When Maidens Mourn: A Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery

by C. S. Harris

  The legend that Arthur is not actually dead but will someday return to save England in her hour of need is real, hence his sobriquet “the once and future king.” For obvious reasons, this legend was the bane of unpopular British monarchs, who were repeatedly driven to try to convince their subjects that Arthur really was dead. The lack of a grave site complicated this effort, which may have led to the “discovery” of Arthur’s burial site at Glastonbury Abbey in the twelfth century.

  Camlet Moat, once called Camelot, is a real place whose history is much as described here. It is now part of Trent Park, a country park open to the public, although the original eighteenth-century estate was named Trent Place. Over the years Trent Place went through many owners, several of whom instituted extensive remodeling projects. The amateur excavations on the island described here were actually carried out by two later owners, the Bevans during the 1880s and Sir Philip Sassoon in the early twentieth century. Curiously, the findings of those excavations are not reflected on the local council’s information board currently in place at the site.

  The island has long been reputed to have an association with the grail maidens of old, and yes, Sir Geoffrey de Mandeville’s ties to the site also are real, as are his strange relationship with the Templars and the tales of his treasure. The story that he drowned in the well on the island and still haunts it, protecting his treasure, is indeed a local legend, although he actually died from an arrow in the head. Even the tales tying the highwayman Dick Turpin to the site are real; he frequently hid out at Camlet Moat during the course of his brief, ill-fated career. The numerous legends associated with the island can be found in various nineteenth-century works on the environs of London, including Jerrold’s Highways and Byways in Middlesex, Thorne’s Handbook to the Environs of London, and Lysons’s The Environs of London. For a modern, more fanciful interpretation of the site, see Street’s London’s Camelot and the Secrets of the Holy Grail.

  The antiquarian Richard Gough was a real figure who did indeed live at Gough Hall near Camlet Moat. He left his library to Oxford, but not his collections, which were sold.

  In the 1990s, a local man named Derek Mahoney claimed to have found the leaden cross from Arthur’s Glastonbury grave amongst mud dredged from an ornamental lake near Gough Hall. The local council claimed the find; Mahoney went to jail rather than surrender it, and then committed suicide. The cross, seen only briefly by the British Museum, again disappeared. It is assumed but has never proven to be a modern forgery.

  The system of billeting paroled French and allied officers around England is as described, albeit slightly more complicated. Although the concept of a gentleman’s “word of honor” might seem strange to many today, paroled officers—as gentlemen—were given a startling amount of freedom. Many began businesses, married British women, and had children. The British government even allocated them a half-guinea-a-week allowance. Their restrictions were few: a curfew, a circumscribed location within which movement was allowed, an injunction to obey the laws of the land and to communicate with France only through the agent appointed by the Admiralty. From 1809 to 1812, nearly 700 paroled officers tried to escape, of whom some 242 were recaptured. The calico printer’s cart described here (basically a closed cart of a type typically used by tradesmen who printed designs on cloth) was one of the ruses used in an escape attempt in the summer of 1812.

  Although the waltz was not allowed at Almack’s in London in 1812, it was danced elsewhere in England well before that date. The family wedding Mary Bourne prattles about to Hero in chapter 17 actually took place in 1806; her letters about the event mention the waltz.

  Although we tend to think of neo-Druidism as a modern phenomenon, it was actually quite popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as part of the Romantic movement, which identified the Druids as national heroes. An Ancient Order of Druids was formed as early as 1781. Among the writers associated with the movement were William Stukely (who incorrectly believed Stonehenge was built by the Druids) and Iolo Morganwg (born Edward Williams), a Welsh nationalist with a deep admiration for the French Revolution. A form of spiritualism that stressed harmony with nature and respect for all beings, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Druidism also drew on the teachings of the Enlightenment. Lacking any written texts, a rigid dogma, or a central authority, neo-Druidism was basically a philosophy of living that located the divinity within all living creatures.

  The foundation stone for what was then known as the Strand Bridge was laid in October of 1811, at the site of the old Savoy Palace. By the time the bridge opened nearly six years later, it had been renamed the Waterloo Bridge.

  Although women were not a common sight in the British Museum’s Reading Room, they were allowed to become registered readers. According to the museum’s records, three were listed as registered readers for the years 1770 to 1810, and five were listed in 1820 alone. The museum closed in August and September, but for the sake of my story I have allowed it to remain open a few extra days.