Thank you to Michael S., for this comment on the Equestrian Portrait of Lady Mercy Greville.

Image: www.christies.com.

Mercy was my godmother and even more beautiful than your image. Red hair, green eyes, delicate pale skin.

She was very well-known in London’s West End and we got on very well and she was able to smuggle me into bars, much to my mother’s horror. Mercy drank whisky .. I drank lemonade. And we talked a lot .. I don’t remember any other details.

Late in life she married Dick Marter and they bought a small house in rural Wales where my mother and I once visited. Unfortunately her heavy drinking incurred a fall down the stairs of her house which caused her death.

Aeons later (I am in my 90’s) I still miss her. She had joie-de-vivre and an incomparable sense of fun.

Michael S.

Online genealogies and other sources tell how Mercy (1904-1968) was the daughter of the 5th Earl of Warwick, Francis Greville (1853-1924), was married three times, had one daughter, and was, as Michael suggests, someone who drew social comment. These are just dry facts, however, and it is lovely to hear something about the real person.

There are some charming photographic portraits of Mercy and the Greville family on the National Portrait Gallery web site.

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