Read The Secret Rooms: A True Gothic Mystery Online
Authors: Catherine Bailey
Chapter 27
Household Accounts
…: All price comparison figures throughout the book are calculated using Economic History Services (
http://eh.net/hmit
)
There was never an hour
…: Lady Diana Cooper,
The Rainbow Comes and Goes
, Rupert Hart-Davis 1958
‘The watermen are difficult to believe in today
…’: ibid., pp. 35–6
Joining the watermen
…: ibid.
Throughout the night
…: ibid., pp. 36–7
Then there was Betsy
…: ibid.
Diana’s favourite was the Duke’s tailor
…: ibid., p. 35
As the century turned
…: ibid., p. 27
Every day, after lunch, the old Duke
…: ibid., p. 28
Perfection – ‘snow-white
…: ibid.
On the days he chose not to ride
…: ibid. pp. 29–30
‘My grandfather would uncover his head
…’: ibid., p. 30
On Sundays, the Duke’s post-lunch routine
…: ibid., p. 31
After the stables came the kitchen garden
…: ibid., p. 32
The inspection continued
…: ibid.
Last came the kennels
…: ibid.
Chapter 28
Its aim
…: Lloyd George, House of Commons, 29 April 1909
‘My father was frankly philistine
…’: Lady Diana Cooper,
The Rainbow Comes and Goes
, Rupert Hart-Davis 1958, p. 38
Chapter 29
To avoid a dilution in rank
…: Brian Masters,
The Dukes
, Blond Briggs 1977, p. 20
In the early 1890s
…: Ruth Brandon,
The Dollar
Princesses
, Knopf 1980
‘Until then,’ New York heiress
…: Daisy Goodwin, ‘Cash for Titles’,
The Mail
, August 2010
In 1895, the Duke of Marlborough
…: ibid.
Her dowry was a staggering
…: Amanda Mackenzie Stuart,
Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt
, Harper Perennial 2005, p. 135
That year alone
…: Daisy Goodwin, ‘Cash for Titles’
In 1903, after seeing off the Duke of Manchester
…:
The New York
Times
, 11 November 1903
Alva, her socially ambitious mother
…: Amanda Mackenzie Stuart,
Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt
, p. 4
The Duke had never loved her
…: ibid., pp. 252–4
Margaretta Drexel was the
…:
The New York Times
,
The London Times
, May–June 1909
The Drexels had arrived in style
…: ibid.
Chapter 34
John’s battalion, the 4th Leicesters
…: John Milne,
Footprints of the 1/4th Leicestershire Regiment
, Naval and Military Press 2006, p. 57
He had been one of thirty to embark
…: ibid.
The previous December
…: Philip Warner,
The Battle of Loos
, Kimber 1976
They had fought at Ypres and Loos
…: ‘The Long, Long Trail’,
www.1914-1918.net/
Chapter 35
The Army Council was
…: ‘The Long, Long Trail’,
www.1914–1918.net/
We should have been guilty of one of the most
…:
Grantham Journal
, 12 September 1914
Chapter 37
It was first light on the morning of 27 August
…: Violet to Diana, 27 August 1914: MR
By any standards
…: Lady Diana Cooper,
The Rainbow Comes and Goes
, Rupert Hart-Davis 1958, p. 52
Unkindly, Margot Asquith
…: Richard Davenport-Hines,
Ettie
, Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2008, p. 47
Her daughter-in-law
…: Cynthia Asquith,
Haply I May Remember
, James Barrie 1950, p. 86
The ‘stylized scream’
…: Lady Diana Cooper,
The Rainbow Comes and Goes
, p. 24
‘My mother spent the mornings
…’: ibid.
Downstairs, Henry
…: Violet to Diana, 27 August 1914: MR
I think you ought
…: Henry to Violet, ibid.
In the 1890s, she had persuaded
…: Philip Ziegler,
Lady Diana Cooper
, Hamish Hamilton 1981, p. 8
‘I had a letter
…’: Richard Davenport-Hines,
Ettie
, p. 59
By the end of it, she had drawn up a list
…: MR
Chapter 38
Three weeks later, on an overcast morning
…:
Luton News and Bedfordshire Chronicle
, 24 September 1914
To allow plenty of time
…:
Luton News and Bedfordshire Chronicle
, 24 September 1914;
Bedfordshire Advertiser and Luton Times
, 25 September 1914;
Luton
Reporter
, 21 September 1914
Opposite the troops
…: ibid.
Morale among the troops
…: ibid.
Until the King arrived
…: ibid.
At Stockwood Park
…: MR
The others – the sons of brewers
…: Alan MacDonald,
A Lack of Offensive Spirit
, Iona Books 2008
‘Just as His Majesty took the salute
…’:
Bedfordshire Advertiser and Luton Times
, 25 September 1914
Only a portion of the twelve thousand
…:
Luton News and Bedfordshire Chronicle
, 24 September 1914;
Bedfordshire Advertiser
and Luton
Times
, 25 September 1914
In September 1914
…: Paul Fussell,
The Great War and
Modern
Memory
, Oxford 2000, p. 9
After completing his inspection
…:
Luton News and Bedfordshire Chronicle
, 24 September 1914;
Bedfordshire Advertiser and Luton Times
, 25 September 1914;
Luton Reporter
, 21 September 1914
‘War is the sovereign disinfectant
…’: Samuel Hynes,
A War Imagined
, The Bodley Head 1990, p. 12
The notion that there was something wrong
…: ibid., p. 16
‘I do not suppose any country
…’: MR
‘There is one point I particularly want to press
…’: ibid.
So convinced was Henry
…:
Grantham Journal
, 29 August 1914
Chapter 39
Detachments of soldiers from the Army Service Corps
…: MR
Should I write to Lord Grenfell
…: ibid.
Time was running out
…: ibid.
‘Beloved, in these always terrible days
…’: Violet’s notebook, private collection
A maverick bachelor
…: John Lee,
A Soldier’s Life
, Macmillan 2000
‘Apart from soldiers
…’: Sir George Arthur,
Not Worth Reading
, Longmans 1938
‘Kitchener almost invariably dined
…’: ibid.
Kitchener’s dislike of women
…: ibid.
Sir John Cowans
…: MR
Grenfell parted from Violet
…: MR
Alone at Belvoir
…: MR
‘Beloved,’ Cust replied
…: Violet’s notebook, private collection
Her days were crowded with civic duties
…:
Grantham Journal
, August–October 1914
In the evenings
…: ibid.
Her afternoons were spent
…: Lady Diana Cooper,
The Rainbow Comes and Goes
, Rupert Hart-Davis 1958, p. 118
For the most part, good horses
…:
Grantham Journal
, 29 August 1914
Chapter 40
On his way there
…: Charlie to Marjorie Anglesey, private collection
The wagons, which were long and grey
…: Lyn Macdonald,
The Roses of Picardy
, Penguin Books 1993, p. 171
‘The public weren’t allowed in the station
…’: ibid., pp. 172–4
Charlie had seen him twice
…: Letters from Charlie to John, August–October 1914, MR
In an effort to cheer himself up
…: ibid.
Along Victoria Street
…:
The Times
, 16 October 1914
Chapter 41
Violet was at 16 Arlington Street
…: Violet to Charlie, 17 October, MR. This is the first of the letters which Violet wrote to her brother that day – letters which enabled me to track her exact movements over the course of this important day
It was almost three o’clock
…: ibid.
The minute Violet received
…: ibid.
She was dressed in the clothes
…: Lady Diana Cooper,
The Rainbow Comes and Goes
, Rupert Hart-Davis 1958, p. 51
On the approach to it
…: Violet to Charlie, 17 October 1914, MR
On leaving Belvoir
…: ibid.
The true purpose of her visit
…: Violet to Charlie, 18 October 1914, MR
It was with a ‘heavy heart’
…:Violet to Charlie, 17 October 1914, MR
‘One of the greatest worries
…’: C. Callwell,
Experiences of a Dug-Out
1914
–
1918
, Constable 1920, p. 29
The thousand-room building
…: Hampden Gordon,
The War Office
, Putnam 1935
‘A mere recital of official events
…’: ibid., p. 291
‘They helped to keep such people at bay
…’: C. Callwell,
Experiences of a Dug-Out 1914–1918
, p. 29
Violet had not been kept ‘at bay’
…: Violet to Charlie, 17 October 1914, MR
Hood, a bachelor
…: Wikipedia
It was General Bethune’s love
…: Violet to Charlie, n.d., MR
Born in 1865, Bethune
…:
The Times
, 3 November 1930
Hood’s office
…: Violet to Charlie, 17 October 1914, MR
The elation she had felt
…: Violet to Charlie, 18 October 1914
Chapter 42
Out on the Western Front
…: Lyn Macdonald,
1914
, Headline 1994
Thirty miles to the east
…: ibid.
The offensive
…: ibid.
At the battles that had preceded it
…: Ian F. W. Beckett,
Ypres, The First Battle
, Longman 2004
‘He was sad and depressed
…’: E. G. French,
The Life of Field Marshal Sir John French
, Cassell 1931, p. 248
At 7.10 the previous evening
…: Lyn Macdonald,
1914
By noon
…: Ian F. W. Beckett,
Ypres, The First Battle
He had received
…: Alan Palmer,
Ypres,
1914
–
1918
, Constable 2007, p. 60
The report was one of a number
…: Lyn Macdonald,
1914
, p. 357
They were the troops of the Fourth Army
…: Alan Palmer,
Ypres,
1914
–
1918
, p. 61
Extraordinarily, though the evidence
…: Ian F. W. Beckett,
Ypres, The First Battle,
p. 62
Numbering 84,000
…: C. R. Simpson,
The History of the Lincolnshire Regiment
, 1914–1919, The Medici Society, 1931, p. 74
It was to General Edward Stuart Wortley
…: ESW to the Duke, 22 October 1914, MR; Vernon Jones to the Duke, 20 October, 1914, MR; telegram, Violet to the Duke, 19 October 1914, MR
Chapter 43
The details are sketchy
…: Charlie to John, 21 October 1914, MR
‘A darling of the Gods
…’: Alan MacDonald,
A Lack of Offensive Spirit
, Iona Books 2008, pp. 25–8
Chapter 44
In those last weeks in October
…: Lord Grenfell to Violet, various letters, October 1914, MR; Sir John Cowans, QMG, to Violet, various letters, September–November 1914, MR
At the eleventh hour
…: ibid.
Regardless of their actual readiness
…: Violet to Charlie, n.d.
Violet, however, was not going to
…: Letters to Charlie, various, October – December 1914, MR
His closest friend – a ‘sinister’ American
…: Ziegler,
Lady Diana Cooper
, Hamish Hamilton 1981, p. 62
Aged thirty-five, he was
…: George Gordon Moore, unpublished memoir, private collection
His fortune
…: ibid.
His olive skin
…: Diana Cooper,
The Rainbow Comes and Goes
, Rupert Hart-Davis 1958, p. 96
Their friendship went back
…: George Gordon Moore, unpublished memoir, private collection
An elegant six-storey
…: ibid.
‘Dined with Johnnie French
…’: Richard Holmes,
The Little Field Marshal
, Cassell 2005, p. 135
Over the years, Sir John
…: George H. Cassar,
The Tragedy of Sir John French
, University of Delaware Press 1985, pp. 181–3
Before the war, the goings-on
…: ibid.
Winston Churchill
…: George Gordon Moore, unpublished memoir, private collection
Unabashed
…: ibid.
Whenever he visited
…: ibid.
Swallowing her pride
…: Diana to Marjorie Anglesey, private collection
Chapter 45
Violet sat ‘sorrowing and silent’
…: Diana Cooper,
The Rainbow Comes and Goes
, Rupert Hart-Davis 1958, p. 119
Half a century earlier
…: Charles Dickens,
Oliver Twist
The buildings were black
…: J. G. Broodbank,
History of the Port of London
, D. O’Connor 1921
Huge wooden crates
…: Diana to her sister Marjorie, private collection
Large signs
…: John Pudney,
London’s Docks
, Thames and Hudson 1975
Diana had set her heart
…: Philip Ziegler,
Lady Diana Cooper
, Hamish Hamilton 1981, pp. 47–8
Her first intention
…: ibid.
Violet had put up every obstacle
…: Diana Cooper,
The Rainbow Comes and Goes
, p. 118
First, she had tried
…: Violet to Charlie, various letters, August–October 1914, MR