Read Online England's Mistress: The Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton by Kate Williams - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Kate Williams
Tags: Historical, History, England, Military, Political, Biographies & Memoirs, Europe, Great Britain, Ireland, Leaders & Notable People, Professionals & Academics, Military & Spies, Military & Wars
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friends. He would have had to shell out a lot of cash to Kelly to cover Emma's "debts" and the madam's loss of earnings, and he had to agree to buy her clothes. Many girls, after being rented out, became kept mistresses. Kelly expected to be able to extract an even larger amount when Fetherstonhaugh demanded Emma's ultimate release.
Emma hoped Sir Harry Fetherstonhaugh might be her escape. In her year or so at Kelly's, Emma had found out about glamour and the kind of tricks to tempt a man's passion, and she had also learned to rely on herself and to hide her emotional needs. Her hard, brilliant exterior hid a secret longing for a man to cherish her, who she could believe loved her for herself
CHAPTER 12
Life in the Country
E mma found herself on long-term hire to a stag party set to last the entire summer. Uppark is a graceful Queen Anne-style country house, situated in a rich agricultural estate on the South Downs, the expanse of rolling hills near England's southwest coast. Almost as soon as Sir Harry inherited Uppark, he turned his new home into a venue for wild drinking and hunting parties. Fifteen-year-old Miss Lyon was hired to entertain the host and his guests, serve at dinner, dance, and smile. She meant to work hard, confident that she would persuade Sir Harry to take her as his long-term mistress.
Emma had her own suite of apartments in the house and was dispatched to a cottage in the grounds only when Sir Harry's mother visited or respectable guests arrived. 1 The Morning Post noted that “the little Bird of Paradise, whose amorous indiscretions have been so often held up to the public view in a light rather too serious to be entertaining, is about to produce fresh matter of envy, admiration, or ridicule… by a connection that does not seem even to be dreamed of by the most knowing” —perhaps his long-suffering mother. 2 Charles Greville later accused Emma of behaving at Uppark with “giddiness and dissipation,” but, proud at being chosen out of all the other Kelly girls and anxious to prove herself worth the high price Sir Harry had paid, she was striving to be the life and soul of the party.
Sir Harry, in the words of one contemporary, was “not a man to control any Inclination that he can gratify.” Twenty-six, tall, and athletic, he had a thin face, sandy hair, blue eyes, and a typically English complexion, made more florid by heavy drinking of wine and spirits. An only child, hesoaked up attention from his friends as he had from his doting parents. The exercise book he used as a teenager is beautifully inscribed with signatures in large looping script, but the work is sporadic and soon tails off: he begins to write out some Anglo-Saxon history in French and manages to list all the counties of England, but gives up on a mathematics diagram and then discards the book altogether. 3 Sir Harry was lazy, unreliable, and selfish, but he was tremendous fun, with a voracious appetite for late-night drinking, dogs, and gambling, and bags of charisma to charm the ladies. He expected to be forgiven his bad behavior—and he always was. While visiting Naples as part of his grand tour, he tempted the young Duke of Hamilton into a debauched spree. A genteel woman fell pregnant and Sir Harry fled, leaving Sir William Hamilton, the English ambassador to Naples and the duke's distant relation, to pay off the woman with £300, a "loan" Sir Harry would never repay 4 The duke's disgruntled tutor described Sir Harry as "good natured, formal, effeminate, and obliging, without violent Passions or Ambition, a negative character who will rather be acted upon than act for himself." Solely motivated by the love of an easy life, fluff-headed Sir Harry avoided anyone who might challenge him in any way.
Despite being preoccupied chiefly with hunting and drinking, Sir Harry was MP for Portsmouth, a nearby town on the south coast, and the surrounding area. Like many of the younger MPs, he allied himself with the Whig set
Emma hoped Sir Harry Fetherstonhaugh might be her escape. In her year or so at Kelly's, Emma had found out about glamour and the kind of tricks to tempt a man's passion, and she had also learned to rely on herself and to hide her emotional needs. Her hard, brilliant exterior hid a secret longing for a man to cherish her, who she could believe loved her for herself
CHAPTER 12
Life in the Country
E mma found herself on long-term hire to a stag party set to last the entire summer. Uppark is a graceful Queen Anne-style country house, situated in a rich agricultural estate on the South Downs, the expanse of rolling hills near England's southwest coast. Almost as soon as Sir Harry inherited Uppark, he turned his new home into a venue for wild drinking and hunting parties. Fifteen-year-old Miss Lyon was hired to entertain the host and his guests, serve at dinner, dance, and smile. She meant to work hard, confident that she would persuade Sir Harry to take her as his long-term mistress.
Emma had her own suite of apartments in the house and was dispatched to a cottage in the grounds only when Sir Harry's mother visited or respectable guests arrived. 1 The Morning Post noted that “the little Bird of Paradise, whose amorous indiscretions have been so often held up to the public view in a light rather too serious to be entertaining, is about to produce fresh matter of envy, admiration, or ridicule… by a connection that does not seem even to be dreamed of by the most knowing” —perhaps his long-suffering mother. 2 Charles Greville later accused Emma of behaving at Uppark with “giddiness and dissipation,” but, proud at being chosen out of all the other Kelly girls and anxious to prove herself worth the high price Sir Harry had paid, she was striving to be the life and soul of the party.
Sir Harry, in the words of one contemporary, was “not a man to control any Inclination that he can gratify.” Twenty-six, tall, and athletic, he had a thin face, sandy hair, blue eyes, and a typically English complexion, made more florid by heavy drinking of wine and spirits. An only child, hesoaked up attention from his friends as he had from his doting parents. The exercise book he used as a teenager is beautifully inscribed with signatures in large looping script, but the work is sporadic and soon tails off: he begins to write out some Anglo-Saxon history in French and manages to list all the counties of England, but gives up on a mathematics diagram and then discards the book altogether. 3 Sir Harry was lazy, unreliable, and selfish, but he was tremendous fun, with a voracious appetite for late-night drinking, dogs, and gambling, and bags of charisma to charm the ladies. He expected to be forgiven his bad behavior—and he always was. While visiting Naples as part of his grand tour, he tempted the young Duke of Hamilton into a debauched spree. A genteel woman fell pregnant and Sir Harry fled, leaving Sir William Hamilton, the English ambassador to Naples and the duke's distant relation, to pay off the woman with £300, a "loan" Sir Harry would never repay 4 The duke's disgruntled tutor described Sir Harry as "good natured, formal, effeminate, and obliging, without violent Passions or Ambition, a negative character who will rather be acted upon than act for himself." Solely motivated by the love of an easy life, fluff-headed Sir Harry avoided anyone who might challenge him in any way.
Despite being preoccupied chiefly with hunting and drinking, Sir Harry was MP for Portsmouth, a nearby town on the south coast, and the surrounding area. Like many of the younger MPs, he allied himself with the Whig set
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