[lit-ideas] Re: Sunday Twofer

On Jul 9, 2012, at 1:20 PM, Eric Yost wrote:
> drag you down into someplace like New Jersey only darker and
> smelling more like cheese. Accidents do happen.
> 
Thinking on cheesy distractions, we pass quickly to adultery.  When you wander 
through the Huntington Library in search of "the Blue Boy," let your eye linger 
a moment on Lady Ligonier, also by Gainsborough.  "A portrait of a beautiful 
woman," you think, which is true, but not the half of it, as this will tell: 
http://emuseum.huntington.org/view/objects/asitem/People$00403285/0?t:state:flow=1954019a-8d38-4627-b818-149c0ca2a6d2
  What the Huntingdon account doesn't mention is a duel.  Edward Viscount 
Ligonier borrowed a sword from a cutler in Bond Street and fought a duel in 
Green Park with Vittorio Amadeo, Count Alfieri.  This source 
(http://www.discovery-walks.com/general-walking-blogs/london-walks-around-st-jamess-park)
 describes the duel taking place between the first and last acts of an opera.  
How do I know the tale?  I'm reading a biography of Pitt Rivers, whose name is 
on that very eccentric museum in Oxford; he started out in life, rather 
confusingly in my view, named Lane Fox.  Lady Ligonier was his great aunt.

David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon  
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