The Suspicions of Mr Whicher

by Summerscale, Kate

  * If Eugenia was lying, one wonders about the role played in her life by the family doctor, Mr Gay, to whom she was – at eleven – already betrothed. The surgeon referred to her as his 'little wife', and it was he who examined her body for signs of sexual molestation. Gay observed 'slight marks of violence', he said.

  Copyright © 2008 by Kate Summerscale

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  For information address Walker & Company, 175 Fifth Avenue,

  New York, New York 10010.

  Published by Walker Publishing Company, Inc., New York

  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA HAS BEEN APPLIED FOR.

  ISBN: 978-0-8027-1535-7 (hardcover)

  First published in Great Britain by Bloomsbury in 2008

  First U.S. edition published by Walker & Company in 2008

  First e-book edition published in 2010

  E-book ISBN: 978-0-8027-7929-8

  Visit Walker & Company’s Web site at www.walkerbooks.com

  INDEX

  Adams, John Couch, 142

  Adelphi theatre, 84

  Albert, Prince, 217

  All the Year Round, xxii, 125, 159, 267

  Alloway, John, 4, 9–10, 12, 18

  Alresford, 265

  Annual Register, 106

  aquaria, 273–4

  Arabia, 96

  Arundel, Lord, 264

  Ascot, 56

  Asmodeus, 158

  Australia, 53, 263, 265, 291

  William Kent in, 283–9

  Constance Kent in, 288–90

  Avon, river, 44

  Axbridge, 164

  Baily, Mr and Mrs, 151–2

  Balaklava, 73

  Baldwin, Mary, 122

  ballads, broadside, 69, 251–2

  banknotes, 69

  baobab trees, 286

  Barnes, Constance Amelia, 288

  Barry, Sir Charles, 162

  Bath, 137, 164, 167, 182, 198, 203, 207

  Constance and William Kent's flight, 91–3, 95, 107, 143, 300–1

  Greyhound Hotel, 91–2

  police, 207–8

  Bath Chronicle, 110

  accounts of Road Hill case, 27–8, 34, 37, 60–1, 95, 97, 102, 111–12, 127, 130, 143, 159

  and suspicion of Samuel Kent, 169–70

  criticisms of Whicher, 174, 179

  Bath Express, 93, 110, 116, 149, 169, 182

  Battersea, 275

  Baudelaire, Charles, 296

  Baxter, Richard, 294

  Baynton House, 73–4, 290, 293

  Beckington, 4–5, 9, 19, 77–9, 137, 182, 236

  Manor House school, 78, 143

  Methodist chapel, 210

  Beethoven, Ludwig van, 296

  Beeton, Mrs Isabella, 74n, 296

  Belgravia, 120

  Benger, Thomas, 15–17, 22, 24, 29, 128, 237

  Bennett, John, 52

  Bennett, Thomas, 279

  Bentham, Jeremy, 216

  Berkshire, 82, 190

  Bermondsey, 69, 105

  Bethlehem asylum, 80

  Bird, J.J., 137

  Biss, river, 44

  Blackall, Dr, 72

  Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, 123

  Blandford, 166

  Bloemfontein, Bishop of, 280

  Bloomsbury, 48–9

  Bonwell, Rev. James, 55, 133, 181

  Booth, John Wilkes, 253–4

  Bow Street magistrates' court, 227–8, 234, 241, 254

  Bowyer, Sir George, 173–4

  Braddon, Mary Elizabeth, Lady Audley's Secret, 217–18, 222, 225, 238, 243

  Aurora Floyd, 222

  Bradford–upon–Avon, 193, 198

  Brighton, 227, 229, 241, 254, 258, 288

  St Mary's Home (Hospital), 224, 227, 229, 241, 298

  Aquarium, 273–4

  Brisbane, 284, 289

  Bristol, 91–2, 123, 125, 201

  Clifton, 148

  Bristol Daily Post, 27, 95, 112, 119, 143, 183, 185, 193–4, 198

  Bristol Mercury, 195

  British Museum, 48, 271, 273

  Brontë, Charlotte, 82, 96

  Jane Eyre, 72, 102

  Brown, Hannah, 69

  Brunei, Isambard Kingdom, xix

  Buckingham Palace, 49

  Buckinghamshire, 180

  Bucknill, Charles, 244–5, 252, 256, 258

  Burlington House, 286

  Burne–Jones, Edward, 229

  Burns, Robert, 176

  Butcher, Chief Superintendent, 278

  Buxted, 288

  Cain and Abel, 112

  Calne, 191

  Camberwell, 44–5, 69, 171, 267, 278

  Cambridge Zoological Museum, 271

  cameras, see photography

  Canada, 288

  Carlyle, Thomas, 105

  Cams, Dr, 38

  Cavanagh, Timothy, 121, 163, 211

  Cenci, Beatrice, 176

  Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, 51–2

  Chandler, Raymond, 304

  Charbury, 123

  Charlie, Bonnie Prince, 293

  Cheshire, 164

  Chesterton, G.K., 272

  children: criminal, 121–3

  illegitimate, 136

  and murder, 233, 244

  Chile, 263

  Chippenham, xix, xxiii, 180, 188, 232

  Church of England, 181, 224, 229, 239, 241–2

  Civil Service Gazette, 29

  Clapton, 71

  Clark, Henry, 137, 148–51, 153, 158, 220, 234

  Cockburn, John, 262

  Coleridge, John Duke, 248–50, 253, 266

  Collins, Wilkie, 125, 190, 270

  The Moonstone, xi, 75, 77–8, 87, 138, 168, 267–9, 301

  The Woman in White, xxii, 41, 68, 81, 102, 105, 138, 159, 182

  'The Diary of Anne Rodway', 70

  'Mad Monkton', 80

  No Name, 225

  Armadale, 263

  Colne, river, 252n

  Conan Doyle, Arthur, 66n, 269, 276n, 30n

  constables, 12

  Convent de la Sagesse, 211

  corals, 271–2, 285, 287

  Cork, 248

  Court of Arches, 133

  Covent Garden, 227

  Cowper, William, 176

  Cox, Sarah, 3–4, 7–8, 12, 14, 31, 33, 63

  denies guilt, 20

  and nightdress, 26, 28, 32, 101, 138–40, 183

  gives evidence, 28–9, 139

  and examination of Constance Kent, 153

  and examination of Gough, 185

  and discovery of shift, 202

  and Constance Kent's confession, 237

  marriage, 237

  Crawley, Rev. 118

  Cresswell, Sir Cresswell, 263

  Crichton–Browne, James, 244

  Criminal Investigation Department, 277

  crinolines, 140n

  Cross, Richard, 279–80

  Crowthorne, 83

  Croydon, 265

  Crystal Palace, 109

  Cunningham, Sarah, 166

  Daily Telegraph, 88, 170, 175, 227, 232, 234, 248–9

  Dallimore, Eliza, 23–4, 28, 33–4, 35

  and examination of Gough, 186–8

  and discovery of shift, 202

  Dallimore, PC William, 23, 35, 186, 196–7

  Dalton, Mr, 164

  'Dancing School', 66

  Dann, Inspector, 172

  Darwin, Charles, 86, 142, 216, 221, 271, 294

  Davies, Rev. James, 241–2

  de Quincey, Thomas, 55

  Denbigh, 271

  detective fiction, 52–3, 75, 88, 157, 168, 223, 267–9, 276, 303–4

  see also Collins, Wilkie

  Dickens, Charles

  Poe, Edgar Allan

  'sensation' novels

  detectives: demeanour of, 52
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  and clues, 68–9, 138, 141–2

  methods of, 82–9

  hunches, 82–3

  sagacity, 95–6

  'sleuths', 96

  and psychoanalysis, 103–4

  and image on retina, 112

  and confessions, 119–20

  French, 125

  solitude of, 139–40, 223

  and astronomers, 142

  social status, 146, 175

  etymology, 157–8

  tricks, 161n

  public obsession with, 168

  and rewards, 175

  female amateurs, 187–8

  press disillusion with, 190–1

  private inquiry agents, 198, 263, 266

  reliance on good fortune, 216

  and testimony and proof, 216

  impact of Road Hill case, 222–3

  range of types, 277

  corruption among, 277

  Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette, 102, 110, 112, 175, 211

  Devizes gaol, 119, 129–31, 147, 154, 235–6, 240, 247, 254

  Devonshire, 71, 73, 93, 102, 296

  magistrates, 252

  Diary of an Ex–Detective, 139

  Dickens, Charles, 79, 162, 267, and detectives, xx–xxii, 44, 50, 52, 83, 96, 120, 142, 198

  The Mystery of Edwin Drood, xi, 272–3, 301

  Bleak House, 1, 53, 84, 87, 105, 141, 157–8, 187–8, 218

  'Hunted Down', 85

  Great Expectations, 106

  theory on Road Hill case, 190, 207, 272

  death, 272

  Dinan, 209, 211, 223, 288

  dinosaurs, 286

  Disraeli, Benjamin, 279

  divorce courts, 198, 263

  Dr Kahn's Museum, 106

  doctors, and mental illness, 80–1

  Doel, Emily, 4–5, 10, 128

  dog, Newfoundland, 7–9, 12, 66, 107

  Dorset, 166, 278

  Drake, Sarah, 133–6, 138, 146

  Dublin, 241

  Dublin Review, 223

  Ducker, Miss, 207

  Dunn, William, 129–30, 148, 155

  and Slack inquiry, 182–3

  and Constance Kent's confession, 234–5

  Durkin, Superintendent, 231

  East Coulston, 32, 73

  East Grinstead, St Swithun's church, 278

  Ebury, Lord, 241

  Eden, Emily, 168

  Edgware Road, 69

  Edinburgh, 69, 96, 222

  Edinburgh Daily News, 270

  Edlin, Peter, 148–57, 175, 254

  Elephant & Castle, 252

  Eliot, George, 270

  Eliot, T.S., xi, 269

  Elizabeth I, Queen, 176

  Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 38

  Epsom, 54

  Essex, 55, 72, 252n

  Eton, 190, 229

  Euston Square station, 135

  Evans, Mrs, 263

  Exeter, 72, 102

  eyes, and detection, 112

  Factory Act, 61

  Farrer, Mr, 164

  Female Detective, The, 161n

  Field, Detective–Inspector Charley, 53–5, 69–70, 96, 162, 263, 277

  Fielding, Henry, 96

  Finsbury Square, 71

  fishing, 5, 8, 61, 129

  Flaubert, Gustave, 296

  Foley, Superintendent John, 13, 43, 127, 154, 172, 177, 257

  leads investigation, 20–2, 24–8, 31, 33–5, 80

  works with Whicher, 59, 61–2, 64, 95, 118

  and Samuel Kent's obstruction, 107–8, 184

  and discovery of shift, 196–7, 202–3

  and Road Hill auction, 209–10

  death, 232

  Folkestone, Lord, 236

  Forrester, Andrew, 68, 97, 187–8, 216

  France, 209

  Franz, Johann Karl, 212–16

  Freud, Sigmund, 85, 103, 259

  Fricker, James, 4, 23, 194

  Frith, William, xix

  Frome, 33, 60, 101, 119, 148, 196, 198, 210, 235, 240

  Frome, river, 33, 60, 63, 99, 159

  Frome Times, 29, 106

  and Samuel Kent's unpopularity, 61, 101

  accounts of Road Hill case, 117, 119, 143, 157, 169

  and criticisms of Whicher, 174

  and Saunders' inquiry, 195, 198

  and Constance Kent rumour, 207

  Fulham gaol, 280

  Gagg, John Edmund, 180–1, 232

  Gaskell, Elizabeth, 68

  Gay, Mr, 123n

  Gee, William, 167

  Gerstenberg, Wilhelm, 214

  Gladstone, William, 280

  Glamis, Lady, xix

  Glasgow, 104, 252

  Globe, 169

  Gloucester, 185

  Gloucester Terrace, 144

  Gloucestershire, 137, 241

  Goff, Charles, 51

  Gollop, Harriet, 144–5, 235

  Goncourt, Edmond and Jules de, 216

  Good, Daniel, 50–1

  Gough, Elizabeth, 3–4, 6–8, 14, 100, 124, 130

  discovers child missing, 9–12, 87

  testimony about blanket, 18, 20, 34, 128, 149, 184, 188

  interviewed and searched, 22–4, 33

  kisses corpse, 25–6, 31

  gives evidence, 28–9, 116, 118, 139

  and Constance Kent, 30–1, 35, 149

  suspicion of, 34–5, 80, 86, 126–9, 145–6, 164–6, 169–70

  apprehended, 34–7, 43

  reexamined and released, 61–2

  character, 129

  and insanity, 137

  as object of sexual fantasy, 146

  leaves Kent family's employ, 181

  re-arrested and examined, 183–8

  continuing suspicion of, 189–90, 200–1, 242

  and Constance Kent's confession, 235–7

  fund established for, 253;

  marriage, 262

  Gough, Sarah, 136

  Governess Life, 145–6

  Gray, Amy, 267, 276

  Gray's Inn Road, 49

  Gream, Katharine, 227, 232, 234–5, 238–9, 253, 262

  Great Barrier Reef, 285, 287

  Great Exhibition, 109

  Great Western Railway, xix, xxiii

  Green, Elizabeth (née Harding), 56, 262

  Greenacre, James, 69

  Greenhill, Joseph, 14

  Grey, Sir George, 240, 253

  Griffiths, Major Arthur, 277–9

  Groser, Albert, 86, 181

  Guildford, 165

  Hall, Ann, 13, 19

  Halliday, Mary, 212–15

  Hamburg, 212

  Hampshire, 265, 286–7

  Handcock, Chief Superintendent John, 123, 201

  Hanover Square, 167

  hansom cabs, 48

  Harcourt, Sir William Vernon, 280–1

  Hardy, Thomas, 296

  Harris, Mrs, 232

  Harris, Superintendent, 232, 234

  Hatch, Rev., 122–3

  Hatherill, Louisa, 124, 153, 241, 248

  Havana, 74, 290

  Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 176

  Hayward, W.S., 187

  Heenan, John, 124

  Henry, Sir Thomas, 227–32

  Herbert, Frederick, 97

  Heritage, Ann, 13, 20

  Heritage, PC Henry, 13, 21, 108

  Hobart, 283, 288

  Holborn, 46, 48–9, 57, 79, 119, 121–3

  Holcombe, James, 4–5, 8–10, 12–13, 26, 101

  Holcombe, Mary, 15, 24

  Holley, Hester, 5, 28, 31, 33, 129, 138–9, 153, 167, 171, 237

  Holley, Martha, 28, 31–2, 237

  Holliwell, James, 267

  Holliwell, Sarah, 161, 267, 276

  Holloway, 240

  Holmes, Sherlock, see Conan Doyle, Arthur

  Holywell Street, 161–3, 225, 267

  Home Office, 33, 39, 51, 74n, 166, 270

  homes and families, Victorian, 37–8, 99, 109–11, 156–7, 220

  Hood, Edwin Paxton, 242

  Horsemonger Lane gaol, 181<
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  House of Commons, 173, 225, 241

  House-hold Words, xxi, 146

  Hughes, William, 208

  Hull, 214

  Hunter Place station house, 47, 57

  Hutchinson, Jonathan, 296–7

  Huxley, Thomas, 271, 286

  Hyde Park, 106

  Indian Mutiny, 267

  insanity, 80, 172–3

  and McNaghten rule, 136

  in Lady Audley's Secret, 218

  women and, 243–4

  and syphilis, 297

  Ireland, 180, 211, 248

  Isle of Wight, 106, 278

  Isleworth, 36, 129, 181, 183, 190, 235

  'Jack the Ripper', 277

  James, Henry, 104, 219, 270, 278

  The Turn of the Screw, xi–xii, 205, 301

  The Princess Casamassima, 261

  What Maisie Knew, 295

  Janin, Jules, 158

  Jersey, 69

  Johnson, Samuel, 176

  Johnston, Mrs, 134–5

  Kenealy, Edward, 266

  Kensington Gardens, 49

  Kent, Acland Saville, 159, 270, 283–4, 288

  Kent, Constance Emily, 3, 5, 7

  learns of missing brother, 11, 87

  and nightdress, 21, 26, 28, 67–8, 80, 87, 118–19, 129, 137–42, 153, 168, 176–7, 180, 186, 200, 237–9, 257 259

  gives evidence, 29–30, 107

  and Gough, 31, 35

  and insanity, 33, 80, 94, 102, 125, 137, 143, 243–5, 258, 300

  her bedroom, 64, 67

  birth, 72

  and stepmother, 73–4, 243–4, 251, 254–9, 280, 291–6, 302

  schooling, 78, 292, 294–5

  and Whicher's suspicions, 86–7, 94–5, 103–5, 115–6, 137–42, 170, 201

  and William, 87, 91–5, 101, 107, 124–5, 232 244 251 288–9, 294–5, 299–302

  flight to Bath, 91–3, 95, 107, 143, 300–1

  and Saville, 93–4, 107, 118, 143, 149–50, 152, 156

  and Madeleine Smith trial, 104–5, 107

  arrested, 115–20, 223

  strength, 124, 126

  in gaol, 129–31

  examined, 147–55, 177

  freed on bail, 155–6

  continuing suspicion of, 158, 189, 200, 220

  and examination of Gough, 185–6

  offers of marriage, 189

  rumours concerning, 207, 209

  attends French finishing school, 209, 211, 223

  kindness to children, 211

  depicted in Lady Audley's Secret, 217–18

  enters convent, 224

  confession of murder, 227–40, 298–302

  trial, 240, 247–50

  murder motive, 243–4, 251, 254–9, 280, 299, 302

  sentence commuted, 252–3

  her account of the murder, 254–9