‘Life was a spectacle for her’: Lady Dorothy Nevill as Art Collector, Political Hostess, and Cultural Philanthropist

Writing a grief-stricken epitaph to Lady Dorothy Nevill née Walpole in 1913, the English poet and then librarian of the House of Lords, Edmund Gosse observed, ‘life was a spectacle for her and society a congress of little guignols.’1 Gosse conjures up an image of Lady Dorothy as a master manipulator, pulling the strings of her many puppets over the years, thus suggesting the influential position this aristocratic woman held in society throughout her long life. Born into the historical dynasty of the Walpole family, Lady Dorothy (1826–1913) was the daughter of the 3rd Earl of Orford (1783–1858). She grew up at Wolterton Hall reading the correspondence of Lord Horatio Walpole, the one-time ambassador to Louis XV, and stated proudly that ‘like my kinsman Horace Walpole I am fond of collecting’.2 Lady Dorothy gained acclaim as a botanist, a political hostess, one of the founding members of the Conservative Primrose League, an art collector, and a supporter of writers, scholars, and artists, many of whom she patronized. In 1888 she was painted in the company of a who’s who of the Victorian art world including John Charles Robinson (1824–1913), John Ruskin (1819–1900), and the art dealer William Agnew (1825–1910), attending the private view of the old masters exhibition at the Royal Academy (Fig. 1). As historian Jonathan Schneer has observed, ‘the range of her contacts and the extent of her political knowledge were unsurpassed.’3 A keen letter writer, who kept a journal throughout her life, she immortalized herself in a variety of publications: The Reminiscences of Lady Dorothy Nevill (1906), Leaves from the Note-Books of Lady Dorothy Nevill (1907), Under Five Reigns (1910), and My Own Times (1912).4 Although at times anecdotal, these writings contain diary entries, letters, newspaper clippings, and thoughts on politics, museums, and the significant changes experienced by Victorian society.