Lola Montez : $b An adventuress of the 'fortiesD'Auvergne, Edmund B. (Edmund Basil)
History
Lola Montez : $b An adventuress of the 'forties
D'Auvergne, Edmund B. (Edmund Basil)
Montez, Lola, 1818-1861
We can imagine with what enthusiasm this sentiment was received in Hope
Chapel, where the lecture was delivered in October 1858, in aid of a fund
for a church which should be open free to the poor and unfortunate (as, by
the way, all Roman Catholic churches are). By this time Lola appears to
have been weaned of her spiritualistic heresies, and had become interested
in Methodism. In her new zeal for her own soul's welfare she did not,
however, forget the corporal needs of her fellows, and with native
generosity, stimulated by religious considerations, she showered the money
earned at her lectures upon the poor and afflicted. To replenish her
store, and encouraged by the success of her new enterprize in New York,
she resolved to try her luck once more on the other side of the Atlantic.
XXXII
A LAST VISIT TO ENGLAND
Lola landed from the American steam-ship, _Pacific_, at Galway on 23rd
November 1858. She had not set foot in her native land since she left it,
the bride of Thomas James, more than twenty years before. In Dublin she
had last appeared as a _debutante_ at the viceregal court; now, on 10th
December, she appeared there, on the boards of the Round Room, as a public
curiosity, as a woman whose fame not one among her auditors would have
envied. But they flocked to see her in hundreds, and the opening promised
a highly profitable tour. In her regenerate frame of mind the lecturer was
distressed by the publication in the _Freeman_ of a long article referring
to her connection with Dujarier and the King of Bavaria. Being the
daughter of an Anglo-Indian officer, Lola had inherited a tendency to
write to the papers on every possible occasion, and she at once sent a
letter to the journal, defending her character. Her relations with
Dujarier and Louis were, she insisted, absolutely proper and regular: to
the former she was engaged; of the latter she was merely the friend and
the adviser. The aspersions of her fair fame she attributed to the
intrigues of Austria. She was in Ireland, and it was as well not to refer
to the Jesuits.
At the new year she crossed over to England, beginning her tour at
Manchester. We hear of her at Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester,
Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Leamington, Worcester, Bristol, and Bath. She
drew crowded houses, though everywhere she went she had to contend with a
strong counter-attraction in the person of Phineas T. Barnum, the
celebrated showman, who was also touring England. Of course, she
disappointed expectation. The public wanted to see the dashing, dazzling
dare-devil of other days, not a rather sad woman, slightly tinged with
Yankee religiosity. She arrived at last in London, where she lectured at
St. James's Hall. Two or three of the writer's friends faintly recollect
having seen her on this occasion. For the impression she produced on her
audience, I prefer, however, to rely on the notice in the _Era_, under
date 10th April 1859.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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