Lady Constance Wenlock – Val d’Arno, Italy

Lady Constance Lascelles was born (May 27, 1852) the eldest daughter of Henry Thynne Lascelles, fourth Earl of Harewood, and his wife Elizabeth Joanna, the daughter of Ulick John de Burgh, first Marquess of Clanricarde. Lady Constance was married (1872) at St George’s, Hanover Square in London, to Beilby Lawley (1849 – 1912), third Baron Wenlock. She travelled throughout India whilst her husband served as governor of Madras, and later visisted Italy. Lady Wenlock was much admired for her beauty, and devoted herself to writing poetry and painting, her works being exhibited at the Fine Art Society, Tooth's Gallery, the Royal Amateur Society and the New Gallery in Regent Street, in Europe in Paris and Florence, and, nearer to home, in Harrogate, York, Bath and Sunderland. Alfred Liddell recorded his own observations of Lady Wenlock in his Notes from the Life of an Ordinary Mortal (c1876) that “ … she was slightly but not well built … Her colour and complexion were delicate, and there was a far away look in her face as if she belonged to another world. She was quite uninfluenced by authority and convention but had a genuine reverence for beauty …. Gifted with a vivid imagination, she lived in an ideal world.” The couple entertained their literary friends and acquaintances at their estate of Escrick in Yorkshire. With her husband’s death (1912) the Dowagere Lady Wenlock retired to Combe Grave, at Monkton Combe, near Bath, Somerset. Her daughter Irene Constance Lawley (1889 – 1976) became the wife of Colin Gurdon Forbes Adam (1889 – 1982). Lady Wenlock died (Aug 23, 1932) aged eighty, at Combe Grove. She was buried at Escrick. An illustrated catalogue was published in 2001 to accompany an exhibition at Harewood House from Sep-Nov 2001, Lady of The Souls, Landscape Paintings by Constance Lady Wenlock (1852-1932). The accompanied text is written by Jane Sellars.