Artwork Title: Mr. Henry Cust
At the age of 26, she [Violet] married Henry Manners on 25 November 1882. He was the only son and heir of John Manners, 7th Duke of Rutland. Husband and wife had little in common; the handsome Henry was a political Conservative whilst Violet was described as "bohemian". She provided him with two male heirs, but her second and third daughters were possibly fathered by others: Lady Violet by Montagu Corry, 1st Baron Rowton and Lady Diana by Harry Cust. The couple also moved in different social circles, as he enjoyed hunting and she pursued more intellectual interests. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violet_Manners,_Duchess_of_Rutland] Famous for his love life rather than his professional life, Henry John ‘Harry’ Cockayne Cust (1861–1917), MP, JP, was an author, poet and editor of the Pall Mall Gazette. He was romantically attached to a vast swathe of late Victorian high society, including Pamela Wyndham and Violet Manners, but eventually married Nina Welby-Gregory after she claimed he had made her pregnant, although the couple remained childless. Harry Cust is the basis of many of humorous and salacious stories connected with the otherwise intellectual Souls, including a naked tennis match with George Curzon, governor of India. As a result of his many affairs, it is rumored that Cust fathered many illegitimate children including Lady Diana Cooper, née Manners, and (less plausibly) Margaret Thatcher’s grandmother. Cust was a member of ‘The Souls’, with Pamela Wyndham, Margot Asquith, Arthur Balfour and many others pictured here. He died suddenly of a heart attack at his home in 1917, and his wife Nina immortalized him in marble in a stunning tomb at the family home, Belton Hall in Lincolnshire. [https://artuk.org/discover/stories/violet-manners-aristocrat-and-portraitist-to-the-souls/#]
Uploaded on Dec 26, 2017 by Suzan Hamer

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