Horses fascinated Ada. Her descriptions of her horses are vivid. She described their shining coats and their varying temperaments. Many letters to her husband end with admonishing him to exercise the horses and not let visitors harm the horses when they ride them. This love of horses was instilled in her daughter Annabella and lasted for generations. Later Annabella and her husband Wilfrid Scawen Blunt introduced the Arab horse to England. Like many aristocrats who owned horses, some like the Lovelaces close friends the Zetlands raced their horses. Ada was fascinated by the exciting racing events of the early 1850s.
Ada sent a birthday greeting to her mother on 17 May ending with,” I am afraid you will take no interest in what interests me much just now, – viz: the winner of the Derby (29 May). Indeed I am in danger of becoming quite a sporting character. The 2 horses I care about are Lord Zetland’s Voltigeur, & Lady Albemarles’ Bolingbroke.” The day after the races Ada wrote complaining she had a headache due to the great losses she sustained at the races. She mocked the report in the newspaper about the “great losses” and was delighted at the triumphant victory of Zetland’s horse Voltigeur, who galloped to win unexpectedly with great ease.
The Lovelaces were involved in a busy social scene with Babbage, their many other scientific friends, court activities, and racing. Greig reported the latest gossip to Ada and she replied in a very long letter to Greig about the rumors circulating about her behavior: “I very much regret that you should allow such an absurdity to give you a moment’s anxiety. In general society every one is grossly slandered at times, & I am sure if you heard all I hear about other people, of the same nature, you would see how little moment it is . . .”
She recognized at this time that she had become a victim of her own naivete in having confided in Sophia De Morgan. She concluded her letter to Greig: “My character can’t be mended now. It was utterly gone before I was 26. I believe I owe much of this to Mrs D. M [De Morgan] but I owe it also to other causes. – Pray understand that I have written all this entirely on yr account, – & because I am extremely vexed to see you take the matter so much to heart, & feel sure that if you knew all the past you would view it differently.” Ada, like her father, delighted in flouting conventional rules and evoking the “bad and mad” image. She wrote, perhaps seriously, perhaps in jest, phrases like “scorn and fury,” “a fairy in your service,” and making Annabella her “slave.”
After the Derby in 1850, she paid her mother a duty call on 6 June. A few days later she gave a party for fifty of her scientific friends. On 20 June she went to a ball where she saw Queen Victoria, who looked pleasant and “almost smiling.” The Lovelaces had many other royal engagements on their calendar as well.
Though Ada complained when she was an adolescent that she did not like the opera she became a great supporter of the opera. She attended on the evening of the 20 June Halevy’s opera The Tempest which had premiered on 9 June at Her Majesty’s Theater. She was enchanted with Sontag, who played the part of Miranda, “her voice was deliciously sweet – quite angelic; – & her execution and expression are the ne plus ultra of perfection & refinement. There is likewise such certainty & facility – such absence of all effort –I think Sontag far superior to Lind.”
Ada was furious about the Post stopping entirely on Sundays and frustrated that nothing could be done about it. She wrote, “Dickens is frantic about it. Look for his next Number. He has written something.” Her attention switched once again to Babbage.
To Charles Babbage
Tuesday, 23 July 1850
Dear Babbage. It is possible that I may go to Town on Thursdy evg or Fridy morng (early), – & to return here on Saturday afternoon. I shall not be able to decide about this till Thursday, – but I think it as well to give you timely notice in case. If you would be so kind as to find out if I could see the diamonds at the Exhibition d’ Industrie, on Friday or Satdy, – it would help me.
yrs
A.L.
I am anxious to learn the progress of yr Nebulous Theory. I suppose it depends on the mathematical laws of the condensation & expansion of Gases; the gases being supposed subject to certain initial conditions, for instance gravitation, rotary motion, &c. . .
Mrs Greig’s health improved and she offered to take Annabella on her first Continental excursion. Ada kept Annabella informed of all the latest family developments, especially Byron’s exploits at sea. She filled her letters to Annabella with lightness, and at the same time also gave her daughter firm instructions on how she should behave.
To Annabella
II August 1850
Horsley
Dear Annabella. You will be glad to hear that we have heard very favorable reports of Byron, from three different sources. 1st The Lt of the Swift has returned to England & told a friend of Dr Lushington that Byron was a general favorite, learned his duties very quickly, & conducted himself extremely well. . .
Thank Mrs Greig for her letter for me. It was very acceptable.
We should have written to you before, but we really have had nothing to say. – How much you seem to be enjoying yourself You must regard it as a Holiday, like what School boys & girls get for a few weeks. And if you work very hard & behave very well, during the next winter & spring,-we can perhaps, manage to give you some other Holiday sometime next year. But this must all depend 1st on what I see of the effects on you of the present trip & next on what we can afford.
Yr sketches are very nice. . . Pray draw some of the oxen, as there are no horses to draw! What a sorry land for an equestrian like you. . .
My injunctions for you: don’t get over-excited, don’t talk loud. Do sketch, & do talk German.
I am forming schemes against yr liberty, & some very deep designs for making you a greater slave than ever. So you had better persuade Mrs Greig to keep you as long as possible, – for – when you come back, you don’t know all that may happen to you. . .
There is a gigantic Tortoise now at the Z. Gardens, indeed I believe they have several new things there. –
yrs very Affectly
A.A.Lovelace ..
The big event of 1850 was the trip Ada had anticipated taking with William for years to forbidden territory, to racing friends, and to Newstead Abbey, her father’s ancestral home. Ada and William finalized their plans for the tour of northern England. Their first stop was to visit the author Bulwer Lytton, later Lord Lytton. Little did Ada or Annabella realize that their two families would be joined in time. Annabella’s daughter would marry Bulwer Lytton’s grandson. After Ada and William visited the Lyttons, they travelled to see Captain Byron, Ada’s cousin, and went on to see Reverend Gamlen in Yorkshire. Ada was particularly excited about their next stop, to the Earl and the Countess of Zetland in Aske, where she could have a good look at the famous horse, Voltigeur.
The highlight of the trip was Newstead Abbey, which had been bought by Colonel Wildman from Ada’s father before he died. As poignant as Ada’s letters are, they can only give us a glimpse of what she must have felt. She worded her letters to her mother very carefully, most likely recognizing that her father, even after almost thirty-five years, still evoked strong feelings in her mother. If Ada intended her letters to be an unemotional travel plan, she was not successful. Serious problems developed between Ada and her mother after her visit to Newstead Abbey.
To Lady Byron
Monday Night, 19 August [1850]
London
We believed you to be at Brighton still, till we received yr two afternoon letters just before I set out today. I had been intending to write to you tonight to Brighton. – . . .
We leave on Thursday, for Sir E. Bulwer Lytton’s first, Knebworth – Herts; then the G. Byrons in Nottinghamshire; then the Nightingales, Derbyshire, then Gamlen; then the Zetlands; then the Cumberland Lakes about Sepr 6th; for 10 days or so. Then (I believe) we shall cut across the country again to Newstead for a day or two, (the Wildmans not being there now, & proposing to us the middle of Septr instead), half-way to Bristol
& Ashley, where we purpose to be by the . . .18th Septr. But we cannot afford to move the family &c to Ashley this year, so only L – & I. . . for perhaps about 3 weeks. – Perhaps we may linger there by way of economy, for a certain time.
I have had a bad rheumatic attack in one shoulder, which Chloroform cured.
To Annabella
Sunday, 25 August 1850
Dear Annabella. I hope this will be in time still to find you at Schwalbach. Papa wrote to you last Weddy from London. – We are at this moment at my relations Captain Byron, in Nottinghamshire – at a place called Thrumpton – about 8 miles from Nottingham. We have been visiting a very distinguished man in Hertfordshire, who has written many books which you will hereafter read (as thousands have) with delight, – Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton. He is a friend of ours’, but I do not think you have ever seen him. He has a great reputation all over the world, & I think I have heard Miss Wachter say that the Germans have a high admiration for his works . . .
We cannot afford to move the whole family, horses, luggage & c to Ashley this year. So Papa & I (with John & Miss Wilson) will be there. No one else. Rents are half paid, & we are in some difficulty. . .
We are glad that the new Admiral just appointed to the Pacific Station, is an old friend of ours, & most intimate friend of Mr Knight’s & Mr Halliday’s, Admiral Moresby. It may be of use to Byron. Tell this to Mrs Greig. Tell her also that the red Shawl she gave me is very much admired & very useful. It is the most comfortable Shawl I ever had.
I hope to find that your manners are quiet and those of a lady. When you return; & that you speak quietly & gently, & not as if you had been in a hurry-scurry, & state of over excitement. . .
Most affectly
A.A.L.
Newstead Abbey
To Lady Byron
Sunday, 8 September [1850]
Newstead Abbey
I received yrs at Bossall & gave Gamlen yr message If I was to be ill I could not have chosen so good a hospital as the Zetlands, & I am thankful it happened there. I should scarcely have been as well off at home, & they are in some danger of my going to them I think as to a Hospital – whenever ill. – Their doctor was successful with me also.
I cannot imagine what it is in my late letters which has set you speculating! I cannot remember having said anything whatever that could do so. –
We came here yesterday. I have not yet been over the whole, nor much about;- but it is grandly monastic, & everything speaks of the past history of the place & of the Byrons, for centuries. The repairs & restorations are most admirably done, and certainly no Byron could have afforded to do such justice to this antique & historical residence.
I feel as if, however, it ought to belong to me; & altogether horribly low & melancholy. All is like death round one; & I seem to be in the Mausoleum of my race. What is the good of living, when thus all passes away & leaves only cold stone behind it? There is no life here, but cold dreary death only, & everywhere – The death of everything that was! –
I am glad to see the home of my ancestors, but I shall not be sorry to escape from the grave. I see my own future continuing visibly around me. They were! I am, but shall not be. Alas ! Well, so it is – & will be world without end. –
We ought to have been happy, rich, & great. But one thing after another has sent us to the 4 winds of Heaven. The Civil Wars destroyed the estates & fortune, which were immense till the Roundheads seized it all. Only a very small part was restored to the Byrons afterwards.
They tell such tales here of “the Wicked old Lord” as he was called commonly, – my father’s predecessor & great-uncle, the one who killed Mr Chaworth.
I have not yet seen my father’s rooms. No one is here but the Hamilton Greys, & we are perfectly quiet, & just like Goody Two Shoes!
Only I feel as if I had become a stone monument myself. I am petrifying fast.
Newstead Abbey
Poetical Science
When we integrate poetry and science it can change our perception of reality. Lord Byron was just an image to Ada. She was familiar with his poetry, but not allowed to see his portrait until she was almost twenty. After her conversation with John Cam Hobhouse, Byron’s best friend, and John Murray, his publisher, she began to have another view of her father, which was not easy since her father was a celebrity. Her visit to Newstead allowed her to see a reality of his life. What she wrote about Newstead was eloquent, but we can only guess at the depth of her feelings. She went on with her summer tour, but her perception of her father changed.
23
Descending into the Grave, Resurrection, Doomsday
[1850-1851]
After Ada left Newstead Abbey on 15 September she reported that she was a “nomad.” She and William visited the beauties of Derbyshire. This is the countryside of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and the Lovelaces had a full itinerary. They visited Bolsover Castle, Hardwick Hall, then went on to “Peak Cavern, the old Castle (Peverils), & other wonders at Castleton.” The next day they went by “Bakewell to see Haddon Hall, – & on to Downdale .” The next morning they went to see “Alton Towers (Earl of Shrewsbury’s)” estate, yet psychologically she had not left Newstead Abbey.
She reflected about her visit and wrote that her first impression was “melancholy” which changed to “an affection ....as if it were an old home, ...that I must go back to it before a year is over.” At first she felt like she was “descending into the grave, but I have had a resurrection. – I do love the venerable old place & all my wicked forefathers!.” She praised Colonel Wildman who had bought the place and did a renovation which was thoughtful and in good taste. No Byron could have afforded it, but she wrote “there is an old prophecy that the place was to pass out of the family when it did, & which further adds that it is to come back in the present generation!”
She was so involved with her reaction to Newstead Abbey that she was impervious to how Lady Byron would react to such a letter. William and Ada even entertained the thought that at some time in the future they would purchase Newstead Abbey.
Lady Byron could not allow Ada to entertain any pleasant images of her father. She replied to Ada’s letters about Newstead by accusing Ada of harboring a “mythic image” of her father. Lady Byron was suspicious that she was the topic of conversation at Newstead. Ada tried to convey to her mother that she had no illusions about her father. According to her information, he left what remained of his estate to his half-sister, Augusta Leigh. Lord Byron had assumed that since Lady Byron was always complaining that she was on her death bed, she would die early and Ada would be left well off. That assumption turned out to be inaccurate.
Ada tried to put all these thoughts in the back of her mind as she prepared to go the Doncaster race and then to “Aske (the Zetlands), & then across Yorkshire to Kendal & the Lakes for a week or two.-”
The competition was between the favorites–the Flying Dutchman, and Voltigeur. William missed the first day of the races, but he was there for the big event and was the unfortunate victim of a pickpocket. After the race, on 25 September Ada wrote her mother from Aske:
The second victory of Voltigeur on Friday, when he won the Cup, beating the invincible Flying Dutchman – who it was supposed no horse could equal, – is the greatest triumph ever achieved in racing ! – It was a magnificent struggle between these two greatest of Horses! – Like single combat between two heroes. – I am glad to have seen this greatest of Races which will be historical. I believe that no horse has yet won the Derby, the St. Leger, and the Cup – especially against such a Champion as the Flying Dutchman.
Ada continued the letter and tried to smooth her mother’s anger at the visit to Newstead Abbey. Ada insisted that she had no “mythical veneration” of her father; instead, she felt he had not treated her properly—a very strange comment in that she had no direct knowledge of what he thought about her.
Lady Byron also wrote William. Ada replied: “We are much distressed at a few words in yrs to Lovelace today, which
we do not understand; an allusion to “agitation of late.’ Surely nothing we have done or said can have been the cause of any ‘agitation or anxiety! –” She wanted to discuss this issue further with her mother because, “I cannot bear the idea of yr going on under a mis-apprehension so painful, & (I can most positively & truly assure you) so unfounded..” She thanked her mother for the £30 gift stating she would wait till the following year to accept it.
Ada sent her mother a picture of Voltigeur and once again praised the horse, “a most earnest, conscientious, sort of horse, – & a very gentle & amiable.” Ada became very ill when she returned to the Zetlands’ home. They called in a Dr Malcolm to treat her. Ada was concerned about her mother’s intellectual plans for her and decided that they were not suitable. She was at a critical juncture in her life and had to avoid any kind of stress. What she wanted was just to be a wandering gypsy. She had, however, her own intellectual plans for her youngest son Ralph living with her mother. She believed his education should not be “where routine should be predominant,” but reason.
She went off to London to meet Babbage, who was concerned about Ada’s chronic ill health. He tried to get her to do something about it. He arranged for her to see a physician of his choice. When she arrived in London, she in turn prodded him to attend to the problems he faced. Their problems aside, they were both excited and delighted with the plans under way for the Great Exhibition in May 1851, an exhibition of the fruits of the Industrial Revolution. Babbage was writing a guide, The Great Exhibition of 1851, which was due to come out before the exhibition. The highlight of the exhibition was the Crystal Palace, a prefabricated glass building being built by Paxton to house industrial and technological displays.
Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers:Poetical Science Page 20