Her Season in Bath: A Story of Bygone DaysMarshall, Emma
General
Her Season in Bath: A Story of Bygone Days
Marshall, Emma
Bath (England) -- Fiction
Surely the house in King Street, Bath, and the association with it, may
well consecrate it as a shrine which all who appreciate true and honest
labour, and brave struggles with difficulties, should visit. The
discovery of the planet Uranus in that house was a grand achievement.
The light thrown on the mysteries of double stars, and of the perpetual
motion and marvellous evolutions of the milky way was scarcely a less
memorable step towards the better understanding of the star-depths
which mortals may well scan with bated breath, so infinite is the
infinite! But it almost seems to me that pilgrims to the house where the
great astronomer and musician lived and worked, may do well to think
most of the faithful performance of duty, the unflinching perseverance,
the courageous struggle with untold difficulties which was carried on by
William and Caroline Herschel while the Bath season was at its height,
and the butterflies of fashion and the votaries of pleasure danced and
chattered, and sang and made merry in the assemblies, where a hundred
years ago so many people whose names are now forgotten, flocked in the
pursuit of health and amusement! There will always be these contrasts
sharply defined. The bees and the butterflies go forth together over the
same flowery pastures. There are countless hidden workers, unknown to
fame, who yet do their part--if a humble part, in life--in the place
appointed them by God. But there are some who by force of an indomitable
will and the highest gifts of intellect and culture leave behind them a
name which to all time shall be honoured, and Bath may think herself
favoured that in the long list of distinguished men and women who have
frequented that fair city and Queen of the West, she may write in
letters of gold the names of William Herschel and his sister Caroline.
DUELLING ON CLAVERTON DOWN.
In the year 1778 many foreign nobles made Bath their residence. The
Viscount du Barre and two ladies of great beauty and accomplishments,
and Count Rice, an Irish gentleman who had borne arms in the service of
France, lived in the Royal Crescent.
A quarrel at cards between Du Barre and Rice resulted in an immediate
challenge--given and accepted. At one o'clock in the morning of November
18, 1778, a coach was procured from the Three Tuns in Stall Street, and
Claverton Down was reached at day-dawn.
"Each man," says a contemporary, "was armed with two pistols and a
sword, the ground being marked out by the seconds. Du Barre fired
first, and lodged a ball in Count Rice's thigh, which penetrated to the
bone. Count Rice fired, and wounded Du Barre in the breast. Afterwards
the pistols were thrown away, and the combatants took to their swords.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account