alasdair
Site Admin
Joined: 28 Feb 2004
Posts: 53
Location: Cardiff
|
 Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 4:31 pm Post subject: Difficult time |
 |
|
It seems that when Geraldine was 16 she was involved with an older woman in a "con" played on an ageing poet - Savage Landor. At least that is how it is portrayed in the following link. Whilst it is possible that Geraldine was party to the deceit, I am inclined to believe that she was deceived as well, and used as a pawn.
| Quote: | At the age of 81 he [Landor] was befriended by a Mrs. Yescombe from Green Park. In her talk Jean Field pointed out, on the basis of her extensive researches in Bath, that Mrs. Yescombe was a devious, cunning character, who contrived to appeal to Landor's chivalrous and essentially kindly nature. She introduced Landor to a girl of l6, Geraldine Hooper, who was, she said, cruelly treated by her parents and needed help. Landor handed over a considerable sum of money to help out. But when he discovered that he had been duped he retaliated fiercely, publishing a pamphlet `Walter Savage Landor and the Honourable Mrs. Yescombe'. This, however, was ammunition to Mrs. Yescombe who sued the old man for libel. The press in Bath had a field day, taking sides with the females. Landor, unable to face a court at his age, was hounded out of Bath and back to Italy. Widcombe Churchyard did therefore not become, as he hoped in his poem:"the place where soon I think to lie,
In its old creviced wall hard-by...." (For a Tomb in Widcombe Church-Yard)
Instead, he lies buried in Florence, in the same church yard as his friend, the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
An interesting twist to the story was highlighted by a member of the discussion group, Alistair Durie. He revealed that young Geraldine Hooper was sent away by her father after this disgraceful incident but later returned as a virtuous, charismatic preacher. She married a Mr. Dening, and became highly regarded by the poor. She died aged 31 and is buried in Locksbrook Cemetery.
Trudy Wallace
http://www.brlsi.org/proceed02/literhum016.htm |
Mrs Dening's biographer refers to this incident but is short on detail. Presumably to avoid associating her subject in any way with the scandal.
| Quote: | But the providence of God was preparing the instrument of which He designed to make so much use in the future. She was permitted to taste the pleasures of the world, that she might know their sweetness and their bitterness; that she might be able in after years to estimate aright, and truly to portray their attractive power over the young; and at the same time expose their utter vanity and impotence to give real, or pure, or lasting joy. She was allowed to feel the emptiness and vanity of worldly joys very early, and was conducted through deep floods of sorrow which fell upon her young heart, with a keen acuteness that less sensitive natures can hardly realise. She drank deeply of the cup of suffering, very, very deeply, and thus she was able in after years to speak words of rich sweet comfort to many a youthful sufferer. But for the dark clouds which at this period were permitted to over-shadow her sky, Geraldine Hooper might have- would have, in all probability- continued in the path she was treading. Balls, soirees, theatres, and operas forming her nightly occupation – novel reading, morning calls, shopping and dressing, her daily routine. But before the foundation of the world her name had been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life; she had been given by the Father to the Son, He had lover her, and given Himself for her, and was pledged as a faithful Shepherd not to lose this wandering sheep. Good works had been ordained, that she should walk in them; she was a “chosen vessel” to carry the Gospel message far and wide, and the days of her years were to be few, very few for her Saviour had resolved to translate her early to His immediate presence. And so the one predestined was speedily called and justified, used and glorified; and the first call came as it comes so often, in the form of affliction. “It needs our hearts be weaned from earth,
It needs that we be driven,
By loss of every earthly joy,
To seek our all in heaven.
Most loving is the hand that strikes,
However keen the smart,
If sorrow’s discipline can drive
One evil from the heart.” It is neither possible nor desirable to enter into the particulars of the trials that at this time were permitted to encompass this lovely and loving young creature. In a tract which she published some years after the period of which we now speak, she thus describes this painful experience, and its results.
"An idol [footnote – This was the lady who first introduced her into society] which she had long enshrined in her heart’s warmest affections, was suddenly shivered just at the moment when she thought she held it firmly in her grasp. To her young heart, the trial was a crushing one. She mourned, murmured, and repined; the sorrow told its tale upon a fragile form and delicate constitution. Suppressed grief - for she was too proud to manifest it outwardly - occasioned the rupture of a small blood-vessel, and it was then deemed advisable that she should be sent abroad to recruit her shattered health.
“Accompanied by her father, she reached Calais, and proceeded from thence to a very pretty and healthy spot about nine miles from Calais. There her father left her, in the midst of kind friends, and it was there she first thought of eternity. Weary, worn, and sad, she yearned for rest; she had lost a prize, and in her heart was an aching void, which only the One whom she knew not, could have filled.” |
Extract from "She spake of Him" Recollections of the late Mrs Henry Dening pages 12-14. |
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
