Cheverl, Henrietta, Lady

Sir Christopher's stately wife; an unsympathetic, awe-inspiring but kind woman. "She is tall, and looks the taller because her powdered hair is turned backward over a toupee, and surmounted by lace and ribbons. She is nearly fifty, but her complexion is still fresh and beautiful, with the beauty of an auburn blonde; her proud pouting lips, and her head thrown a little backward as she walks, give an expression of hauteur which is not contradicted by the cold grey eye. The tucked-in kerchief, rising full over the low tight bodice of her blue dress, sets off the majestic form of her bust, and she treads the lawn as if she were one of Sir Joshua Reynolds's stately ladies, who had suddenly stepped from her frame to enjoy the evening cooL" "Lady Cheverel, though not very tender-hearted, still less sentimental, was essentially kind, and liked to dispense benefits like a goddess, who looks down benignly on the halt, the maimed, and the blind that approach her shrine." The original of Lady Cheverel was Hester Margaretta (Mundy), Lady Newdigate, Sir Roger Newdigate's second wife. (See Newdigate, The Cheverels, p. 229.)

<em>Mr. Gilfil's Love Story, Scenes of Clerical Life</em>

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