They would eat at seven, and then again at midnight. They drank enormous amounts, wine mostly, this claret that British love, red wine. They would eat lots of game: venison, sides of beef. Georgiana's marriage in 1774 to the Duke of Devonshire cemented relations between two of the richest families in England, and Georgiana's life took place against a backdrop of palaces and ballrooms.Ī typical night for Georgiana, Foreman explained in a recent interview from her home in New York, began with food: 'They would begin the evening with a great feast, and then they would go to the opera, watch perhaps the first three acts, and then go back to someone's house and feast again.

It will take the help of at least two hairdressers and many hours to create Georgiana's sensational hairdo, and yet, notes Amanda Foreman in her riveting biography, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (Modern Library, $15.95), soon after this fateful night, 'women competed with each other to construct the tallest head, ignoring the fact that it made quick movements impossible, and the only way to ride in a carriage was to sit on the floor.'Įnvied, imitated, and always observed, Georgiana was as famous as her great-great-great-great niece, Lady Diana Spencer, would be.

She has just thought of the idea of making tiny wooden ships to adorn her horsehair wig, and has called to her servants. It is 1775, and she has fashioned a three-foot tower on her head, using scented pomade to affix pads of horsehair on top of her own hair. Imagine Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, preparing for a night out on the town.

Amanda foreman duchess