I wrote a long letter to a Lord once. Specifically, to Nathaniel Fiennes, Lord Saye and Sele. I had bought a lengthy series of Victorian letters from someone on ebay which turned out to concern a distant relative of the Fiennes and I thought the family might be interested in having copies. A young American woman named Ellen had married one of the Saye and Sele sons, and come to live in London. Within a few years she sickened and eventually died and the letters are all about her illness and subsequent death. I had very kind letter back from one of Lord Saye and Seles sons. I discovered the interchange on my computer today when I was looking for something else altogether, but I think Ill put my letter to the Lord here, as its a comprehensive record of the series of letters I bought and what I discovered about the authors and the recipients. Pay attention, Tabby. Youll inherit these letters one day and they are really very interesting from a social history point of view. Heres what I wrote: Please forgive my writing to you in this unsolicited manner, but I really think you might be interested in a recent purchase I made on the internet. A few months ago I discovered the joys of buying antiquarian letters at online auction sites. One of my first finds was of a series of mourning covers addressed to a Mrs Parkman at 3 Rutland Gate, Knightsbridge - all covering a short period in the spring of 1862. They concerned the illness and subsequent death of Mrs Parkmans sister, The Honourable Mrs. Edward Twisleton - or dearest Ellen as she is constantly referred to in the letters. I became so interested in these letters, that I contacted the original seller in Oklahoma and asked if he had any more. Ive since bought another twenty or thirty from the same source. He told me that hed never even looked at the contents as hes a stamp collector and only interested in the covers. (Before you condemn him as an American philistine, you should know that Im an American too - although Ive lived here since the late sixties, so I suppose Im more mid-Atlantic now.) Anyway, back to the letters. They are amazing. As I read through them and tried to piece together the family history, I kept coming across tantalisingly familiar names. John Fiennes; Hilary Bonham Carter; Mr Chandos Leigh; Sir James Clark; Lord Leigh, Lady Lyell. Id look them up on the internet, and I was able to find so much more information there. One of the early letters was from John Fiennes writing from Broughton Castle, and when I did a search for the castle, I found your site and much information in the letters became clearer. My Ellen ( as I had begun to think of her) was buried at Broughton Castle on Friday, May 23rd 1862. The first few letters are from the 1850s and are addressed to The Honourable Mr and Mrs Edward Twisleton at Rutland Gate. (I had no trouble finding Edward Twisleton on the net - he was the Irish Poor Law Commissioner who resigned over the governments appalling treatment of the Irish poor during the potato famine. But you probably know that.) He seems to have been the uncle of John Fiennes (17th Lord Saye and Sele) and one of the earliest letters in the bunch is from Lord Saye and Sele - thanking his dear aunt and uncle for their last letter and congratulating Edward Twisleton on some new political appointment. He says that the appointment , made a great shew in the Banbury Guardian this week, only they would put the horrid second t into the name. Theres a gap of several years in the correspondence, and by then its clear that Ellen is in the last stages of a lingering illness. Her sister, Mrs Parkman with her three small children, has come to stay in London, and all of the latter letters are addressed to her, care of Mr Twisleton. I think Mrs Parkman must have been a young widow because people constantly refer to her little children but theres never any mention of a Mr Parkman. For a while the letters are addressed to both sisters - always asking after dearest Ellens health. But soon it becomes clear that the young woman is dying a terrible and painful death. I cant work out what the illness could have been - but it must have been dreadful. Many of the other letters are from prominent people of the day - sending heartfelt messages of sympathy to the family for the agony they are all going through. One is from the wife of the Dean of St Pauls, Mrs Milman. Several are from Lady Lyell, writing from Harley Street. She talks about being pleased that Sir John Clark has been called in to treat dear Ellen. (I looked him up on the net, and he was Queen Victorias private physician.) But all to no avail. Ellen becomes worse and worse. There are letters from the Deanery of St Pauls. Letters from abroad in French. Letters offering to take the children away to the country. Letters offering religion and solace and love and finally resignation to the inevitable. Finally I came to the letter that made me cry. The two younger of Mrs Parkmans children had by then been sent away to Lady Belpers in the country. The eldest son Henry stayed in the house however - and one of the letters is the one he wrote to his younger brother Bligh - telling him of their Aunts death. I think he must only have been about ten or so at the time - and the whole event clearly made a strong impression on him - although not so strong that he cant look past it, with the resilience of youth. He writes: I got home at 11:30 yesterday and I went with mamma into Aunt Ellens room. Her face is still but very much marked with pain. I am glad she is released from her pain and gone to the land of rest. She died between 12:00 and 1:00 on Sunday and Uncle Edward and Mamma and Aunt Georgie were in the room and Carson was holding her up. The last conscious thing she did was to put her arms round Uncle Edwards neck. She is to be buried at Broughton Castle on Friday and Mamma is going to take me. Mr Chandos Leigh who has the management of the funeral has put me down as one of the pall bearers. That is a person the nearest of kin to the deceased who walks by the side of the hearse holding a tassel which hangs from the side of the hearse. And so mamma went yesterday and got me a suit of black and a beaver and a pair of black kid gloves and a black cravat. After the funeral we are coming back to London for a few days and then we are going to Malvern, wont that be jolly? After that come more letters of sympathy - such sad but touching letters. Ellen must have been a very sweet woman, as she inspired so very much love and grief. Even years later when people write to her sister Mrs Parkman about other things, they still always comment on how much they still miss dearest Ellen - about the empty space she has left in their hearts. There are some wonderful touches in some of the letters. One person writes hoping that the carriages coming into Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition did not disturb dear Ellen in her final illness. Another earlier letter talks of the death of the Czar which the corespondent hopes will bring the Crimean war to an end. The very last of the first batch of letters is again to Mrs Parkman. Its a sweet old fashioned love letter, believe it or not - and it begins: May not your Sir Hilary write a love letter to his dear Ladyelove? - for indeed he has been thinking of love letters and often wishing to write one since....since we parted in that railway station dear ladye! It carries on in that sweet vein and then eventually he too (like everyone else) begins to talk of dear Ellen - but he finishes as people did in these old letters, - by signing his full name: Hilary Bonham Carter. Again - I had no trouble finding him on the net. As youll know, he was a prominent Victorian - a cousin of Florence Nightingale and the author of rather boring sounding but doubtless worthy academic books. He mentions a portrait of FN which he seems to have been giving to Mrs Parkman as a parting gift before she sets sail for America. He says that he went to Lady Belpers house thinking to take away her (Florence Nightingales) image and send it, tho the lamp is not fastened into the hand - but no image was there.... Alas - he has to offer to send it on later. He then asks if shell send him a portrait of herself. He is a great lover of the hyphen - is Sir Hilary. The letter ends on rather a flourish asking wistfully if Mrs Parkman will dream of him during her sea journey.... if one can dream in the ecstasies of sea sickness on the wide waters. And I shall think of you sailing - and arriving too, and often afterwards.... Theres much more. As I say, the letters are all quite quite wonderful. I just cant tell you the pleasure it is giving me to read them and to find out about the people who wrote them - to share in their tears. Im writing to you partly to offer you copies/transcriptions of the letters, if you want them - but Im also hoping that you can fill in some of the blanks in the family history. Im hoping that you can tell me a little more about dear Ellen for instance and Id love to know if her sister Mrs Parkman ever married her Sir Hilary. All three of Mrs Parkmans children ended up in the States, which is how my elderly-stamp-collecting-internet-friend came to own them. Mrs Parkmans little daughter Ellen becomes Mrs W W Vaughan and moves to Bostons Back Bay area. She was probably named after her dear aunt. And Mrs Parkmans sons Henry and Bligh are both in the states too by the 1880s and writing to one another, twenty years after the sad little interchange announcing their Aunt Ellens death. Its interesting to see Henrys writing change from the little boys to the man - but both letters begin: My dear Bligh and end Your affectionate Brother Henry Parkman. Yet in amidst all the formality there was clearly so much feeling and genuine love and concern. I do find it amazing that stamp collectors never look inside the envelopes - but then I suppose they find it amazing that the outside doesnt really interest the rest of us. (Well - Ill admit that I found the post marks handy for getting everything in the right order, but not otherwise.) Ill enclose a scan of the first letters I bought. If you are interested in a more detailed summary of the contents, I can send you scans or transcriptions. Im a teacher, so Ive got a lot of free time at the moment - this the first week of the long-awaited summer holiday. I was intending it spend some of my summer transcribing the letters anyway, and if I actually get it done, you are more than welcome to the fruits of my labour. Do let me know if youd be interested, Thank you for you time and trouble, Dee McIntosh
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 18:00:50 +0000
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