke, as she was then— began to assume a very prominent place among the leaders of society, and especially of that particular circle of the London great world which is known as “the Marlborough House set,” the one object of whose members is to amuse the Prince, that constituting their particular form of loyalty.

The new Countess is far more beautiful than even the best of her photographs make her appear. Her friends say that they bave never yet seen a portrait that did her justice. With her wealth of chestnut brown hair, her violet blue eyes and her exquisite complexion, she has always seemed the perfection of fresh, delicate and lily-like, English loveliness. In one thing, however, she is entirely un-English, and that is in her taste for dress. There are few women in London whose toilets are more perfect in every way and more in harmony with their wearer than those of the Countess of Warwick. She is one of the best whips in England and drives a four-in-hand, handling the ribbons in a delightful manner. — Modesto Bee, January 1894

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