74 Though she did occasionally come to stay at Blenheim, signing the visitor’s book twice, in June and November 1897.
75 World, 6 March 1895.
76 Town Topics, 14 March 1895.
77 ‘Log of the Valiant’, 16 March 1895.
78 Town Topics, 11 April 1895.
79 Quoted in Patterson, Vanderbilts, p. 152.
80 World, 6 March 1895.
81 William Kissam Vanderbilt, Vanderbilt Probate Papers, File No. 24398, Surrogate’s Court of Suffolk County, Riverhead, Long Island, New York.
82 Belmont Memoirs (Field), p. 64.
83 Belmont Memoirs (Field), p. 64.
84 World, 14 February 1895.
85 World, 16 February 1895.
86 G. Myers, History of The Great American Fortunes, Vol 11 (Chicago: Charles H. Kerr and Co., 1909–1910), p. 276.
87 Gustav Myers calculates that as much as $220 million drained from the United States to Europe as a result of international marriages up to 1909: Myers, Great American Fortunes, p. 274.
88 Quoted in Geidel, ‘Forgotten Feminist’, p. 30.
89 Balsan, Glitter, p. 32.
90 Balsan, Glitter, p. 32.
91 Balsan, Glitter, p. 32.
92 Balsan, Glitter, p. 33.
93 Town Topics, 20 June 1895.
94 Town Topics, 20 June 1895.
95 Balsan, Glitter, p. 35.
96 Balsan, Glitter, p. 35.
97 Balsan, Glitter, p. 35.
98 Town Topics, 4 July 1895.
99 Balsan, Glitter, p. 33.
100 Balsan, Glitter, p. 36.
101 Balsan, Glitter, p. 36.
102 See M. H. Rector, Alva, That Vanderbilt-Belmont Woman: Her Story As She Might Have Told It (Wickford, RI: Dutch Island Press, 1992).
103 Balsan, Glitter, p. 36.
104 Balsan, Glitter, p. 37.
105 See, for example, draft chapter, ‘Consuela’s [sic] marriage’ in Belmont Memoirs (Field), no page numbers: ‘I had been brought up for a great part of my life abroad where parents chose the mates for their children … It is the parents’ solemn duty to form that circle and to know to what sort of alliance her son or daughter is exposed’.
106 Balsan, Glitter, p. 37.
107 Sloane, Maverick, p. 40.
108 Balsan, Glitter, p. 37.
109 Balsan, Glitter, p. 9.
110 Quoted in The New York Times, 23 July 1920. According to the newspaper, this interview was originally given in 1905.
111 Balsan, Glitter, p. 37.
112 Balsan, Glitter, p. 38.
4 THE WEDDING
1 Labour Leader, 7 September 1895.
2 Labour Leader, 14 September 1985.
3 New York Herald, 25 August 1895.
4 Town Topics, 29 August 1895.
5 New York Herald, 26 August 1895.
6 Newport Mercury, 31 August 1895.
7 Newport Journal, 29 August 1895.
8 ‘Log of the Valiant’, entry for 28 August 1895.
9 Town Topics, 5 September 1895.
10 New York Herald, 29 August 1895.
11 New York Herald, 29 August 1895.
12 Newport Journal, 31 August 1895.
13 Town Topics, 5 September 1895.
14 New York Herald, 29 August 1895.
15 Newport Mercury, 31 August 1895.
16 Belmont Memoirs (Young), p. 146.
17 28 August 1895, Gilmour, Notebooks.
18 Town Topics, 5 September 1895.
19 Quoted in M. H. Elliott, This Was My Newport (Cambridge, Mass.: The Mythology Co., 1944), pp. 202–3.
20 Balsan, Glitter, p. 39.
21 Balsan, Glitter, pp. 39–40.
22 Newport Journal, 31 August 1895.
23 Gilmour, Notebooks, 1 September 1895.
24 New York Herald, 2 September 1895.
25 Town Topics, 12 September 1895.
26 See D. Riggs, Keelhauled: Unsportsmanlike Conduct and The America’s Cup (London: Stanford Maritime, 1986), p. 46.
27 Town Topics, 19 September 1895.
28 Town Topics, 19 September 1895.
29 Town Topics, 19 September 1895.
30 World, 13 October 1895.
31 Balsan, Glitter, p. 38.
32 19 and 20 September 1895, Gilmour, Notebooks.
33 Balsan, Glitter, p. 40.
34 Balsan, Glitter, p. 40.
35 Town Topics, 26 September 1895.
36 World, 22 September 1895.
37 Newport Journal, 19 October 1895.
38 New York Herald, 21 September 1895.
39 Balsan, Glitter, p. 41.
40 William Kissam Vanderbilt Probate Papers, File No. 24398.
41 Balsan, Glitter, p. 41.
42 Strange (B. M. L. Tweed/B. Oelrichs), Who Tells Me True, p. 26.
43 The New York Times, 7 November 1895.
44 Quoted in G. Juergens, Joseph Pulitzer and The New York World (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1966), p. 192.
45 World, 20 October 1895.
46 In an interview with the newspaper, the Duke said that reports of misbehaviour with Tottie Coughdrops were ‘unjust and unkind. I did not go on the stage and was not put off. I knew nothing about that until I saw it in the papers. The report was false and had nothing to do with my return.’ New York Tribune, 16 October 1895.
47 World, 15 October 1895.
48 World, 16 October 1895.
49 New York Herald, 19 October 1895.
50 World, 6 October 1895.
51 World, 20 October 1895. Alva bought the house, which stood at the southeast corner of Madison Avenue and 72nd Street, on 8 March from Ruth A. Brown for $250,000.
52 World, 22 October 1895.
53 Balsan, Glitter, p. 40.
54 New York Herald, 26 October 1895.
55 Town Topics, 31 October 1895.
56 E. W. Chase, and I. Chase, Always in Vogue (New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1954), p. 38.
57 Vogue, Vol. VI, N0.20 (14 November 1895).
58 Balsan, Glitter, p. 41.
59 New York Herald, 31 October 1895.
60 Balsan, Glitter, p. 41.
61 New York Times, 5 November 1895.
62 Balsan, Glitter, p. 41.
63 World, 3 November 1895.
64 Balsan, Glitter, pp. 41–2.
65 The New York Times, 7 November 1895.
66 New York Herald, 7 November 1895.
67 New York Times, 7 November 1895.
68 World, 7 November 1895.
69 Balsan, Glitter, p. 42.
70 World, 7 November 1895.
71 Balsan, Glitter, p. 42.
72 The New York Times, 25 November 1926.
73 The New York Times, 7 November 1895.
74 Balsan, Glitter, p. 42.
75 World, 7 November 1895.
76 The New York Times, 7 November 1895.
77 World, 7 November 1895.
78 The New York Times, 7 November 1895.
79 New York Herald, 7 November 1895; Balsan, Glitter, p. 42.
80 Balsan, Glitter, p. 44.
81 New York Herald, 7 November 1895.
82 Balsan, Glitter, p. 46.
83 Balsan, Glitter, p. 42–3.
84 New York Herald, 7 November 1895.
85 The New York Times, 7 November 1895.
86 ‘Consuela’s [sic] marriage’, Belmont Memoirs (Field).
87 SBF to CESW, 15 August 1917, CESWP.
88 Interview with Sara Bard Field by Amerlia R. Fry, 12 July 1962, 29, ‘The Woman’s Party, Peace and Religion: “Animus” versus “Anima”’, p. 543.
89 ‘Consuela’s [sic] marriage’, Belmont Memoirs (Field).
90 ‘Consuela’s [sic] marriage’, Belmont Memoirs (Field).
91 Wharton, House of Mirth, p. 53.
92 Belmont Memoirs (Field), pp. 51–2.
93 E. Wharton, French Ways and Their Meaning (Lenox, Mass., Lee, Mass.: Edith Wharton Restoration at the Mount and Berkshire House Publishers, 1997; first publish
ed London: 1919), pp. 115 and 116.
94 ‘Consuela’s [sic] marriage’ in Belmont Memoirs (Field).
95 Town and Country, 18 January 1902.
96 The New York Times, 21 March 1944.
97 Wharton, House of Mirth, p. 53.
98 ‘Consuela’s [sic] marriage’, Belmont Memoirs (Field).
99 Town Topics, ‘The Widow on the Marlborough Case’, 8 November 1906.
100 Belmont Memoirs (Field), p. 7.
101 Eliot, Heiresses, pp. 176–7.
102 ‘Consuela’s [sic] marriage’, Belmont Memoirs (Field).
103 Quoted in Turbeville and Auchincloss, Newport Remembered, p. 117.
5 BECOMING A DUCHESS
1 M. Ashley, Churchill as Historian (London: Seeker and Warburg, 1968), pp. 4 and 5.
2 Patterson, Vanderbilts, p. 149.
3 A. L. Rowse, The Early and The Later Churchills (London: Macmillan and Company Ltd, 1958), p. 272.
4 Rt Hon. W. Spencer-Churchill and C. C. Martindale, Charles IXth Duke of Marlborough, K.G. (London: Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd, 1934), pp. 6–8 passim.
5 M. Soames, Clementine Churchill (London: Doubleday, Transworld; revised and updated version, 2002), pp. 47–8.
6 Quoted in H. Montgomery-Massingberd, Blenheim Revisited: The Spencer-Churchills and Their Palace (London: The Bodley Head, 1985), p. 45.
7 Rowse, Churchills, p. 215.
8 Montgomery-Massingberd, Blenheim Revisited, p. 104.
9 Cannadine, Aspects of Aristocracy, p. 133.
10 Rowse, Churchills, p. 253.
11 Maud Lansdowne to GD, undated but probably c.December 1921, GDP.
12 Rowse, Churchills, p. 263.
13 P. Magnus, King Edward VII (London: John Murray, 1964), pp. 90–1 passim.
14 D. Cannadine, The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy (London: Papermac, revised edition, 1996), p. 17.
15 ‘Consuela’s [sic] marriage’, Belmont Memoirs (Field).
16 Balsan, Glitter, p. 46.
17 New York Herald, 11 November 1895.
18 New York Herald, 11 November 1895.
19 Town Topics, 21 November 1895. The magazine frequently satirised Alva’s fondness for publicity. On 7 November 1895, for example, Colonel Mann wrote: ‘Queens must not hide their doings from their subjects. Mrs Vanderbilt has not tried to do so … It is not too much to say that the future of female underclothing will be momentously affected by the light which the public has received … To have furnished the press, with no ungrudging hand, authentic information as to the smallest details of a thrilling and historical event, to have tossed away that pretence of secrecy with which humbler folk affect to enwrap themselves, surely merits commendation from a thoughtful and intelligent public.’
20 WSC to Lady Randolph Churchill, 10 November 1895 in R. S. Churchill, Winston S. Churchill Volume 1, Companion Part 1, 1874–1896 (London: Heinemann, 1967), p. 597.
21 WSC to Jack Churchill, 15 November 1895 in Churchill, Churchill Volume 1, pp. 599–600; CHAR 28/21/85–89, CA.
22 Balsan, Glitter, p. 40.
23 New York Herald, 18 November 1895.
24 New York Herald, 18 November 1895.
25 Belmont Memoirs (Young), p. 157.
26 Town Topics, 9 January 1896.
27 Town Topics, 23 January 1896.
28 William Kissam Vanderbilt Probate Papers, File No. 24398.
29 Belmont Memoirs (Field), chapter: ‘My Second Marriage’, quoted in Geidel, ‘Forgotten Feminist’, p. 42.
30 The Marlboroughs booked a passage on the Fulda rather than a luxurious transatlantic liner, like the Campania, because the Fulda sailed straight to Genoa, a plan that soon changed.
31 Balsan, Glitter, p. 46.
32 Balsan, Glitter, p. 48.
33 Balsan, Glitter, p. 49.
34 Balsan, Glitter, pp. 49–50.
35 Balsan, Glitter, p. 51.
36 Rowse, Churchills, p. 248.
37 D. Green, The Churchills of Blenheim (London: Constable and Company Ltd, 1984), p. 137.
38 H. Vickers, Gladys, Duchess of Marlborough (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1979), p. 172.
39 Town Topics, 2 January 1896. The Duke was trying to insure Consuelo’s half of the marriage settlement against her death.
40 Balsan, Glitter, p. 53.
41 Town Topics, 23 January 1896.
42 Balsan, Glitter, p. 53.
43 G. Horne, ‘Blenheim Fifty Years Ago: Memoirs of Gentleman’s Service’, Country Life (23 February 1945).
44 Balsan, Glitter, p. 53. Frances, Countess of Warwick, also remarked that she had little control over dresses designed by Jean Worth, though she minded less than Consuelo because she considered him to be an artist. ‘He would study his subject as a painter would study a woman sitting for her portrait. In silent attendance, his satellites would wait on him, watchful that not a movement of theirs should disturb his concentration. “This,” he would murmur, “is the colour”. With each “this” the gown would grow under the magic of his fingers. He would make us pose, just as Sargent and Carolus-Duran and other great painters did when I sat for them’: Frances, Countess of Warwick, Afterthoughts (London: Cassel and Company Ltd, 1931) pp. 160–1.
45 Quoted in P. Proddow and M. Fasel, Diamonds: A Century of Spectacular Jewels (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996), p. 224.
46 Quoted in P. Hinks, Nineteenth Century Jewellery (London: Faber, 1975), P. 38.
47 See S. Bury, Jewellery 1789–1910, The International Era, Vol. 11 1862–1910 (Woodbridge: Antique Collectors Club, 1991), p. 711.
48 G. F. Kunz and C. H. Stevenson, The Book of the Pearl: The History, Art, Science and Industry of the Queen of Gems (New York: Dover, 1993; first published London: Macmillan, 1908), p. 440.
49 See Hinks, Nineteenth Century Jewellery and D. J. Jackson, From Slave to Siren – The Victorian Woman and Her Jewellery from Neoclassic to Art Nouveau, Exhibition Catalogue, Duke University Museum of Art, 1971.
50 M. Fowler, Blenheim: Biography of a Palace (London: Viking, 1989), p. 182.
51 Balsan, Glitter, p. 54.
52 Lord Dufferin and Ava to 9th Duke, 18 March 1896, Social Letters, Marlborough Papers, LCW.
53 Balsan, Glitter, p. 54.
54 Spencer-Churchill and Martindale, Charles IXth Duke, p. 5.
55 Rowse, Churchills, p. 250.
56 Cannadine, Decline and Fall, pp. 26–7 passim.
57 Balsan, Glitter, p. 54.
58 Balsan, Glitter, p. 55.
59 Balsan, Glitter, p. 55.
60 Cornwallis-West, Reminiscences, p. 47.
61 E. Wharton, The Buccaneers (London: J. M. Dent and Everyman, 1993), p. 157.
62 Balsan, Glitter, p. 56.
63 Balsan, Glitter, p. 55.
64 Balsan, Glitter, p. 55.
65 Balsan, Glitter, p. 58.
66 Balsan, Glitter, pp. 56–7.
67 Balsan, Glitter, p. 57.
68 Balsan, Glitter, p. 59.
69 Oxford Times, Saturday 4 April 1896. The homecoming took place on Tuesday 31 March but the newspaper, like Jackson’s Oxford Journal, was published weekly (and still is).
70 Oxford Times, Saturday 4 April 1896.
71 Balsan, Glitter, p. 59.
72 The mayor’s speech as reported by the Oxford Times, Saturday 4 April 1896.
73 The Duke’s speech as reported by the Oxford Times, Saturday 4 April 1896.
74 Oxford Times, Saturday 4 April 1896.
75 Oxford Times, Saturday 4 April 1896.
76 Oxford Times, Saturday 4 April 1896.
77 Jackson’s Oxford Journal, Saturday 4 April 1896.
78 Horne, ‘Blenheim Fifty Years Ago’, p. 327.
79 Balsan, Glitter, p. 60.
80 Balsan, Glitter, p. 60.
81 Oxford Times, Saturday 4 April 1896.
82 Cannadine, Decline and Fall, p. 24.
83 Balsan, Glitter, p. 70.
6 SUCCESS
1 Balsan, Glitter, p. 80.
2 B
alsan, Glitter, p. 60.
3 Balsan, Glitter, p. 45.
4 Balsan, Glitter, p. 63.
5 Horne, ‘Blenheim Fifty Years Ago’, p. 326.
6 J. Lees-Milne, Ancestral Voices (London: Chatto & Windus, 1975) p. 188.
7 Horne, ‘Blenheim Fifty Years Ago’, p. 326.
8 Horne, ‘Blenheim Fifty Years Ago’, p. 326.
9 Balsan, Glitter, p. 67.
10 Balsan, Glitter, p. 69.
11 Balsan, Glitter, p. 68.
12 Horne, ‘Blenheim Fifty Years Ago’, p. 327.
13 Green, Churchills of Blenheim, p. 137.
14 Glitter and Gold reviews, VA.
15 Earl of Carnarvon, No Regrets (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1976), p. 140.
16 Balsan, Glitter, p. 68.
17 Balsan, Glitter, p. 65.
18 Balsan, Glitter, p. 69.
19 Balsan, Glitter, p. 70.
20 Balsan, Glitter, p. 76.
21 Balsan, Glitter, p. 71.
22 Balsan, Glitter, p. 76.
23 Quoted in Nicholson, Mary Curzon, p. 97.
24 Quoted in Proddow and Fasel, Diamonds, p. 335.
25 Viscount Churchill, All My Sins Remembered (London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1964), pp. 33–4.
26 Lady Fortescue, There’s Rosemary, There’s Rue (London: Black Swan, Transworld, 1993; first published London: William Blackwood, 1939), p. 34. Seventeen-year-old Winifred Fortescue was equally enchanted when she first met Consuelo, probably around 1905–6: ‘Never before had I seen anyone so lovely, so exquisitely dressed, so perfectly simple and sweet despite her great possessions as this wonderful Duchess,’ (p. 35). Consuelo befriended Winifred Fortescue and was consistently kind to her. Consuelo suggested that Winifred took up a career on the stage to assist her family’s finances, looked after her while she was at drama school in London and paid for her wedding trousseau. Winifred Fortescue was married from Sunderland House.
27 N. Armstrong, Victorian Jewellery (London: Studio Vista, 1976), p. 135.
28 Balsan, Glitter, p. 77.
29 Quoted in Nicholson, Mary Curzon, p. 98.
30 Balsan, Glitter, p. 85. Frances, Countess of Warwick, also thought that Ascot was vulgar, calling it a ‘stilted, expensive, extensive and over-elaborate’ garden party. She greatly preferred Newmarket (see Afterthoughts, p. 168).
31 Balsan, Glitter, pp. 82–3.
32 Though there may have been earlier meetings in London, this is the first on record. Harold Vanderbilt, who was educated at boarding school like his older brother Willie K. Jr, lived with Alva and Oliver Belmont until he came of age.
Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt Page 59