Devonshire Characters and Strange EventsBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
Devonshire Characters and Strange Events
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Devon (England) -- Biography; Devon (England) -- History
She was equally constant in her choice of food, and showed great nicety
as to her diet. She dressed everything herself, preferring rice to
anything else, did not care for bread, rejected meat, and drank only
water or tea. She refused a pigeon, which she called a _rampue_, that
had been dressed by the cook; but when given a bird that was alive,
she pulled off the head, poured the blood into the earth and covered it
up, then cooked the bird herself and ate it. This was the only animal
food she could be induced to touch, except fish, which she treated in
the same manner.
On every Tuesday she fasted rigidly, on which day she contrived to
ascend to the roof of the house, frequently at the imminent peril of
her life. Ablutions she was particularly fond of; she regularly knelt
by the pond in Knole Park and washed her face and hands in it.
After three weeks’ residence at Knole, she was one morning missing. But
she returned in the evening with a bundle of clothes, her shoes and
hands dirty. Then she fell seriously ill.
On Saturday, 6 June, she again took flight. She had not taken with
her a pin or needle or ribbon but what had been given to her. She
bent her way to Bath, and on the following Sunday, Mrs. Worall
received information of the place to which her protégée had flown. She
determined to reclaim her, and started for Bath, which she reached on
Sunday afternoon.
Here she found the Princess of Javasu, as she was called, at the
pinnacle of her glory, in the drawing-room of a lady of the _haut ton_,
one fair lady kneeling at her feet and taking her hand, and another
imploring to be allowed the honour of a kiss.
Dr. Wilkinson, of Bath, was completely bewildered when he visited
her, and wrote to the _Bath Chronicle_ a glowing account of Caraboo,
in full belief that she was all she pretended to be. “Nothing has yet
transpired to authorize the slightest suspicion of Caraboo, nor has
such ever been entertained except by those whose souls feel not the
spirit of benevolence, and wish to convert into ridicule that amiable
disposition in others.”
Dr. Wilkinson resolved on going to London to consult the Foreign
Office, and to obtain funds for the present relief of the Princess, and
her restoration to her native land.
Mrs. Worall left Bath, taking Caraboo with her. But the wide
circulation of the story led to her detection.
On the following Monday, a Mrs. Neale called on a Mr. Mortimer, and
urged him to go to Knole and tell Mrs. Worall that she knew the girl
very well, for she had lodged in her house in the suburbs of Bristol.
At the same time a youth arrived from Westbury, a wheelwright’s
son, who had met her upon her first expedition to Almondsbury, and
remembered seeing her at a public-house by the roadside, where a
gentleman, feeling compassion for her weariness, had taken her in and
treated her to beefsteak and hot rum and water.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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