Louisa Beresford, Marchioness of Waterford
Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford
by Sir Francis Grant
Louisa Anne Beresford, Marchioness of Waterford
(ne Stuart; 14 April 1818 12 May 1891) was a Pre-
Raphaelite watercolourist and philanthropist.
1 Biography
Born in Paris, she was the wife of Henry Beresford,
3rd Marquess of Waterford, younger sister of Charlotte,
Countess Canning, daughter of Charles Stuart, 1st Baron
Stuart de Rothesay and the former Lady Elizabeth Mar-
garet Yorke.[1]
The family home was at Highclie Castle, and had been in
Stuart possession since about 1770 when Louisas great-
grandfather, John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (a founder of
Kew Gardens), while out botanising, discovered the cli-
top viewsite overlooking Christchurch Bay, and commis- Charles Stuart made use of the architect William Don-
1
Choir singing on Christmas Day
25 December 1887
sioned the architect Robert Adam, to design High Cli,
a sumptuous Georgian mansion, with grounds laid out by
Capability Brown.
His fourth son, Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Stuart, in-
herited High Cli, but landslips virtually destroyed the
house, and he sold the greater part of the estate. Years
later Louisas 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 be-
came known as Highclie Castle, and which has been de-
scribed as the most important remaining example of the
Romantic Picturesque style of architecture.[2][3]
2 1 BIOGRAPHY
A small watercolour by Lady Waterford.
thorne, a founder member of the Royal Institute of British
Architects, to design Highclie Castle. Incorporated in
the design was carved medieval stonework from the Nor-
man Benedictine Abbey of St Peter at Jumieges and from
the Grande Maison des Les Andelys, both of which struc-
tures had fallen into disrepair after the French Revolu-
tion. Also included in the structure were a 16th-century
oriel window and stained glass window.
In his 1893 work, the Victorian biographer, Augustus
Her father was appointed British Ambassador at Paris Hare (18341903), wrote The story of two noble lives
shortly before marrying Elizabeth Margaret Yorke on 6 : being memorials of Charlotte, Countess Canning, and
February 1816. Louisas childhood in Paris was marked Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford
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 accom-
plished 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[4] or Lady Waterford Hall.[5]
Gleeson White described her talent in his work Childrens
Books and Their Illustrators[6]
In the designs by Louisa, Marchioness of
Waterford, one encounters genius with abso-
lutely faltering technique; and many who know
how rare is the slightest touch of genius, for-
give the equally important mastery of material
which must accompany it to produce work of
lasting value.
Louisa was tutored by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and at-
tended drawing classes held by John Ruskin, together
with Lady Trevelyan and Kate Greenaway, and had in-
troduced Rose La Touche to him.[7] It is believed that
she modelled for Sir John Everett Millais in several of
his works, and her beauty is accredited as one of the in-
spirations of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
On 8 June 1842 she married Lord Waterford who set-
tled in Curraghmore House in County Waterford, until
dying in a horse riding accident in 1859. The marriage
produced no children.
The erosion losses at Highclie were considerable and
had been reckoned at about a yard a year the coast path
was in constant need of maintenance due to cli 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 clis to keep the clays dry. In about 1880 the prob-
lems of erosion of Highclie prompted her to seek an
engineering solution. A prime cause was The Run, the
river outow from Christchurch Harbour, which because
of its proximity to the clis, greatly increased the erosion.
She arranged for the placing of limestone and granite-
porphyry blocks near the Castle, with the idea of deect-
ing 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.[8]
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
 3

been thought that there are many outside the 4 Bibliography

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 Gods
benediction upon her:
When she had passed it seemed like the
ceasing of exquisite music"
Augustus Hare
Her grave lies next to the Church of St Michael in Ford
Village. Its stone was designed in 1891 by George Fred-
eric Watts, and the slab by Wattss wife Mary Seton Watts.
It is a Grade II Listed Building protected by law.
5 External links
2 References
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, Mar-
chioness 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 chte-
laine, Louisa marchioness of Waterford; Newcastle
upon Tyne, Mawson, Swan, & Morgan, 1896.
The Stuarts of Highclie Robert Franklin
Ford and Etal

[1] Person Page 2384. thePeerage.com. Retrieved 10 June

2009.

[2] The Stuarts of Highclie by Robert Franklin. Nat-

ula.co.uk. Archived from the original on 4 December
2008. Retrieved 10 June 2009.

[3] Weddings in the New Forest. Highclie Castle.

Archived from the original on 9 February 2009. Retrieved
10 June 2009.

[4] Lady Waterford Hall. pictures from national parks pho-

tos on webshots. Travel.webshots.com. 24 July 2006.
Retrieved 10 June 2009.

[5] Lady Waterford Hall, Ford, Northumberland | Online

Booking. Ntopsearch.com. Retrieved 10 June 2009.

[6] Childrens Books and Their Illustrators by Gleeson White

Project Gutenberg. Gutenberg.org. Retrieved 10 June
2009.

[7] Art/Museums Ruskin, Turner and the Pre-

Raphaelites. Thecityreview.com. 28 May 2000.
Retrieved 10 June 2009.

[8] Settlement and Society. Dcda.org.uk. Retrieved 10

June 2009.

3 Sources

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and her times

George Paston, books.google.co.za; accessed 11
May 2016.
4 6 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

6 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

6.1 Text
Louisa Beresford, Marchioness of Waterford Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisa_Beresford%2C_Marchioness_of_
Waterford?oldid=776666369 Contributors: Paul Barlow, Atchom, Bender235, Hesperian, Craigy144, Redvers, Rms125a@hotmail.com,
Fram, SmackBot, Chris the speller, Evangelista, Ohconfucius, Ser Amantio di Nicolao, BrownHairedGirl, Tryde, S Marshall, Mary
Mark Ockerbloom, Rodolph, The Duke of Waltham, Shadygrove2007, Rotational, Dthomsen8, Addbot, Luckas-bot, AnomieBOT, Jeni,
Erik9bot, FrescoBot, Doremo, WQUlrich, Plucas58, Gattaca66, H3llBot, Tbennert, Cyberbot II, VIAFbot, KasparBot, GreenC bot and
Anonymous: 4

6.2 Images
File:Choir_singing_on_Christmas_Day_by_Louisa_Anne_(ne_Stuart),_Marchioness_of_Waterford.jpg Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Choir_singing_on_Christmas_Day_by_Louisa_Anne_%28n%C3%A9e_
Stuart%29%2C_Marchioness_of_Waterford.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: National Portrait Gallery: NPG D23146(29)
Original artist: Louisa Anne (ne Stuart), Marchioness of Waterford (died 1891)
File:Commons-logo.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg License: PD Contributors: ? Origi-
nal artist: ?
File:Louisa_Anne_(ne_Stuart),_Marchioness_of_Waterford_by_Sir_Francis_Grant.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/
wikipedia/commons/9/97/Louisa_Anne_%28n%C3%A9e_Stuart%29%2C_Marchioness_of_Waterford_by_Sir_Francis_Grant.jpg Li-
cense: Public domain Contributors:
National Portrait Gallery: NPG 3176
Original artist: Francis Grant
File:Question_book-new.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/99/Question_book-new.svg License: Cc-by-sa-3.0
Contributors:
Created from scratch in Adobe Illustrator. Based on Image:Question book.png created by User:Equazcion Original artist:
Tkgd2007
File:Watercolour_of_two_children_picking_flowers_by_Lady_Waterford.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/
commons/e/e3/Watercolour_of_two_children_picking_flowers_by_Lady_Waterford.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Original
publication: UK
Immediate source: collection of Ruth, Lady Monk Bretton. Original artist: Lady Waterford
(Life time: 1818-1891)

6.3 Content license

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