The Bow Street force was intended to change all this, and its members were paid a salary from government funds in order to limit the likelihood that they would accept bribes. (They also disliked the term runners and generally referred to themselves as constables or principle officers.) However, many of the original runners were former thief-takers, which led to a sometimes-unsavory reputation for the force that was not always undeserved. Their intrusion into the world of the upper classes was also deeply resented by those who saw themselves as the constables’ social superiors. By the time Lily’s story begins, the Runners would have been a well-known but not necessarily well-liked fixture. Lord and Lady Walter’s dislike of Mr. Page’s presence would have been typical of members of their class. Jack’s distrust would not have been uncommon for members of the military, who were used to maintaining their own system of justice. Readers may also remember that Isobel Harper mentions her brother paying an “incentive” to encourage the Bow Street investigators to work quickly; this was a common way that members of all classes ensured that their cases received prompt attention. Tales from Bow Street, by Joan Lock, is an excellent resource for learning more about the Bow Street Runners.
There was no formal census in nineteenth-century England, so it’s impossible to know exactly how many people of color lived alongside their paler counterparts in the British Isles. However, personal accounts and legal records indicate that there were many of them.
This isn’t really surprising. Britain traded with, and colonized, countries in East Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East, and men and women from all parts of the world found their way into the cities and ports of England. Many came to England as interpreters, ambassadors, and for business, and there are records of upper-class members of African and Asian nations visiting the British court back into the sixteenth century. Indian sailors, at the time known as lascars, also served in the British navy.
England did participate in the African slave trade, and many members of the English upper classes held slaves in bondage until 1772, when the case of Somerset v Stewart was generally understood to abolish slavery in England and Wales, though slaves were still illegally bought and sold in the country. In Scotland, the case of Knight v Wedderburn ruled in 1778 that slavery had no basis in Scottish common law. (Slavery in most of the British Empire was suppressed after the Slave Trade Act of 1807 and formally ended by the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, with the final holdouts of the East India Company, Ceylon, and Helena ending slavery in 1843.) Many former slaves stayed in England after the 1772 case, becoming servants, joining the military, starting businesses, and registering as members of local parishes.
Though people of color could and did live solidly middle-class lives (the middle class itself being a relatively new invention), it would have been more difficult for them to become part of the upper class. However, as Allison Blakely of Boston University has written, there were many children of mixed racial heritage born in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and many of them went on to become members of the middle and sometimes even upper classes. For this reason, Ofelia and Jack are both mixed-race, with their English families facilitating their entry into Mayfair society. Ofelia herself is inspired partly by Miss Lambe, a mixed-race heiress from the West Indies who appears briefly and tantalizingly in Jane Austen’s unfinished novel Sanditon. To learn more about people of color living in England in the nineteenth century, I recommend reading Black London: Life Before Emancipation, by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina, and Representing Mixed Race in Jamaica and England From the Abolition Era to the Present, by Sara Salih, as well as Hakim Adi’s writing on the West African diaspora. The websites Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed (www.blackpast.org) and People of Color in European Art History (medievalpoc.tumblr.com) are also invaluable resources.
The East India Company is often portrayed as a villain in contemporary media, and with good reason: it was a cultural bulldozer that did immense harm to the people of India. However, there were eras when its members were as interested in integrating themselves with Indian society as they were in asserting British dominance. Before the Regency era, many British men in India adopted Indian dress, spoke the local languages, and in general tried to blend in with the ruling Mughal class. Many men in the East India Company married Indian wives in legally sanctioned unions. These families would either remain in India or move back to England, where they would mostly integrate into British society. By the 1780s, the wills of more than a third of British men in India left their property and money to Indian wives or children of mixed Anglo-Indian heritage. Colonel James Kirkpatrick, the officer Jack mentions, was the British ambassador at the Court of Hyderabad in 1801 when he married a young Muslim woman named Khair un-Nissa.
By the time Lily is in London, though, the practice of marrying Indian wives was less common than it had been in previous centuries, and mixed families often attempted to integrate themselves fully into British culture while their relatives worked to hide the fact that a mixed marriage had taken place at all. The ability of these children to integrate themselves into British society was, unsurprisingly, largely dependent on skin color, a fact that both Lily and Jack comment on. To learn more about Anglo-Indian families, I recommend William Dalrymple’s book White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India.
I tried not to fiddle too much with the facts of race and policing in Lily’s London, but the same can’t be said for the architecture. Visitors to Half Moon Street will likely notice that there is, in fact, no alley next to number thirteen. Though I could argue that we don’t know for sure there wasn’t an alley in 1815, I don’t actually know one way or another what the street looked like. Readers may also wonder if it was common for members of the upper class to have purchased property so close to the site of Regent’s Park, as Lord Walter’s father did. The answer is that it would have been strange for the Walters not to live in Mayfair or an adjacent neighborhood. But they wouldn’t have had room for large gardens there, and if you’ve come this far, I’m sure you will understand why they needed to have a garden. I promise to make it up to Serena in the future with a new house.
Angelica Catalani was an Italian opera singer who is often called one of the greatest bravura singers of all time. She was incredibly popular in London, but I have played fast and loose with the time she spent there. Madame Catalani made her London debut in 1806 at the King’s Theatre in Haymarket and had left London by 1813. She did leave Paris in 1815 after the return of Napoleon, but from there she traveled through Continental Europe, not back to London. I hope she would not mind that I had her give a private performance for Lady Jersey’s friends, especially as the audience was so appreciative of her talent.
If you want to learn more about Regency England, there are few books more entertaining than Georgette Heyer’s Regency World, by Jennifer Kloester. I also recommend Our Tempestuous Day: A History of Regency England, by Carolly Erickson.
Finally, I owe one character an apology. Mr. Neve was really a magistrate at the Marlborough Street Magistrates Court, located at 19–21 Great Marlborough Street, in 1815. And I never found any record of him taking bribes relating to his cases. I can only ask his forgiveness and say that if he did, very few of his contemporaries would have judged him for it, as more than one of them did the same.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Though writing often looks like a solitary endeavor, I owe many people a great deal of gratitude for helping this book make its way into your hands:
To my agent Whitney Ross, for her tireless enthusiasm, encouragement, and insight. Having a partner and guide like you is an absolute gift. And to everyone at Irene Goodman Literary Agency for the endless hours of work they do behind the scenes.
To Faith Black Ross, who knew what needed to change even when I wasn’t sure. Every book needs a great editor, and I really hit the jackpot with mine.
To the entire team at Crooked Lane Books, especially Chelsey Emmelhainz, Ashley Di Dio, Jenny Chen, Rachel Keith, Melissa Rec
hter, and Sophie Green. And to Nicole Lecht, who designed the beautiful cover.
To the generous readers who gave their time and insight, particularly Alexander Gillies and Abigail Fine. And especially to Neena Narayanan, the first person other than me to read it cover to cover, long before there was any cover to be seen. Thanks for reading it again before it went out into the world.
To the entire beach crew. You’ve spent many years watching me write while we’re supposed to be on vacation, and your enthusiasm and encouragement (not to mention your ideas for the next one) have meant more to me than you know.
To my parents, Jim and Andrea Schellman, who raised three kids and turned them all into readers, and who believed me when I told them I would write a book one day, even though I was only six years old.
Finally, and with all my heart, to Brian and Oliver.
One of you is the best husband I could ask for and a source of endless support. You were there every time I needed a listening ear, an extra hour to write, a critical eye, or another cup of tea. This book would not have happened without you.
And one of you was absolutely no help at all, but I’m glad you were there for it anyway.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Katharine Schellman studied theatre and history at the College of William & Mary, after which she went on to dance professionally, marry her college sweetheart, and collect addresses up and down the east coast of the United States. The Body in the Garden is her debut novel, though she has previously published a variety of short fiction and essays. Katharine currently lives and writes in the mountains of Virginia, and she is still recovering from that time she worked in political consulting.
This is a work of fiction. All of the names, characters, organizations, places and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real or actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2020 by Katharine Schellman Paljug
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crooked Lane Books, an imprint of The Quick Brown Fox & Company LLC.
Crooked Lane Books and its logo are trademarks of The Quick Brown Fox & Company LLC.
Library of Congress Catalog-in-Publication data available upon request.
ISBN (hardcover): 978-1-64385-356-7
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-64385-357-4
Cover design by Nicole Lecht
Printed in the United States.
www.crookedlanebooks.com
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First Edition: April 2020
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