The Sackville Children (John Hoppner)

Portrait of Lady Mary Sackville (1792–1864), later Countess Amherst and of Plymouth; George Sackville, Earl of Middlesex (1793–1815), later Duke of Dorset and Lady Elizabeth Sackville (1795–1870), later Countess De La Warr and Baroness Buckhurst. The picture was shown at the Royal Academy in 1797 under the title “Portraits of a nobleman’s children.” John Hoppner [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons.
I sharing this adorable picture of children for this week's post since I think a good title for this week's chapter of Persuading Miss Mary would be an "Impish Lord and a Gaggle of Children." This week, Lord Westonbury invites himself along to the Gardiners for tea and meets the four Gardiner children. I also think it is interesting that the Mary in the portrait above becomes a countess. That seems fitting for our story, too. Doesn't it? :)

~*~*~

A maid stepped into the room. “The table is laid, ma’am.”

“Very good. We will be in straightaway.” She turned back to her guests. “We are taking tea with my children, and I never do that in here.” She rose. “They are just learning their manner, my lord,” she cautioned.

“I will do my best to remember mine,” he assured her as he followed her out of the room and down the hall to a modest-sized dining room. 

[from Persuading Miss Mary, Marrying Elizabeth book 4]

~*~*~

Confounding Caroline  ~  Delighting Mrs. Bennet ~ Loving Lydia

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Leenie Brown

Leenie Brown fell in love with Jane Austen's works when she first read Sense and Sensibility followed immediately by Pride and Prejudice in her early teens. As the second of five daughters and an avid reader, she has always loved to see where her imagination takes her and to play with and write about the characters she meets along the way. In 2013, these two loves collided when she stumbled upon the world of Jane Austen Fan Fiction. A year later, in 2014, she began writing her own Austen-inspired stories and began publishing them in 2015. Leenie lives in Nova Scotia, Canada with her two teenage boys and her very own Mr. Brown (a wonderful mix of all the best of Darcy, Bingley and Edmund with healthy dose of the teasing Mr. Tillney and just a dash of the scolding Mr. Knightley).

4 thoughts on “The Sackville Children (John Hoppner)”

  1. Oh, that was a cute response from Wes. Well done. Bless Mrs. Gardiner. I’ve always liked her. this should be cute. That certainly is a cute portrait of the children. I’m sure their parents were very proud to show their children by the artist.

    1. I do love tomorrow’s chapter. It’s so much fun when children show up in a story as they can ask and say things that others might not — unless they are a troublesome viscount — he might say things others would not as well 😀

  2. I loved this little siblings portrait. So achingly sweet. The artist’s ability to catch them in their innocence at that age, to see the world through their eyes. The little boy’s protectiveness over his baby sister. The watchfulness of the older sister, and maybe not quite so innocent after all, already being groomed to be their responsible adult selves…oh my gosh. This was indeed a perfect portrait for Thursday’s Persuading Miss Mary post. I know I did this backwards! 🙂

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