Mr Cobbe, who had been hoping to reduce or even entirely escape punishment by revealing Mr Vardy’s crimes, discovered to his cost that Mr Vardy could retaliate with his own counter-accusations. Denial proved useless, as the scandal proceeded rapidly like a fall of dominoes. Those persons who had remained silent before, for fear of counterattack, loss of standing or disbelief, now felt able to join in the general outcry, and the banker’s image of stout respectability and charitable deeds quickly disintegrated. Both he and Mr Vardy were currently in Lewes Gaol awaiting their trials at the next assizes.
The last chapter in the Maritime Queen affair had come to an end with the announcement that Mr Taylor, the only one of the culprits in that business still free, had been arrested in France and charged with the murder of his accomplice.
Mrs Holt, as she now called herself, having divested herself of an uncaring husband and a treacherous sister, applied herself with energy and dedication to the welfare of her children, assisted by her new maid, Maggie. She often entertained Mr Merridew to tea, where he amused the company with readings from plays. Franklin, still a strange fragile boy, but now almost free of his previous nocturnal torments, always requested to hear speeches from Hamlet.
Louisa Scarletti was now permanently settled in Brighton, which she much preferred to London, and was busily making the rounds of tea parties. She was promised a visit from Enid and all her family as soon as the new mother and child were able to travel.
Mina had received a letter to say that her good friend Nellie would soon be home from Italy. She was pleased to report that her maid, Zillah, who had recovered from her earlier aversion to food, had regained her appetite and was looking rosy and plump. Mina decided that she would not yet mention Nellie’s return to Richard, who had somehow managed to stay out of trouble.
Almost as surprising was the recent announcement in the Gazette of the betrothal of Mr Ronald Phipps to Miss Adeline Cherry.
All was well. All was calm. Far away, little white wave tips scudded into shore, and Mina well knew how these could grow and burst over the promenade in a sudden storm. But not yet, she thought. Not just yet. Not today.
***
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HISTORICAL NOTES
The Barnum Effect
The name Mrs Barnham is a reference to the Barnum effect where vague personality readings are perceived as tailored to the individual and therefore given a high accuracy rating.
Insanity
I am indebted to the lectures of Dr George Fielding Blandford on insanity and its treatment, published in 1871.
Brighton Town Hall
Completed in 1832, this substantial building is located in Bartholomew Square, Brighton. In 1872 it housed the police offices and cells. The Brighton police courts, which dealt with minor charges, and coroner’s inquests were held here.
The front steps described in the book are now no longer there but can be seen in this image http://regencysociety-jamesgray.com/volume9/source/jg_09_051.html
The cells now form a part of the Old Police Cells Museum which conducts regular tours. https://www.oldpolicecellsmuseum.org.uk
On 14 March 1844 Brighton’s Chief Constable (then called Chief Officer) Henry Solomon, was murdered in his own office, struck on the head with a poker by a prisoner. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Solomon
George White was the Chief Constable of Brighton from 1853 to 1876.
Seabourne
The village of Seabourne and the Ship Inn are fictional.
The Spiritoscope
This was devised in the 1850s by Robert Hare, professor of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. Having attended a number of table-tipping séances, he was convinced, following the pronouncements of Professor Michael Faraday in 1853, that the phenomenon was the effect of unconscious muscular movements of the sitters while their hands touched the table.
The spiritoscope, which took a variety of forms, was designed to show whether spirit messages could be received independently of any action of the medium. Hare was undoubtedly the eminent man of science mentioned by Mrs Barnham, since he was converted to spiritualism after attending séances using his spiritoscope. He described the apparatus and experiments in Experimental Investigations of the Spirit Manifestations published in 1855.
The Brighton Poisoner
The ‘poisoning woman’ mentioned by Richard was Christiana Edmunds one of Brighton’s most notorious murderers. Sentenced to death in January 1872 she was reprieved after being declared insane. She spent the remainder of her life in Broadmoor.
Stethoscopes
The stethoscope was invented in 1816 but was a single tube, and the doctor could use only one ear. The binaural stethoscope was first commercially available in 1852.
The Indian Doctor
I have been gently criticised for including an Anglo-Asian doctor in my novels, as this was felt to be unlikely at that period, however the character of Dr Hamid was inspired by the multi-talented and innovative Sake Dean Mahomed (1759-1851) who first established an Indian medicated vapour bath in Brighton.
The School of Reform: or How to Rule a Husband by Thomas Morton, (1764-1838)
This was performed at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden in 1805.
Monetary value
In 1860, £1 had the purchasing power of approximately £59 in 2017. (Source: The National Archives currency converter)
Franklin Holt’s sleep disturbances
The transitional period between sleep and wakefulness either when falling asleep (hypnagogic) or waking up (hypnopompic) can be a time of disturbing phenomena.
Hallucinations can be experienced which can take a wide variety of forms; visions, noises, tastes, smells and being touched. There may also be a sensation of falling or flying. These hallucinations are not the same thing as dreams and can seem very real and frightening. Many people experience sleep paralysis, a temporary loss of the ability to move which can be accompanied by a sensation of pressure on the chest and difficulty in breathing.
Manager of the Brighton Aquarium
The Times of 9 March 1872 reported that Mr John Keast Lord the naturalist had been appointed manager of the new Brighton Aquarium. The Aquarium opened on 10 August and Lord died on 9 December aged fifty-four.
The Married Women’s Property Act 1870
Mentioned by Mina, this enabled married women for the first time to legally own the money they earned and also property they inherited from next of kin, including money up to a sum of £200. Since Charlotte Saltmire married Jasper Holt before 1870 any property she had then owned would automatically have become his.
The Medical Thermometer
This has a long history, but it was not until the late 1860s that an easily portable design was available, that could take a patient’s temperature in about five minutes. By 1868 research had established the normal range of human temperature using readings taken from the underarm.
Changes to Shakespeare’s plays
In the mid nineteenth century the plays of Shakespeare, especially those published for young people, were sometimes rewritten so as to provide happy endings to the
great tragedies such as Hamlet and King Lear, and they were often adapted in burlesque (i.e. caricature) form.
The Theatre Royal, Brighton
Opened in 1807 in New Street Brighton, and redeveloped by the actor manager Nye Chart, in the 1870s it produced plays, operas and pantomimes. It is now a Grade II listed building, and still a successful theatre. http://theatreroyalbrighton.com
Porcelain mourning brooches
Often in the form of lockets, these could include portraits of the deceased or plaited locks of hair.
Old Steine
A wide thoroughfare with gardens surrounded by handsome buildings, including one built for King George IV’s mistress Mrs Fitzherbert. The location of hotels, fashionable businesses and club rooms. The Brighton Yacht Club is wholly fictional.
The Maritime Queen fraud
This is loosely based on the Monarch Insurance Company fraud. The company was launched in 1869, and charges of conspiracy to commit fraud were made against the directors in 1870. Two of them absconded and the individuals who stood bail for them were unable to pay and were imprisoned.
Divorce law
In 1872 a man could divorce his wife for adultery alone, but a wife’s options were more limited. She could not divorce her husband for adultery unless another offence was proven such as desertion or cruelty.
Page’s Directory.
This included Brighton, Hove, Cliftonville and Preston and was published annually by Thomas Page, bookseller and stationer 173 North Street, Brighton.
The Young Woman’s Companion
Published by Ward & Lock in 1863. The quotations in this book are taken from that volume.
Flash photography
For the history of the use of magnesium in photography I am indebted to the article ‘Art of Darkness’ by Chris Howes in New Scientist 23/30 December 1989.
It is often stated that Victorian photography required long exposures, and this was once the case, however by the 1870s more sensitive coatings on the glass plates meant that exposure times had been brought down to a second or two in bright sunlight. My description of the studio and the photographic processes are taken from contemporary publications on the art of photography, notably A History and Handbook of Photography by Gaston Tissandier, published in translation in 1876.
ALSO BY LINDA STRATMANN
FICTION
The Mina Scarletti Mystery Series
Mr Scarletti’s Ghost
The Royal Ghost
An Unquiet Ghost
The Ghost of Hollow House
The Frances Doughty Mystery Series
The Poisonous Seed
The Daughters of Gentlemen
A Case of Doubtful Death
An Appetite for Murder
The Children of Silence
Death in Bayswater
A True and Faithful Brother
Murder at the Bayswater Bicycle Club
NON FICTION
The Secret Poisoner
The Marquess of Queensberry: Wilde’s Nemesis
The Crooks Who Conned Millions
Notorious Blasted Rascal: Colonel Charteris and the Servant Girl’s Revenge
Whiteley’s Folly
Cruel Deeds and Dreadful Calamities: The Illustrated Police News 1864-1938
Chloroform: The Quest for Oblivion
Kent Murders
Greater London Murders
Essex Murders
More Essex Murders
Middlesex Murders
Gloucestershire Murders
Published by Sapere Books.
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United Kingdom
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Copyright © Linda Stratmann, 2020
Linda Stratmann has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places and events, other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously.
Any resemblances to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales are purely coincidental.
eBook ISBN: 9781800550148
His Father's Ghost (Mina Scarletti Mystery Book 5) Page 29