In 1731, the Duchess was much gratified by the marriage of “her Dy” with Lord John Russell, afterwards third Duke of Bedford. Writing from Blenheim to Lady Mary Wortley Montague, the Duchess, in speaking of this wedding, declares to her gifted correspondent, that it is very much to her satisfaction. “I propose to myself more satisfaction than I thought there had been in store for me.” These were the expressions of hope; but, alas! like almost every other object of the Duchess’s regard in her own family, Lady Diana Russell died early, surviving her marriage only four years. It is impossible to note these successive deprivations without feeling sincere compassion for the harassed and bereaved old Duchess, who beheld, one by one, her only comforts taken from her old age. Lord John Russell, when Duke of Bedford, became Secretary of State, and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The well-known strictures on his character by Junius, though not historically just, were not without foundation; but, whatever were his faults, he attained eminence as a statesman; and to see her favourite grace the high station in which this alliance would have placed her, would, doubtless, have gratified the heart, already too proud, of her aged but worldly grandmother. “Her Torrismond,” as the Duchess termed John Spencer, indeed survived her, though not many years. His marrying suitably was an event which she had much at heart. “I believe you have heard me say,” writes her grace to Lady Mary Wortley, “that I desired to die when I had disposed well of her, (Lady Diana,) but I desire that you would not put me in mind of it, for I find I have a mind to live till I have married my Torrismond, which is a name I have given long to John Spencer.”[348] Unhappily, Torrismond was too frequently to be found in the watchhouse, in company with other young noblemen, to think of domesticating according to the Duchess’s desire. Lady Anne Egerton, the only child of Lady Bridgewater, was also undutiful, according to the Duchess’s notions, and to be derided and insulted accordingly. She had been brought up by her grandmother, who, finding that she was neglected after the death of her mother, took charge of her when her other grandchildren were left to her care. Lady Anne married Wriothesley Duke of Bedford, the elder brother of Lord John Russell, to whom his title descended. In Lady Anne the grandmother’s spirit was apparent. Their quarrels were continual and violent; and the Duchess, charmed, one must suppose, with her conceit of the eight puppet Misses Trevor, invented the same sort of vengeance in effigy for Lady Anne. She had procured her granddaughter’s picture, of which she blackened the face over, and writing on the frame in large letters, “She is much blacker within,” placed it in her own sitting-room, for the edification and amusement of all visiters.[349]