A Blighted Life/Supplemental Notes/Section 1
Supplemental Notes.
THE CASE OF LADY BULWER LYTTON.
From the Somerset County Gazette and West of England Advertiser,
July 13th, 1858.
For some three years past a lady, rather above middle age, of somewhat portly figure and handsome countenance, has occupied apartments in the quiet, comfortable, and pleasant establishment at Taunton, known as Clarke's Hotel. Her appearance, manners, and habits, so far as the latter were known, did not cause her to be particularly noticed as she walked in public; for she was much like ordinary ladies--plainly and becomingly dressed--conducted herself with propriety, remakred objects that were likely to attract attention, and passed without notice those that were not so. She sometimes did a little "shopping," as ladies generally are fond of doing, and when she asked for any particular article, she did so in ordinary terms, and answered questions in a rational manner, though at times with haughtiness. In her country walks she was occasionally accompanied by a female friend, though generally in these her only companion was a little dog, for which she always showed great fondness. Sometimes also she has been seen at public entertainments, though but seldom, and there her attire has been similarly becoming to that in her walks in town or country. In a place like Taunton, a person of any note does not long reside before he or she becomes known to many of the inhabitants; and soon after the arrival of the lady we have been describing she was generally known to be Lady Bulwer Lytton, wife of the eminent novelist, who now holds the position of Colonial Secretary in her Majesty's Government.
Persons who are in a state of madness give indications of their misfortunes at home and abroad. They
"Bend their eyes on vacancy,
And with the incorporeal air do hold discourse;
Their words are loose
As heaps of sand, and scattering wide from sense;"
But Lady Lytton during the three years she was at Taunton never did aught that we are aware of (and we have taken pains to ascertain the truth) to cause in any one with whom she had communication the slightest suspicion that in her case reason had been dethroned, or that her brain was in any degree affected with lunacy. Yet this lady has been taken from the quiet retreat she had chosen in this fair town of Somerset--perhaps we might say to which she was driven--and carried to one of the miserable abodes of the most hapless of human beings --a "Madhouse."
The circumstances under which Taunton has lost one of its inhabitants, are so extraordinary and so shocking, that, as may be supposed, they have greatly excited the minds of the people generally. Upon those persons who were on terms of intimacy with Lady Lytton (they were only few, for she evinced little inclination to mix in society, and it was pretty well known that her pecuniary means were too limited to allow of her doing so), upon her personal friends the first mention of the fact fell like a clap of thunder, when the skies give no sign of an approaching storm. They could not credit such strange information with truth; but when convinced of its veracity their exclamation has been, "Good Heavens! Lady Lytton in a Madhouse. For what? Who can have sent her there? She is no more mad than I am, or any one else." And those who have merely seen her as she passed them in the streets or other public highways, have been hardly less startled by the intelligence. There is on all hands a firm belief that this unfortunate lady--we say unfortunate in allusion only to her present lamentable position, and without reference to the circumstances which have given both to herself and her husband an unenvial notoriety--there is, we say, a firm belief that Lady Lytton is the subject of a horrible and appalling injustice and wrong; that while perfectly sane she has been shut up in a lunatic asylum, merely in order that a woman who has, no doubt, been a constant source of annoyance to her husband, may be prevented for ever, from again giving him similar trouble, or again molesting1 him in any way. IN ascribing to her the character we have given, we desire to void the indication of any opinion as to her conduct towards Sir Edward, or as to his general treatment of her. We only state a fact, that people among whom she has resided during a period of three years--to many of whom she is well and intimately known, and most of whom have had frequent opportunities of seeing her--believe that though sent to an asylum of lunatics, her intellect is perfectly sound, and therefore that she has been made, for some reason or other, the victim of an atrocity which a hundred years ago might have excited no great attention beyond the circle of the doomed one's own relatives, but which cannot be overlooked in the present age without danger to "that liberty of the subject" which has been since achieved, and which is the highest boast and most glorious privilege of the people of this country.
In giving to Lady Lytton the character we have ascribed, and in stating what is the general opinion of her in this town, we by no means wish to have it supposed that we regard her as one of the most pleasant or amiable of women. Her later literary works (for none of which can be claimed any considerable praise) seem to have been undertaken in a great measure for the purpose of publishing to the world her own sufferings, and of exposing what she conceived to be the foul treatment she received from one who vowed at the altar to "love and cherish her"; and in more than one instance her writings evince unkind and uncharitable feelings towards very estimable and excellent persons. We particularly allude to one of her latest productions, entitled, "Very Successful," in which a lady of this town, who is only known to be respected and esteemed, is held up to most undeserved ridicule for no other reason than that she did not desire to cultivate her ladyship's acquaintance, having, probably from the nature of her daily engagments, little time to give to the maintenance of friendships beyond the circle of associates she had already gathered around her. And we happen to know that in several cases her ladyship has manifefsted much haughtiness to persons who have had occasion to come in contact with her. But such things as these, however much to be deprecated in all persons, certainly cannot be regarded as evidence of a deranged brain,for if unkind and offensive personalitites in print were so considered, few writers would be safe from incarceration in a Lunatic Asylum; and if haughtiness were held to be proof of lunacy, who is there that should give the necessary "certificates," and who beome "warders"? Displays of ill-temper and malignity, of pride and arrogance, are never very reasonable; they are in truth very ridiculous; still there is much yet to be learnt if they are to be held as indications of madness. We make these remarks to show that, while under an impression--we will say a conviction--that in Lady Lytton's transfer to a Lunatic Asylum she has been made the victim of a shocking outrage and crime, we are not unacquainted with, or insensible to, her weaknesses and defects. And we may here state that our object in alluding to her case at all is to enforce by its publicity that strict investigation into its circumstances to which she is in common justice entitled, and which society demands for its own satisfaction and as its own safeguard.
Lady Lytton when married, in 1827, to Sir Edward, possessed a small property worth about £400 per annum, and it is stated that, her husband being then in far less affluent circumstances than at present, she transferred this to him, in order to give him a qualification for a seat in Parliament. Her experience of the married state was an unhappy one, and in 1838 a separation took place by mutual consent, Sir Edward consenting to pay her £400 a year during his life, which has been her allowance from that to the present time, notwithstanding he is, or is reputed to be, a wealthy man, his annual income being estimated at from £8,000 to £10,000.
Four hundred a-year being unequal to the requirements of a lady who had moved in the higher classes of society--leaving luxuries out of the question--Lady Lytton became involved in debt, which of late has claimed about one half of her income, and of course every year saw her sink deeper and deeper into the mire. One of her chief complaints against her husband was, the smallness of the means he allowed her for her support, and certainly if, as is stated, his own income is £10,000, it is a very reasonable one--for the allowance of £8 a year to his wife by a man whose income is £200 would be just in the same proportion; and there are few who would not decry and condemn the injustice which such a payment by a person having £200 a-year would exhibit. By the deed of separation Lady Lytton was to possess in her own right any property she might acquire thereafter, which has been chiefly from her publications--in some cases remunerative, but in others miserable failures. She has been severely censured for the bitterness displayed in some of her writings, but perhaps not altogether with justice. Let those who woul condemn the use of harsh language just learn under what circumstances it has been used; and if they find the author's life has been one of excessive trial and suffering--that she has either been compelled to quit, or has felt it imperatively necessary to flee from, the house of her husband--that from a position of pecuniary ease she has been cast down to a condition of humiliating poverty--that instead of her society being courted by numerous "frinds" whose acts of kindness caused her dasy to pass lightly and happily, she is shunned by most of them as no longer worthy of their regard--that while her husband still moves among the gayest and noblest of society, she remains the occupant of two small rooms in a country hotel--if they make in her case the allowance which such an accululation of woes and miseries ought to ensure, they will not fail to be very sparing of censure--they will hardly express surprise, perhaps, at the display of ill-feeling, however bitter or general it may be. When a person is treated as an Ishmael, it is not to be wondered at if he regards himself as such; and the best of tempers will at last be soured and ruined by constant irritation and suffering. A not very high authority has said, "Reveng is sweet, especially to women." Perhaps he did not flatter the sex when he so wrote; but assuredly if there are ever circumstances in which the worm will turn, and may be pardoned for turning, they are such as here represented. It is human so to turn, as it is to "err" generally. When persons are under a higher influence than any which belongs to mere humanity, they may adopt a higher line of conduct, and submit patiently to whatever befalls them, under a conviction that it is good for them to suffer; but Lady Lytton has never made any pretensions or professions that would justify the higher standard to her case, and therefore should not be too hardly judged. Directing one's thoughts of the unfavourable effect produced by her display of bitter feeling towards others--though they are those to whom she ascribes treatment almost too dreadful for human endurance--her life appears unsullied and blameless. This is a tribute undeniably her due.
Lady Lytton has for some years past endeavored to obtain an increase to her allowance, which in consequence of the liabilities which she had incurred and was obliged to meet as best she could, had fallen to about £180 per annum; but her appeals, is not wholly disregarded, were not quite unsuccessful. Continually smarting under the denial of her claims, and rendered desperate probably by increasing difficulties, she determined to adopt a step which might prove more effective in this behalf than the means she had previously employed. Sir Edward having recently accepted office as a Cabinet Minister, the seat he held in Parliament as one of the members for Hertfordshire became vacant, and according to custom it was necessary for him to meet his constituents in order to his re-election. Lady Lytton resolved to be present upon that occasion, and to take a conspicuous part in the proceedings. Before she left Taunton she caused handbills to be circulated in Hertfordshire in which it was announced that she would address the assembled electors on the day of the nomination; and accompanied by a female friend, she proceeded by railway to Oxford and then posted to Hertford. Precaution seems to have been taken to prevent the scandal which had been thus threatened, and on her arriving at the hotel, and asking at what hour the proceedings at the hustings would commence, she was answered that it was twelve o'clock--the fact being that eleven was the time appointed. Shortly before twelve, still in the company of her friend, she drove to the hustings in a hired carriage, and arrived there just in time to hear her husband close his address with an eloquent tribute to the galaxy of beauty by which he was surrounded. The scene that followed is thus graphically described in a London contemporary:--
"Towards the close of the proceedings of the Hertfordshire election, just after Sir Edward had concluded his address with a fervent tribute of admiration to the womany beauty exhibited in the long line of open carriages, chaises and vans, drawn up in front of the hustings, there was an unwonted stir in the crowd, which parted to admit of the passage of a hired brougham from one of the town inns. Two ladies alighted--one an exceedingly handsome woman of about 45 years of age, with fresh complexion and eyes of dazzling beauty. Evidently labouring under sxcitement, she advanced through the crowd towards the hustings, and announced herself as the wife of Sir E. Bulwer Lytton. She had come according to promise to confront her husband and expose the wrongs described in her works and in a pamphlet. The appearance of the lady was not unexpected, as her coming had been announced in placards and bills; but some person had detained her while the election was proceeding in the vicinity. Recognised, as soon as observed, her voice was nearly drowned by the shouts of Sir Edward's supporters: but Sir Edward's eye caught hers, and his face paled. He looked like a man suddenly attacked by paralysis. Those near him say he trembled exceedingly. For a few moments he retained his position in front of the hustings, and turned his back on the unwelcome visitor. Then he suddenly disappeared below the hustings platform, while his wife cried out 'Coward,' and he having hastily signed the usual declaration, escaped into the residence of the gentleman on whose grounds the election took place. Lady Lytton continued to address the audience assembled for more than a quarter of an hour. Her ladyship subsequently made an application to the Mayor for the use of the Town Hall, for the purpose of making a public statement; but this being refused her, she left the town early in the afternoon. Lady Lytton arrived in Hertford at three o'clock on the morning of the election, having posted from Taunton, where she resides. It is needless to say that the event has caused the greatest possible excitement in Hertfordshire."
For several months past, her ladyship was under an impression that she was closely watched, and she seemed to be suspicious that the object of this espionage was the miserable fate which hs at last fallen upon her.
Circumstances occurred about a moth ago that were of a charcter to confirm her apprehensions. At that time a gentleman came to Taunton, and took up his residence at the Castle Hotel, which was in close contiguity to the house in which she resided. He had had a great deal to do with the subject of her separation from Sir Edward, being, in fact, the honourable baronet's solicitor, and she held him in extreme aversion. He remained here some short time, it is said, and then left, but not before his sojourn had become known to her ladyship. On the 12th of June, another gentleman arrived in Taunton, and calling at Clarke's Hotel, sent his card to Lady Lytton, with a request for an interview. This was a "Dr. Thompson," and he was accompanied by a nurse from a neighbouring lunatic asylum. After some reflection, her ladyship consented to his admission, but took the precaution to request the landlady's presence during his stay. Mrs. Clarke was present accordingly, and we are informed that the conversation which ensued between LadyLytton and Dr. Thompson, originated and sustained by him, referred wholly to subjects that were calculated to excite intense anger and indignation on her part. This interview lasted five hours, and at last she asked if he had not come from Mr. Loader, Sir Edward's solicitor, to which interrogatory he answered, "I am." Her ladyship, who had preserved unwonted calmness, then asked, "Is the farce played out?--and if not, how much longer is it to last?" Dr. Thompson replied, "The farce is ended and your ladyship will not, from this hour, hear any more upon these painful matters." It may be stated that during the interview, two police officers, a solicitor, and a medical gentleman, were in the adjoining room, the object of whose presence it is not difficult to imagine. But Lady Lytton's calmness rendered their presence unnecessary. Previous to his departure, Dr. Thompson requested her to put upon paper what demand she wished to make upon her husband; and she complied, writing in substance as follows:--"Sir Edward to pay my debts, the interest of which swallows up the greater part of my income, and increase my income to £500 a year. Upon his doing this, I solemnly promise never agin to molest him in any way, nor even to mention his name." Dr. Thompson promised to lay these requirements before Sir Edward immediately upon his return to London, and then withdrew, Lady Lytton giving vent on his departure to her overwrought feelings in a flood of tears, which could not be restrained fro a considerable time, notwithstanding the consolation offered by the landlady, whose kindness to her throughout these painful and sad proceedings had been very great; and even of the nurse, whose opinion as to the state of her ladyship's mind had undergone a considerable change since the time she was in her presence.
Several days elapsed, and still no communication arriving from Dr. Thompson, Lady Lytton naturally became impatient, and she wrote him, reminding him of his promise, and requesting information as to his success with Sir Edward. No answer was received to her letter, and she addressed him again and again with the same result. Unable to remain longer in suspense, upon a matter of such moment, she at last wrote to him to the effect that she would go to London in the course of the following week, and hoped to be able to see him with a view to a final arrangement. Unfortunately for her, she carried out her intention.
Accompanied by a Miss Ryves, and a lady of Taunton, who has always taken an interest in her affairs, and will hereafter be found, it is presumed, capalbe of rendering her very important service in the proceedings which are contemplated, with a view to prove her sanity, Lady Lytton took an evening train, and arrived in London shortly after 5 o'clock in the morning, a dreary time to enter the great lumbering city, even when one's business is of no such dreary character as theirs. The chief reason of ther travelling by night instead of by day, was the inability of the female friend referred to, to remain away from her home more than one day. But another may have been a sudden desire of Lady Lytton's to know, without further delay, what determination, if any, her husband had come to with respect to her written request, takine charge of by Dr. Thompson--an insatiable craving for the answer which should place her in comparatively pecuniary ease, or doom her still to the "shameful needs of peverty." Entering an hotel, they partook of refreshments, and whiled way, as well s they could, the laggin hours until what was deemed an appropriate time to call upon Dr. Thompson came round. They then set out, and on reaching his house were courteously received. It was remarked by the doctor, however, that as they had come rather early, "Would they do him the favour to postpone discussion of the subject which had brought them until five o'clock in the afternoon?" Assent was, of course, given, and at the hour specified they were again at the door of his residence. On announcing their names, they were shown into the drawing-room, and Dr. Thompson waited upon them. He had hastily closed the door, however, when it was again opened, and another gentleman entered--"A friend of mine, who has casually dropped in." It was remarked that, notwithstanding the subject to be discussed, and which had been broached, was quite of a private nature, the friend kept his seat, and that though he took no part in the converstaion, he listened attentively to what was said. There being signs that the interview was near its close, he withdrew. Lady Lytton seemed to have, on entering the house, a presentiment that there was no favourable information for her, and after putting a few questions to Dr. Thompson, which he answered hesitatingly, she said, "You have not consulted Sir Edward, Dr. Thompson; tell me, is that the case?" He owned that he could not give her any satisfactory answer, and her ladyship arose with her friends to depart, Dr. Thompson expressing a desire that she would not hurry away. Nevertheless she proceeded, and, on getting outside the room, was astonished to see before her two policemen, two women who had the appearance of nurses, and a gentleman who, it has since been found, is a keeper of a Lunatic Asylum in the neighbourhood of London. Dissemblance or concealment being no longer necessary or possible, the purpose of this assembly was in a few words explained.
There are not many persons in existence, mad or not mad, who on discovery of so horrifying a nature would not have become wild with excitement, and fallen into a state closely bordering upon insanity; but Lady Lytton sustained throughout these most trying and frightful circumstances a calm and dignified demeanour. She was indeed the calmest of the two--herself and her Taunton friend--for the affrighted Miss Ryves had rushed into the street. She was ushered into another room, on entering whcih she observed a figure, like that of Sir Edward's, hastily retreating by a door at the other end. At first she refused to yield up her liberty, but the policemen were called, and she then said, "Resistance being vain, I submit, but under sompulsion." Her friend insisted upon accompanying her, and she saw on the table in the room a paper which she presumed to be a certificate of Lady Lytton's insanity. Upon this were the names of two medical gentlemen, and it is believed of Sir Edward. Her ladyship being requested to proceed to the dor, where she was told a carriage was ready to receive her, again refused compliance except under sompulsion; and on this the policemen, each taking an arm, led her forward--her friend--the only one she could in these tremendous moments of agony appeal to--endeavouring to console her and seeming to comfort her by the confident exclamations, "Never mind, Lady Lytton; they may take you, but they cannot take me. You may be inside the Asylum, but I shall be out." One might suppose that under such circumstances some gentleman to whom her ladyship was known, some male friend, would have been requested to attend and witness proceedings which were so terribly to affect her, whcih were to convey her to a living tomb, to worse than death; but, besides the lady to whom we have so often referred, there was no one present on Lady Lytton's part. The policemen "did their duty," and her ladyship was constrained to enter the carriage, her friend forcing herself in immediately after, and refusing to leave her. One or two gentlemen also seating themselves within it, the party was rapidly driven to an Asylum at Brentford, kept by a person of the name of Hill.
Arrived at the gates of the gloomy abode, the ladies were told they must part, and after a short scene, which we will not attempt to depict, they separated, the gates closing on "The Insane," and her friend being driven back to her lodgings. Previous to this lady's leaving London, she received a note from Sir Edward's solicitor, in which it was stated that the hon. baronet would be glad to see her at his residence, NO. 1, Park-lane. She indignantly declined the interview. Shortly aftewards the solicitor called and represented that it might be advantageous to her to see Sir Edward; but she gave him a denial in similar terms, and immediately returned to Taunton.
On the following day the Solicitor came to Taunton, and calling upon Mrs. Clarke, demanded all the documents and other papers and such other property as Lady Lytton had left; but Mrs. Clarke refused to deliver and dared him to remove any of them, alleging as one reason that she had a lien upon them in the shape of a bill of £300 against her Ladyship; but in truth she was fortified in her refusal by a letter from Mr. Hyde, Lady Lytton's solicitor, who had previously informed her, if any attempt should be made to take the property, or any part of it, she would be justified in calling in the police and giving the party into custody. Mr. Loader offered to pay the bill, but the answer to this was, "I would rather forfeit every shilling of it than deliver the goods to you. They are in my possession, and I will not allow of their removal." Finding persuasion vain, Mr. Loader retired.
Endnotes[edit]
- molest: to disturb, annoy, or harass