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Page 10
But Bessy was not long in showing herself as good as gold, or
approving herself to some of Tom's best friends. Lady Donegal and her
sharp-tongued sister, Mary Godfrey, both took to her. "Give our
love, honest, downright love to Bessy," they write. Rogers called her
Psyche, had the pair to stay with him, stayed with them in his turn,
and gave Bessy handsome sums for the charities in which she abounded
all her life. Rogers knew simplicity when he saw it, and had no
vitriol on hand when she was in the way. I don't think Tom ever took
her to Ireland with him, or that, consequently, she ever met his
parents in the flesh; but no doubt that they accepted her, and
esteemed her.
Bit by bit she reveals herself in Tom's random diaries. As in the
printing of a photograph the lights and darks come sparsely out, and
unawares the delicate outline, so by a word here, a phrase elsewhere,
we realise the presence of a sweet-natured, sound-minded girl, and
more than that, of a girl with character. After a spell of Brompton
lodgings Tom took her to Kegworth in Leicestershire, where he was to
have the neighbourhood and countenance of his patron of the moment,
Moira, the Regent's jackal, a solemn, empty-headed lord. Donington
Hall and Bessy appear together in a letter to Mary Godfrey.
"... I took Bessy yesterday to Lord Moira's, and she was not
half so much struck with its grandeur as I expected. She said,
in coming out, 'I like Mr. Rogers's house ten times better.'"
Tom feels it necessary to explain such remarkable taste. "She loves
everything by association, and she was very happy in Rogers's
house." I don't know whether Tom's simplicity or Bessy's is the more
remarkable in all this. Tom's, I think.
"Lady Loudoun and Lord Moira called upon us on their way to town and
brought pine apples, etc." One sees them at it; and the very next
letter he writes is dated "Donington Park." Tom fairly lets himself go
over it.
"... I think it would have pleased you to see _my wife_ in one
of Lord Moira's carriages, with his servant riding after her,
and Lady Loudoun's crimson travelling-cloak round her to keep
her comfortable. It is a glorious triumph of good conduct on
both sides, and makes my heart happier and prouder than all
the best worldly connections could possibly have done. The
dear girl and I sometimes look at each other with astonishment
in our splendid room here, and she says she is quite sure it
must be all a dream."
Marble halls, in fact; but let us see how it acted upon Bessy. Shortly
after: "... I am just returned from a most delightful little tour with
Rogers, poor Bessy being too ill and too fatigued with the ceremonies
of the week to accompany us." That was to be the way of it for the
rest of their lives together. She would never go to the great houses
if she could by any means avoid it, but bore him no grudge for going
without her, and was always open-armed for his return.
Mayfield Cottage, Ashbourne, was their next harbourage; and here is a
Wheatley picture of them on their way to a dinner-party.
"We dined out to-day at the Ackroyds', neighbours of ours ...
we found, in the middle of our walk, that we were near half an
hour too early, so we set to practising country-dances in the
middle of a retired green lane till the time was expired."
Then he takes her to the Ashbourne ball, and for once leaves himself
out of the letter.
"... You cannot imagine what a sensation Bessy excited at the
Ball the other night. She was prettily dressed, and certainly
looked very beautiful.... She was very much frightened, but
she got through it very well. She wore a turban that night to
please me, and she looks better in it than anything else; for
it strikes everybody almost that sees her, how like the form
and expression of her face are to Catalani's, and a turban is
the thing for that kind of character."
Catalani, in Caverford's portrait, has the rapt eye of the Cum�an
sibyl. One of Moore's fine friends, an admirer of Bessy's, speaks to
him of her "wild, poetic face," and the Duchess of Sussex thought her
like "Lady Heathcote in the days of her beauty." That is putting her
very high, for, according to Cosway, Lady Heathcote was a lovely young
woman indeed; but the "wild, poetic face" gets us as near as need be.
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