She was born Octavia Laura Tennant in 1862, the sixth of eight children of industrialist
Charles Tennant and his wife Emma, née Winsloe. She grew up at their family estate,
The Glen, Peeblesshire, where she and her sisters entertained her father’s many guests in what
Mary Gladstone called 'the maddest, merriest whirl from morn til night,' discussing literature with their guests until the early hours of the morning. In 1881, her father took on a London house in
Grosvenor Square, where Laura and her sister
Margot were encouraged to surround themselves with guests.
Lady Frances Balfour said of them, 'It was unnatural if every man did not propose to them after a few hours’ acquaintance.' Lawyer Adolphus G. C. Liddell and
Gerald Balfour were among those who hoped to marry Laura. Laura made an impression in London with her witty and irreverent personality.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, whom she met on a cruise, called her 'little witch'. Liddell described her as 'indescribable...half-child, half-kelpie... she combined the gaiety of a child with the tact and aplomb of a grown woman.' Mary Gladstone said of her:'She had the naughtiness, the grace and quickness and mischievousness of a kitten...Nothing was safe in heaven or earth or under the earth from the sallies of her wit. One trembles to think what she would have been had it not been for the restraining influence of her spiritual side.'
Edward Burne-Jones, whose household called Laura 'the Siren,' made several sketches of her and is thought to have used her as a model in his
Golden Stairs. When he began working on
The Depths of the Sea in 1886, he said that he was 'painting a scene in Laura's previous existence.' == Death and legacy ==