‘It is very amusing for some people are so indescribably unlucky with their horses’: Anne Isabella King to AAL, 18 August 1852, WP, Add MS 54091.
‘Yet my heart yearns towards Lady Byron’: WL to Woronzow Greig, 20 August, 1852, MSBY Dep c. 368, folder MSBY-1.
‘It is fortunate that Lady Byron has been domiciled with us during this time’: William Lovelace, from 6 Great Cumberland Place, to Lady Hester King Sr, 27 November 1852, LKC.
Chapter Twenty-three: Life after Ada (1852–3)
‘The Rainbow’: Ada’s sonnet was inscribed on the 1854 monument that her mother ordered to be erected in a remote corner of the churchyard at Kirkby Mallory. A few (silently corrected here) errors in punctuation, together with the misdating of Ada’s birth to 27 December 1816 and the alteration of her name from ‘Augusta Ada’ to ‘Ada Augusta’, indicate that Lady Byron herself never saw the completed monument. It was engraved with a biblical quotation that either Ada or her mother (or both) picked out before her death. The most relevant phrase was the final one: ‘And if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.’ (James 5:15). The shrine takes the shape of a niched altar and is now rather neglected. Several Byron graves are close by.
‘I thought of the words “conceived in sin” ’: Florence Nightingale to her sister, Parthenope, Monday, dated by editor as ‘after 29 November, 1852’. Lynn McDonald (ed.), Florence Nightingale on Society and Politics, Philosophy, Science, Education and Literature (2003), vol. 5, pp. 759–62, in Collected Works of Florence Nightingale, 16 vols. (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2000–2012). Florence appears to have believed that Ada had inherited syphilis.
‘they may be most thankful they have Mrs Clark there to depend on’: ibid.
The earl was willing to become as wax in her hands: Woronzow Grieg, draft letter to AINB, 2 December 1852, MSBY Dep c. 367, folder MSBY-6.
Annabella did not resist the opportunity to remind her son-in-law of the ‘unlimited confidence’ he had formerly expressed: AINB to WL, 16 December 1852, Dep. Lovelace Byron 59, fols. 338–40.
‘every cherished conviction of my married life has been unsettled’: WL to AINB, 17 December 1852, DLM transcript.
‘an additional act of treachery’: Woronzow Grieg to SL, 9 February 1853, Dep. Lovelace Byron 90, fols. 36–7.
while he himself had ‘fairly broken down under the part which I have taken’: Woronzow Greig to WL, 26 February, 1853, Dep. Lovelace Byron 171.
‘Can she desire to force us into Court?’: Woronzow Greig to SL, 2 April 1853, Dep. Lovelace Byron 90, fols. 38–9.
a man entirely ‘destitute of honour and principle’: Woronzow Greig to WL, 14 April 1853, Dep. Lovelace Byron 171.
They did not even care to allow him the coroneted and monogrammed gold pencil case: Ada’s bequest to John Crosse, Dep. Lovelace Byron 175, fol. 161.
In 1880, John’s son and namesake would inherit from his father a gold ring: Information about John Crosse’s later life is gratefully taken from Brian Wright, Andrew Crosse and the Mite that Shocked the World (Matador, 2015).
‘full of much bitter vituperation, and containing a reflection upon her so malignant that I cannot describe it’: AINB to Woronzow Greig, 9 March 1853, MSBY Dep c. 367 folder MSBY-4.
Rumours (she wrote) might have reached the Somervilles: AINB to Mary Somerville, 9 March 1853, MSBY Dep c. 367, folder MSBY-1.
‘there was so much feeling in both his words and manner’: Henry Hope Reed to Alexander Bache (n.d. 1854). The letter appeared in The Southern Review, 1867. Extracts are published in Appendix 1 of Sydney Padua, The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage (Particular Books, 2015). Professor Reed drowned on the steamship Arctic while returning to America from Europe in September 1854.
Lady Byron remarked that, while chilled by Mrs Jameson’s ‘persistent attacks’: AINB to Anna Jameson, 13 February 1854, HRC, Byron O/S box 14.
she herself could no longer bear to see ‘any friend who reminds me of her’: Gerardine Macpherson, Memoir of the Life of Anna Jameson (Roberts Bros, 1878), pp. 281–3.
Nevertheless, the letter-writer was permitted to state that her grandmother would contribute £50: AINK to Susan Zilari, 3 May, 1859–60, HRC, Byron box 6.3.
Chapter Twenty-four: Enshrinement (1853–60)
‘I am so happy this evening’: AINB to AAL, 30 November 1844, Dep. Lovelace Byron 55.
The visits paid by Annabella to her grandmother’s airy Brighton home each spring: AINK to AINB, n.d., WP, Add MS 54093.
‘To this I cannot consent’: AINB to Arthur Mair, 15 August 1857, HRC, bound vol. 1 of the Byron Collection.
By the spring of 1855, after working his way back to England: Byron Ockham’s obscure movements can be partially tracked by reading the letters about him to AINB from his always concerned and affectionate sister (WP, Add MS 54093).
‘I was much pleased with Lady Byron,’ the savvy old gentleman noted that night: Henry Crabb Robinson, 17 September 1853, in T. Sadler (ed.) Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence of H. C. Robinson 2 vols. (Macmillan, 1869); London Review, xxxiii, October 1869 – January 1870, p. 326 (in a review of the above mentioned book).
‘now or never will he form desirable connections’: AINB to Louisa (Mrs Robert) Noel, 26 June 1855, Dep. Lovelace Byron 103, fols. 99–211.
‘When socially disposed, you will invite yourself’: AINB to George and Louisa MacDonald, 1856, Joan Pierson, The Real Lady Byron (Robert Hale, 1992), p. 297. It was another friend, Thomas Carlyle, who provided the name ‘Liberty Hall’ for Annabella’s Irish style of hospitality.
Crabb Robinson, encountering the couple there during the following spring, was impressed: H. C. Robinson, 16 April 1859, in Sadler, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 396.
‘the most intelligent-looking negro I ever saw’: H. C. Robinson, 24 May 1853, ibid., p.340.
‘Many of her words surprised me greatly, and gave me new material for thought’: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Lady Byron Vindicated, or a History of the Byron Controversy (Sampson Low, Son & Marston, 1870) Pt. 2, Ch. 1.
On the second, their schoolboy son Henry was introduced to Byron Ockham: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s views are paraphrased from the account she provided in Lady Byron Vindicated, pp. 145–6.
And what, a pale-faced and emotional Lady Byron asked at the end of her enthralling monologue, should she do now?: ibid., in paraphrase.
‘I often think how strange it is that I should know you’: Harriet Beecher Stowe to AINB, 5 June 1857, in Charles Beecher Stowe, The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe (Sampson Low, Son & Marston, 1889).
Lady Byron compared it to Adam Bede (‘the book of the season’): AINB to Harriet Beecher Stowe, 31 May 1859, Beecher Stowe, op. cit., p. 50.
‘The sooner you commence the better’: Anna Jones to AINB, 18 April 1859, Dep. Lovelace Byron 76, fols. 30–61.
‘She was enjoying one of those bright intervals of freedom from pain and languor’: Beecher Stowe, op. cit., p. 152.
That spontaneous gift, Harriet later observed, was entirely in keeping: ibid.
Travelling back from the funeral: Gerard Ford to RL, 12 January 1887, Dep. Lovelace Byron 184, fol. 53.
The will was extensive[fn]: Dep. Lovelace Byron 152, fol. 19.
Chapter Twenty-five: Outcast
‘She gloried in his fame.’: Harriet Martineau, Biographical Sketches (Arlington, 1868), pp. 316–25, in which the 1860 Daily News article was reprinted as part of a collection taken from Martineau’s essays and reviews for that paper. The Martineau correspondence about the project is in HM 131–8, CRL.
‘& yet it would seem she [Lady Byron] must have been much mistaken’: AINK to Agnes Greig, 19 June 1867, MSBY Dep c. 367, folder MSBY-7.
‘O madame! madame!’: Memoirs of Alexandre Dumas, Père (Michel Lévy Frères, 1852–6). Dumas included a short, spontaneous life of Byron, during which he recalled – with merry disrespect – his own encounter with a flirtatious and golden-haired Contessa Guiccioli in Rome.
When Monsieur de
Boissy died in 1866, Teresa was still feeling incensed: Mary R. Darby Smith: La Marquise de Boissy and the Count de Waldeck, Memories of Two Distinguished Persons (J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1878), p. 27. Smith describes a spirit encounter with Byron at Madame de Boissy’s Paris home in March 1868. His messages, faithfully transcribed by their recipient, the marquise, are notably lacking in wit or originality. They speak only of his devotion to Teresa Guiccioli and his interest in her visitor (as a Byron-lover).
‘precise and complete information as to everything’: Ralph Wentworth to AINK, 17 March 1869, WP, Add MS 54093–7.
Writing from England on 10 December 1869, George Eliot rebuked Stowe: Joan D. Hedrick, Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life (OUP, 1994), p. 467.
Reverting to her finest declamatory style, Mrs Stowe set up a caricature: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Lady Byron Vindicated, or a History of the Byron Controversy (Sampson Low, Son & Marston, 1870), pp. 78–9.
a crestfallen Ralph wrote to tell his sister that it was ‘physically impossible’: Ralph Wentworth to Lady Anne Blunt (formerly AINK), 7 July 1872 (and all correspondence between these two), WP, Add MS 54093–7.
The strength of her attachment to him is apparent: I am indebted to Virginia Murray for the detailed reader’s notes to Doris Langley Moore’s unpublished memoir, and to Sir Roy Strong (25 and 26 March 2015) for background details, based upon his friendship with Langley Moore. Lady Selina Hastings (2 February 2015) supplied the account of the Hucknall wedding. Her mother, Margaret Lane, was a close friend of Mrs Langley Moore. Her account of the Hucknall wedding is confirmed both in the memoir and in a letter written by Mrs Langley Moore to Robert Innes-Smith (18 February 1988), in which she playfully suggested that they might yet repeat the exhumation of Byron’s corpse that had been carried out in 1938. Mr Innes-Smith had sent her the account by James Betteridge (the young caretaker who was present at the 1938 disinterment) of Byron’s appearance. The features, so Betteridge affirmed, had been ‘easily recognisable from the many pictures we had seen’. Byron’s skin had turned the colour of dark stone (Robert Innes-Smith, Sunday Telegraph, 7 February 1988). It would appear that this was accurate, and that Hobhouse’s inability (in 1824: see Cochran online diary) to recognise the lifeless features of his old friend may have been due to his emotions.
PICTURE CREDITS
Pagelink: Portrait of Annabella Milbanke (1792–1860) later Lady Byron, c.1800 (oil on canvas), Hoppner, John (1758–1810) / Ferens Art Gallery, Hull Museums, UK / Bridgeman Images (top); portrait miniature of Annabella Milbanke, by George Hayter, reproduced by permission of Paper Lion Ltd and Lord Lytton (bottom).
Pagelink: Portrait of Ada Byron (1815–1852), c.1822 (oil on canvas, laid on board), Comte d’Orsay (1801–1852) / Somerville College, Oxford (top); Puff in repose, courtesy of William St Clair (middle); (Augusta) Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (1815–1852), 1836 (oil on canvas), Margaret Sarah Carpenter (1793–1872). Crown copyright: UK Government Art Collection (bottom).
Pagelink: George Gordon Noel Byron, 6th Baron Byron (1788–1824), 1813 (oil on canvas), Thomas Phillips (1770–1845). Crown copyright: UK Government Art Collection (top); portrait of George Anson, 8th Baron Byron (1818–1870), 1840 (lithograph), author’s collection.
Pagelink: Portrait of Lady Melbourne (1751–1818), c.1809, Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769–1830), courtesy of Lord and Lady Ralph Kerr (top); portraits of Augusta Leigh and Medora Leigh, unknown provenance (middle, bottom).
Pagelink: Portrait of William King in dress uniform, signed, inscribed and dated ‘Sevilla 1831’ (oil on canvas), José Gutiérrez de la Vega (1791–1865), private collection, courtesy Kalfayan Galleries, Athens/ Thessaloniki (top left); portrait of Lady Hester King, Sr, 1832 (oil on canvas), John Linnell (1792–1882) © Brooklands Museum archives, reproduction of the image courtesy of Penelope Daly (top right); Lady Hester King, Jr, Brooklands Museum archives (middle left) and Reverend Sir George Crauford (middle right) c.1844 (oil on canvas), Eden Upton Eddis (1812–1901) © Brooklands Museum archives; East Horsley Towers sale of notice © Brooklands Museum archives (bottom).
Pagelink: Obituary portrait of Charles Babbage (1791–1871) published in The Illustrated London News, 4 November 1871. Portrait derived from a photograph of Babbage taken at the Fourth International Statistical Congress, London, July 1860 / Wikimedia Commons (top left); Mary Somerville (1780–1872), self-portrait (oil on panel) © Somerville College, University of Oxford (top right); Analytical Engine © Science Museum / Science & Society Picture Library, all rights reserved (bottom).
Pagelink: Portrait of Ada Lovelace (daguerreotype), Antoine Claudet (1843–1849), private collection (top); portrait of Ada Lovelace, September 1852, Lady Byron, Bodleian, Lovelace Byron Papers (bottom).
Pagelink: Portrait of Byron Ockham (1836–1862) (top left) and portrait of Ralph Wentworth (1839–1906) (top right) (daguerreotypes), Antoine Claudet (1843–1849), private collection; Lady Anne Blunt (1837–1917), c.1900, held at the Fitzwilliam, Cambridge, in the Scawen Blunt Collection (bottom).
INDEX
A note about the index: The pages referenced in this index refer to the page numbers in the print edition. Clicking on a page number will take you to the ebook location that corresponds to the beginning of that page in the print edition. For a comprehensive list of locations of any word or phrase, use your reading system’s search function.
Abbotsford (Scott’s house), 135
abolitionism, 430–1, 439
Acheson, Lady Annabella, 193–4
Acheson, Lady Olivia, 193, 204, 237
Acurus crossii (mites), 304, 311–12
Adelaide, Queen of William IV, 187
Adelaide, the (Strand building), 187
Albany (London apartments), 53
Albert, Prince Consort, 295, 349
Albury, 327–8
American Civil War, 439
Arago, Jean, 242
Arbogast, Louis François Antoine: Du calcul des dérivations, 278
Arnold, Lieutenant, 421, 427
Ashley Combe, Somerset: attraction, 202; Ada honeymoons at, 204; De Morgan declines to visit, 226; Ada rides at, 229; William Lovelace converts, 240, 247, 251, 326; Crosse visits, 305; Ada’s carriage accident at, 321; remoteness from Annabella, 351; demolished, 464
Aston Hall, Yorkshire, 49n
Athenaeum (magazine), 333, 451, 457
Atlantic Monthly, The, 447, 448n, 449
atmospheric railway, 240 & n
Austen, Jane: Pride and Prejudice, 42
Babbage, Charles: Ada meets, 182, 186–8, 190–1, 194; background and achievements, 188; plans steam-powered computing machine (‘Difference Engine’), 189–91, 193–5, 222, 265; discussion with Mary Somerville, 194–5; develops advanced machine (‘Analytical Engine’), 195 & n, 196, 220, 223; seeks financial backing, 195; spends Christmas at Ockham Park, 209; Ada criticises to Mary Somerville, 218–19; contributes to Whewell’s ‘Bridgewater Treatises’, 218; Ada appeals to for help, 220; attends Italian conferences (1840), 222, 230, 243; frustrated endeavours, 222, 224; co-founds Cambridge Analytical Society, 225; Ada offers to assist, 229–30, 242, 346; Ada translates and annotates paper on Analytical Engine, 258, 260–8, 271, 275, 373; Ada invites to Ashley Combe, 259–60; meeting with Peel, 260; unsociability, 260; Menabrea publishes account of Analytical Engine, 261; Ada sends enquiries to, 271–3; Ada’s correspondence with, 274, 333; preface to Ada’s article, 276–7; Lovelace proposes taking over machine project, 277–8, 332; reconciled with Ada, 279; encourages Ada’s relations with Faraday, 296–7; teases Ada over Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, 300; visits Andrew Crosse at Fyne Court, 303; Ada complains about John Crosse to, 311; Ada proposes raising money for machine, 332; Ada’s devotion to, 332; money-raising projects, 333; plans game-playing automaton, 333, 346; and William Nightingale, 333; Ada offers ‘book’ to, 334–5, 346, 367; letter from Ada on son Byron, 345; lacks investors, 346; prepares guide to 1851 Great Exhibition, 350n, 363; and Ada’s health remedies, 355–6; and Ada’s gambli
ng circle, 367, 407; Ada asks to purchase Byron’s rifle and pistols, 372n; and Brewster, 374; given draft of Ada’s will, 388, 407; Annabella’s dispute with over Ada, 407–9; proposes publishing memoir on Ada, 407–8; refuses Annabella request for return of Ada’s papers, 407–8; bequest to Mary Wilson, 408n; claims Ada credulous and lacking in imagination, 409; On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures, 192
Babbage, Herschel, 195
Baillie family, 147, 152–3, 171
Baillie, Agnes, 25, 135
Baillie, Joanna, 14, 25, 59, 135, 175–6, 287, 300
Baillie, Dr Matthew, 103
Baker, Mrs (of Elemore Hall, Co. Durham), 7, 131
Bankes, William, 24, 38
Barnard, Lady Anne Lindsay, 95, 100n
Barrallier, Captain, 271, 275
Barwell, Louisa, 229, 270
Bastard, Thomas Horlock, 437
Bathurst, Lady Caroline, 437
Bathurst, Henry, 437, 453
Beaurepaire, Nathalie, 244, 256, 271, 273
Beaurepaire, Victor, 244, 256, 270, 273
Beecher, Dr Lyman, 325
Bence-Jones, Henry, 336
Bentham, Jeremy, 207
Bernoulli, Jakob, 267–8
Berryer, Pierre, 269
Bibliothèque universelle de Genève, 261
Bifrons (house), near Canterbury, 163, 165
Blacket, Joseph, 14–15, 32–3, 423
Blackwell, Dr Elizabeth, 175, 426
Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, 137, 446–8, 450, 453
Blessington, Marguerite, Countess of, 137, 243n
Blomfield, Sir Arthur, 329
Blonde, HMS, 152
Blücher, Marshal Gebbard Leberecht von, 88
Blunt, Lady Anne Isabella (Annabella; née King; later Baroness Wentworth; Ada’s daughter): birth, 211–13, 219; Ada criticises behaviour, 216, 229; childhood, 216; Ada’s ambitions for, 284; Ada disciplines, 291; education and upbringing, 292, 336, 338, 346, 418; neglected as child, 315; relations with grandmother, 316; rudeness, 320, 336; thrilled at move to London house, 331; keeps diary, 337; adores governess Wächter, 339; protected from brothers, 342, 460; puberty, 348; Agnes Greig offers to chaperone round Europe, 350; moves to Greigs and Ockham, 363; Ada asks to write to thank Faraday, 374; second journey round Europe, 379; attends Burrs’ ball, 380–1; responsibilities at Horsley, 380; and dying Ada, 385–6, 393; finds toy racing game, 387; confined to Horsley Towers, 417– 18; friendship with grandmother, 434; revisits Horsley Towers and father, 441; brother Ralph sends mother’s papers to, 442; marriage to Blunt, 447, 456; settles at Crabbet Park, Sussex, 456; Mary Lovelace on, 462–3; death, 463
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