Improbable Pioneers of the Romantic Age: The Lives of John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford and Georgina Gordon, Duchess of Bedford
Keir Davidson
London: Pimpernel Press, £40, 592 pages
John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford (1766-1839) unexpectedly inherited a dukedom and vast estates which included Covent Garden and Bloomsbury in London. His wife, Georgina (1781-1853), was the daughter of Jane, Duchess of Gordon (1749-1812) – the pioneer late-Georgian populariser of the Scottish Highlands with her Lodge at Kinrara in Perthshire, two generations before Queen Victoria acquired Balmoral. John strove to complete his dead brother’s agricultural and architectural improvements, and to continue the family’s support for Foxite Whiggery; Georgina perpetuated her mother’s love of the Scottish landscape. Their joint marital career is the subject of this book.
