Annotation:Lady Elisabeth Montague's Jig (2)
X:1 T:Lady Elisabeth Montague’s Jig [2] C:Robert Mackintosh M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Jig B:Robert Mackintosh – “A Fourth Collection of New Strathspey Reels, also some Famous old Reels” (1804, p. 33) N:Dedicated to the Dutchess [sic] of Manchester N:Robert “Red Rob” Mackintosh (c. 1745-1808) was a Scottish violinist and N:composer active in Edinburgh at the end of the 18th century. Originally from N:Tullymet, near Pitlochry, Perthshire. He moved to London in the last decade N:of his life. Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Amin (e/d/)|Tc3 ABc|T(BAB) Eed|T(cBc) ABc|Td3 def| T(ede) cde|T(dcd) Bcd|cde GAB|c3 c2:| Te3 afe|T(dcd) ged|T(cBc) fdc|T(BAB) G2F| EGc Bad|cBe dca|gcf efd|c3 c2f| T(ede) afe|T(dcd) ged|T(cBc) fdc|T(BAB) Eed| cBA dcB|edc fed|eae dcB|A3 A2||
Lady Elizabeth Montague Scott (1743-1827), Duchess of Buucleuch, was the daughter of George Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu and his wife Mary. She married Henry Scott in 1767 and soon after had her portrait painted by Thomas Gainsborough. Her 'Lady Elzabeth Montagu' title expired with her marriage, but she gained the following titles in compensation: Duchess of Buccleuch, Duchess of Queensberry, Countess of Buccleuch, Countess of Dalkeith, Lady Scott of Whitchester and Eskdaill, Countess of Doncaster, Baroness Scott of Tindale, Marchioness of Dumfriesshire, Countess of Drumlanrig and Sanquhar, Viscountess of Nith, Torthorwald and Ross, and Lady Douglas of Kilmount, Middlebie and Dornock.
There was also a Lady Elisabeth Montagu (1741-1832, née Dashwood) who married George Montagu, Duke of Manchester, in 1762. She had her portrait painted along with her young son in a classical allegory as Diana and Cupid, by Joshua Reynolds. She herself was a skilled amateur artist, some of whose botanical drawings dated 1761 to 1782 were sold at an art auction in 2009. She was rightly proud of her work. In a hand-written list of bequests to her friends and family, the Duchess mentions 'three Vol [sic] of paintings Handsomly Bound in Red Moroca I give to My Dear Daughter Lady Emily Montagu As I am sure she will value them -- Being Painted By Me'[1].
One of the most famous and interesting women to bear the name Elisabeth Montagu was not a member of the aristocracy, but was a social reformer, patron of the arts, salonist, literary critic and writer, and one of the wealthiest women of her era. She married the much older but very wealthy Edward Montagu, grandson of the first Earl of Sandwich. When they moved to London several years after the death of their son, she began to host "conversation parties" at her homes in both London and Bath, where the intelligentsia of the day (Edmund Burke, Joshua Reynolds, David Garrick, George Lyttleton and others) gathered to meet and discuss literature. The elaborate evenings became known as blue stocking events, and the term Blue Stocking came to refer to intellectual women in England.
Elisabeth also had her portrait painted by Joshua Reynolds, and mentioned it in a March, 1778, letter[2] to the painter's sister, Frances Reynolds:
Miss Gregory informed [me] that you are still inclined to make [me] again pleased with my face. I have not liked it for these twenty or 30 years, but for the time to come may be as fond of it as in yevery meridian of female vanity. I have therefore wish’d every day to bring you my countenance to be renewed, but want of health, & want of time have prevented me, but if you & Sr Joshua wd dine with me on Saturday, we wd fix a day for my waiting on you for a scheme which does me so much honour.
Boswell was invited by Frances Reyolds to join a group sitting with Mrs. Montagu while her portrait was being painted and he noted in his diary for 6th April, 1778, the she jocularly told the artist not to make her look as it she was fifteen, an incident he mentioned in a letter to Samuel Johnson the following day. Unfortunately, Reynolds' original portrait of her has been lost, however, a mezzotint of it by John Raphael Smith survives.
