The union was immediately an unhappy one as husband and wife had deeply contrasting personalities. Georgiana was creative, passionate and outgoing while her husband was an impassive and sometimes opaque figure. Her status, intelligence and beauty gave her access to a fashionable set of friends, including playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan and the Prince of Wales.
She was also an extravagant spender and gambler in this period, and started to run up debts that lasted her lifetime. Around Georgiana began an affair with the whig politician Charles Grey β Prior to her affair with Grey, Georgiana and her husband had started an ambitious scheme of building work at Chiswick.
These additions completely transformed the architectural character of the original villa and made it into a substantial country home. The interiors of the newly extended Chiswick remained unfinished until Georgiana returned from European exile in She then took the reigns of the project and was responsible for re-hanging the paintings, ordering new furniture and china, and installing book and display cases for her collections of literature, shells and minerals.
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