Before a gleaming cloth of gold, a dynamic woman smiles out at us in a dramatic hat and sweeping, silk-lined mantle. This is Margaret, illegitimate and only child of the brewing magnate, William McEwan, depicted in the year of her marriage to the Hon. Ronald Greville. The great sense of confidence caught by Carolus-Duran, painter of Parisian society ladies and demi-mondaines, proved entirely apt. Her union with one of the closest friends of the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII, added social standing to her riches, resulting in a long career as one of the great hostesses of the age, of which Polesden Lacey is the enduring legacy.
