The Three Graces
"Ah," Lord Allenbright sighed. "Reminds me of the old days
when the Three Graces used to grace the green of this park with their beautiful presence."
"Yes," his friend agreed, his drawl even more pronounced than usual.
"It was great fun to watch all these fellows make complete fools of themselves.
Even our great national hero, the Iron Duke himself, became all sappy when near Miss Harriette Wilson."
In the early nineteenth century the courtesans Harriette Wilson, her sister Fanny and their friend and rival Julia Johnstone were known as the Three Graces. Harriette was one of the most sought-after courtesans of her time and was acquainted with many famous men, among them Beau Brummell, who's said to have polished his Hessian boots with Champagne; Francis Charles Seymour-Conway, 3rd Marquis of Hertford, who appears as the Marquis of Steyne in Thackeray's VANITY FAIR and whom we meet in THE LILY BRAND when he leers at Lillian in Chapter IV; but also the 'Iron Duke', Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, who won the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
In the 1820s, when Harriette needed money, she started to write her memoirs, in which she gave close-ranged and intimate portraits of her former lovers. And what's more -- she named names! The first installment of the memoirs appeared in February 1825 and became an instant success.
