The Tatler
1 May 1806
The D of H marries a girl young enough to be his granddaughter!
If this observer had not been there to see it herself, she would not have believed the depraved D of H would have sunk so low as to marry a girl, this reporter estimates is no more than 15 or 16 summers!
The new D’ess of H is a very pretty girl with striking emerald-green eyes. My question, however, is how could any decent person have agreed to marry a daughter to such a man regardless of his wealth and rank?
As would be expected, besides myself and some other purveyors of this kind of information, St. Paul’s was all but empty.
The E and C of C were in attendance, why they continue to support the reviled D of H, is beyond my understanding.
As were some of Miss E B’s family, it seemed she was attended by an uncle (who is a tradesman and gave her away), aunt, and 4 of her sisters including the one who was her bridesmaid. Of her parents there was no trace.
Most interesting of all was while she was still Miss E B, the new D’ess of H was not paying attention to the liturgy causing the Bishop to have to repeat part of the ceremony which required a response from her. The lady’s ‘I will’ was not at all enthusiastic.
As no one in theTonwould stand up with him, the only one the D could get to be his witness was one of his lackeys who I have since learnt is a man named G W. He was rather young and handsome, but that did not change the fact the D needed to pay a man to stand up with him.
All we can do is pray the former Miss E of L in Hertfordshire will not suffer the same fate as his 2 former late wives.
“Surely not,” Lady Anne exclaimed.
“What has disturbed your equanimity, Anne?” Darcy asked as he placed the broadsheet he was reading on the table.
Both William and Anna looked at their mother with concern.
“Read this Robert,” Lady Anne instructed as she handed the gossip rag to her husband, the page open to the column regarding the new Duchess of Hertfordshire.
Darcy was aware why his wife, like many ladies in polite society this morning, was reading the smut inTheTatler. “Good gracious! A man of his age taking a bride of fifteen or sixteen. I always knew he was debauched, but even for him this is too far,” Darcy spat out loudly in disgust as he threw the page down.
“His wife is barely four or five years older than Anna!” William spat out.
“That is bad enough, but read on husband, you will know what it is I want you to see as soon as you read it,” Lady Anne insisted.
Not one to deny his wife anything it was in his power to give; he picked up the page again and continued to read.
“How can a young lady of that age agree to marry such a man?” William barked. “She must be quite a social climber and fortune hunter to agree to such.”
“That is an extremely harsh judgement to make when you know not all the facts,” Lady Anne admonished her son before her husband could speak. “It is more likely than not she was forced into the marriage by someone in her family.”
“I hate to disagree with you Mother, but you know not that,” William stated haughtily.
“Except, it is clearly intimated that the bride was not a willing participant!” Lady Anne pointed out. “What girl of fifteen or sixteen would want a husband of his age regardless of the incentives to marry him?”
“It is rather judgemental of you William,” Darcy added. “How can you decide such without meeting the woman or knowing the circumstances of her marriage?”
“You are correct, Sir,” William owned. “I had a vision of Anna in the same situation and it stoked my ire. As you and Mother said, without knowing all, I am making assumptions.”
“Robert, did you see what I wanted you to read?” Lady Anne enquired.
“I did, but we know not if the GW they mention in the column is George Wickham,” Darcy responded. “It is not like there is only one GW in the country.”
“True, but surely the ‘young’ and ‘handsome’ point to our steward’s son as the one working for the Duke,” Lady Anne opined.
“May I?” William requested of his father who handed the gossip rag to his son.
“You are both correct,” William stated once he had read the column. “Mother on two fronts. I made a rash judgement and if you can believe what is written, I am more than likely wrong. I think you both have some of the truth and although it may not be George, it could be.”
