Louisa Beresford, Marchioness of Waterford

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The Most HonourableThe Marchioness of Waterford
Portrait by Sir Francis Grant
Born	Louisa Anne Stuart (1818-04-14)14 April 1818 Paris, France
Died	12 May 1891(1891-05-12) (aged 73) Ford Castle, England
Resting place	Church of St Michael and All Angels, Ford, Northumberland
Spouse	Henry Beresford, 3rd Marquess of Waterford

Louisa Anne Beresford, Marchioness of Waterford (née Stuart; 14 April 1818 – 12 May 1891) was a British Pre-Raphaelite watercolourist and philanthropist.

Biography

Born in Paris, she was the daughter of Charles Stuart, 1st Baron Stuart de Rothesay and the former Lady Elizabeth Margaret Yorke. Louisa's elder sister was Charlotte Canning, Countess Canning.

The family home was at Highcliffe Castle in Dorset, and had been in Stuart possession since about 1770 when Louisa's great-grandfather, John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (a founder of Kew Gardens), while out botanising, discovered the cliff-top viewsite overlooking Christchurch Bay, and commissioned the architect Robert Adam, to design High Cliff, a sumptuous Georgian mansion, with grounds laid out by Capability Brown.

His fourth son, Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Stuart, inherited High Cliff, but landslips virtually destroyed the house, and he sold the greater part of the estate. Years later Louisa's father, who had had a long and distinguished career, been honoured with a knighthood, and raised to the peerage by George IV in 1828, bought back the land and between 1831 and 1835 built the house that became known as Highcliffe Castle, and which has been described as "the most important remaining example of the Romantic Picturesque style of architecture."

Charles Stuart made use of the architect William Donthorne, a founder member of the Royal Institute of British Architects, to design Highcliffe Castle. Incorporated in the design was carved medieval stonework from the Norman Benedictine Abbey of St Peter at Jumièges and from the Grande Maison des Les Andelys, both of which structures had fallen into disrepair after the French Revolution. Also included in the structure were a 16th-century oriel window and stained glass window.

Her father was appointed British Ambassador at Paris shortly before marrying Elizabeth Margaret Yorke on 6 February 1816. Louisa's childhood in Paris was marked by the early tuition she received in the arts, in keeping with being a great-granddaughter of the writer Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Art, religion, and philanthropy would feature prominently in her life. Despite being an accomplished amateur artist, her paintings did not appear in galleries until the 1870s. Showing great concern for the welfare of her tenants on her Northumberland property, she redesigned the village of Ford, designed and built a school, and founded a temperance society. Over a period of 22 years between 1860 and 1882, she decorated the school hall with life-sized watercolours on paper, which had been applied to canvas and mounted on the interior walls and gables. The images portrayed biblical scenes, and used the village residents as models. The village school was in use until 1957, but is now known as the Waterford Gallery or Lady Waterford Hall.

Gleeson White described her talent in his work Children's Books and Their Illustrators

In the designs by Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford, one encounters genius with absolutely faltering technique; and many who know how rare is the slightest touch of genius, forgive the equally important mastery of material which must accompany it to produce work of lasting value.

Louisa was tutored by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and attended drawing classes held by John Ruskin, together with Lady Trevelyan and Kate Greenaway, and had introduced Rose La Touche to him. It is believed that she modelled for Sir John Everett Millais in several of his works, and her beauty has been accredited as one of the inspirations of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

On 8 June 1842 she married Henry Beresford, 3rd Marquess of Waterford, and settled in Curraghmore House in County Waterford, until he died in a horse riding accident in 1859. The marriage produced no children.

The erosion losses at Highcliffe were considerable and had been reckoned at about a yard a year – the coast path was in constant need of maintenance due to cliff falls. Louisa wrote in her Recollections to the age of 12 that part of the problem was landsliding in the clays and to combat this she introduced an extensive drainage system in the cliffs to keep the clays dry. In about 1880 the problems of erosion of Highcliffe prompted her to seek an engineering solution. A prime cause was The Run, the river outflow from Christchurch Harbour, which because of its proximity to the cliffs, greatly increased the erosion. She arranged for the placing of limestone and granite-porphyry blocks near the Castle, with the idea of deflecting the course of The Run rather than directly opposing it. This groyne eventually disappeared and by 1931 only a few of the blocks were still visible at low tide.

In his 1893 work, the Victorian biographer, Augustus Hare (1834–1903), wrote The story of two noble lives : being memorials of Charlotte, Countess Canning, and Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford –

Of the life of the younger sister, Louisa, Lady Waterford, the want of material makes it impossible to give the detailed account which might be looked for. She left scarcely any journals, and all her correspondence with her husband and most of that with her mother and sister, has been destroyed. From scattered letters which remain, and from the recollection of those who loved her best, it has been only possible to construct a fragmentary memorial. Those who were much in the sunshine of her gracious presence need no reminder of what she was: her noble simplicity of character, her playful humour, her warm interest, her gentle sympathy, her utter forgetfulness of self, her enthusiasm for all things good and beautiful, must be ever present with them. But it has been thought that there are many outside the quiet circle in which she lived, who may care to know the little that can be told of one who might be described by Longfellow's lines –

"Homeward serenely she walked with God's benediction upon her:

When she had passed it seemed like the ceasing of exquisite music"
— Augustus Hare

She died at Ford Castle on 12 May 1891. Her grave lies next to the Church of St Michael in Ford Village. Its stone was designed in 1891 by George Frederic Watts, and the slab by Watts's wife Mary Seton Watts. It is a Grade II Listed Building protected by law.

References

"The Stuarts of Highcliffe by Robert Franklin". Natula.co.uk. Archived from the original on 4 December 2008. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
"Weddings in the New Forest". Highcliffe Castle. Archived from the original on 9 February 2009. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
"Lady Waterford Hall. pictures from national parks photos on webshots". Travel.webshots.com. 24 July 2006. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
"Lady Waterford Hall, Ford, Northumberland | Online Booking". Ntopsearch.com. Archived from the original on 6 September 2012. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
"Children's Books and Their Illustrators by Gleeson White – Project Gutenberg". Gutenberg.org. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
"Art/Museums – Ruskin, Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites". Thecityreview.com. 28 May 2000. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
"Settlement and Society". Dcda.org.uk. Archived from the original on 31 October 2004. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
Hare, Augustus J. C. (Augustus John Cuthbert); Trapnell, Alfred (bookplate) (8 April 1893). "The story of two noble lives : being memorials of Charlotte, Countess Canning, and Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford". London : G. Allen – via Internet Archive.
"Death of the Dowager Marchioness of Waterford". The Guardian. Runcorn, Cheshire. 16 May 1891. p. 2. Retrieved 24 October 2023 – via Newspapers.com.

Sources

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Her Times – George Paston, books.google.co.za; accessed 11 May 2016.

Bibliography

Library resources about
Louisa Beresford, Marchioness of Waterford

By Louisa Beresford, Marchioness of Waterford

Sublime & instructive; letters from John Ruskin to Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford, Anna Blunden and Ellen Heaton – Virginia Surtees (1972)
The story of two noble lives: being memorials of Charlotte, Countess Canning, and Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford – Augustus Hare (1893)
Neville, H.M. Under a Border tower: sketches and memories of Ford castle, Northumberland, and its surroundings, with a memoir of its late noble châtelaine, Louisa marchioness of Waterford; Newcastle upon Tyne, Mawson, Swan, & Morgan, 1896.
The Stuarts of Highcliffe – Robert Franklin

External links

Media related to Louisa Anne, Marchioness of Waterford at Wikimedia Commons
Ford and Etal, berwick.org.uk. Accessed 24 January 2023.

v t e Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (paintings)
William Holman Hunt John Everett Millais Dante Gabriel Rossetti James Collinson William Michael Rossetti Frederic George Stephens Thomas Woolner
Associated artists and figures	Lawrence Alma-Tadema George Price Boyce John Brett Ford Madox Brown Lucy Madox Brown Richard Burchett Edward Burne-Jones Georgiana Burne-Jones James Campbell John Collier Charles Allston Collins Frank Cadogan Cowper Evelyn De Morgan Walter Deverell Henry Treffry Dunn William Dyce Henry Holiday Arthur Hughes Edward Robert Hughes Frederic Leighton Robert Braithwaite Martineau Louisa Beresford, Marchioness of Waterford William Morris Alexander Munro Joseph Noel Paton Valentine Cameron Prinsep Christina Rossetti John Ruskin Emma Sandys Frederick Sandys Thomas Seddon Elizabeth Siddal James Smetham Rebecca Solomon Simeon Solomon John Roddam Spencer Stanhope Marie Spartali Stillman John Melhuish Strudwick Algernon Charles Swinburne Henry Wallis John William Waterhouse William James Webbe William Lindsay Windus
Some well-known works (period and post-period)	Ophelia Christ in the House of His Parents A Converted British Family Sheltering a Christian Missionary from the Persecution of the Druids Ecce Ancilla Domini Mariana The Light of the World Our English Coasts ('Strayed Sheep') The Scapegoat Paolo and Francesca da Rimini The Last of England Work The Awakening Conscience The Hireling Shepherd April Love Found Autumn Leaves Bocca Baciata Oxford Union murals Lady Lilith Roman Widow Mary Magdalene The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple Morgan le Fay Beata Beatrix The Shadow of Death Proserpine A Vision of Fiammetta Pygmalion and the Image series The Beloved Cymon and Iphigenia King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid The Day Dream The Golden Stairs Dante and Beatrice Love's Messenger The Magic Circle The Legend of Briar Rose The Lady of Shalott (Waterhouse) The Roses of Heliogabalus Lilith Eos Flaming June Hope Hylas and the Nymphs Lady Godiva The Love Potion The Lady of Shalott (Hunt) I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, Said the Lady of Shalott
Models	Elizabeth Siddal Fanny Cornforth Effie Gray Sophie Gray Annie Miller Jane Morris Marie Spartali Stillman Alexa Wilding Maria Zambaco Dorothy Dene Fanny Eaton Ruth Herbert
Related	The Germ Hogarth Club Morris & Co. Rossetti and His Circle (1922 book) Dante's Inferno (1967 film) The Love School (1975 series) Desperate Romantics (2009 series) Effie Gray (2014 film)

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