Lady Ada Christina Ramsay-Fairfax Lucy (1830-90) and her eldest son, William George Thomas Spencer (oil...

This portrait manages to capture both tenderness, as well as inquisitiveness, as the child reaches out towards the rose held by his mother. Ada Christina Lucy inherited Charlecote, where this picture remains, from her father, being the eldest of four daughters. Her eldest son, William, who is shown here, died young, whilst at Eton. Ada had reluctantly married Sir Henry Ramsay-Fairfax, 3rd Bt. (1870-1944), and hyphenated her own name with his. She endured ten pregnancies and the anguish of having to sell more and more of the estate to pay the bills. She kept most of the great interiors under dust-sheets, determined that one day ‘the good times will come back.’ They never did, and when their son, Sir Montgomerie Fairfax-Lucy, 4th Bt. (1896-1965) inherited Charlecote, he presented it to the National Trust.