12 PRO, FO78/1686, Consul Rogers to FO, 25 February 1862.
13 MH/04, 23 August 1862.
14 RB/01, JED to KD, and JED to Caroline Digby Watson, 15 October 1862.
15 PRO, FO78 1751, Consul Rogers to FO, XC 11848.
16 Ibid.
17 Ibid.
18 MH/04, 26 October 1862.
19 Ibid., Thursday 6 November 1862.
Chapter 20 The Sitt el Mezrab
1 MH/13, CV to JED, 28 March 1865.
2 RB/01, JED to KD, 1 July 1863.
3 MH/04, 15 July 1863.
4 Ibid., 24 July 1863.
5 Ibid., 5 August 1863.
6 Ibid., 12 October 1864.
7 MH/13, CV to JED, 27 August 1863 and 28 March 1865.
8 MH/07, JED to Theresa, Lady Digby, 8 October 1866. A point of particular interest in this letter to her sister-in-law is Jane’s unselfconscious use of the code she used often in her diary. Clearly she knew that her brother would also understand it.
9 MH/04, 9 July 1864.
10 PRO, FO78 1751, XC 11848 1863.
11 Ibid.
12 MH/04, 12–24 September 1864.
13 Ibid., 24 September 1864.
14 MH/07, JED to Theresa, Lady Digby, 22 April 1865.
15 MH/04, 16 March 1866.
16 Ibid., 13 July 1865.
17 Ibid., 27 September 1865.
18 Ibid., 6 September 1865.
19 RB/01, JED to KD, 27 September 1866.
20 MH/04, 11 January 1866.
21 Ibid., 27 September 1866.
22 Ibid., 20 June 1867.
23 MH/08, pocket sketchbook, 1867, p. 50.
24 MH/04, 5 July 1867.
Chapter 21 Challenge by Ouadjid
1 MH/04, 10 August 1867.
2 RB/01, JED to KD, 31 March 1868.
3 MH/13, CV to JED, 4 November 1865.
4 This was subsequently confirmed in the diaries of Lady Anne Blunt, BL MS Dept, Wentworth Bequest, 53892 22 April 1878. Note that Jane saw Mascha several times over the next decade; Mascha always made a point of calling on her to pay her respects.
5 MH/04, 2 December 1868.
6 Ibid., 19 December 1868.
7 Ibid., 31 December 1868.
Chapter 22 The Burtons
1 RB/01, JED to KD, 1 February 1870.
2 RB/01, JED to KD, 9 September 1870.
3 BL, MS Dept, Wentworth Bequest 53892, Anne Blunt, Journals, 7 December 1878.
4 Isabel Burton, The Inner Life of Syria, Palestine and the Holy Land, pp. 126–7.
5 Amy Fullerton-Fullerton, A Lady’s Ride through Palestine and Syria, p. 335.
6 Burton, Inner Life of Syria, p. 136.
7 W. H. Wilkins, The Romance Isabel, Lady Burton, p 396.
8 Isabel Burton, Life of Sir Richard Burton. p. 486.
9 Burton, Inner Life of Syria, p. 3.
10 Ibid., p. 293.
11 Sefton Dearden, The Arabian Knight (Arthur Barker), 1936, p. 288.
12 See The Perfumed Garden, translated by Sir Richard Burton, with an Introduction by Alan Hull Walton (Panther Books, 1963). Isabel’s act caused a furore among scholars (and probably voyeurs) since a great deal of new and academic thought on pederasty was known to have been included by Burton following a lifetime’s academic interest in the subject. A draft translation of the original Arabian script discovered in Algeria in 1850 had been made by Burton some years previously in co-operation with an Oxford scholar. But a second translation was eagerly awaited, for it was known to include an additional new chapter on homosexuality, many unpublished notes and annotations made by Burton over several decades of travel in Arabia and the East, and other information that was stored in his brain. The first translation with chapter headings such as, ‘Prescriptions for increasing the Dimensions of Small Members, and for making them Splendid, ‘Everything that is favourable to the Act of Coition’, as well as helpful information such as the ‘Deceits and Treacheries of Women’, guaranteed sales in any case. A version published in French had already enjoyed remarkable success, but it was generally conceded that Burton’s knowledge of the culture and Arabic language was vastly superior, and would have provided a unique opus.
13 Wilkins, The romance of Isabel, Lady Burton, p. 395.
14 RB/01, JED to KD, 9 September 1870.
15 Burton, Inner Life of Syria, vol. 2, p. 3.
16 Isabel printed an abridged version of this long letter, altering Jane’s address of ‘My dear Mrs Burton’ to ‘My dear Isabel’, and the ending to read ‘Your affectionate cousin’ (see Life of Sir Richard Burton, P 539), to support her claim of close relationship. Mr Rogers would certainly have had grounds for suing Isabel had she not abridged it, for Jane was open in her remarks about his corruption.
17 Burton, Inner Life of Syria, vol. 2, pp. 12–13.
18 Ibid., p. 13. Medjuel received a decoration from the Sultan for his part in the capture of Hassan Beg.
19 Lord Redesdale, Memories, p. 564.
20 Jehan Rajab, Kuwait, private correspondence with author, June 1994.
21 Redesdale, Memories, p. 564.
22 Burton, Life of Sir Richard Burton, p. 486.
23 E. M. Oddie, A Portrait of Ianthe, p. 280.
24 Ibid. Although Oddie does not provide any date for this incident, Mott and his wife were partially responsible for the dismissal of Burton, and Jane never received them after June 1871.
25 Burton, Inner Life of Syria, p. 267.
26 Burton, Life of Richard Burton, p. 512.
27 Fifty-eight letters of protest from Syrian residents still survive in the Foreign Office files at Kew – see PRO, FO78/ 2259–2681.
28 Burton, Life of Sir Richard Burton, p. 512.
29 PRO, FO78/2259. Note the dates by the Muslim calendar.
30 Burton, Inner Life of Syria, p. 270.
Chapter 23 Untimely Obituary
1 Isabel Burton, The Inner Life of Syria, p. 134.
2 MH/11, Lady Strangford to Lord Digby, 4 April 1873.
3 Isabel Burton, Life of Sir Richard Burton, p. 487.
4 MH/04, 16 July 1871.
5 MH/12, Heribert to JED, 28 March 1875.
6 MH/04, May 1876. Admiral Murray was five years younger than Jane. He was C.-in-C. Mediterranean 1874–77; and Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod from 1883 until his death in 1887.
7 Sir Edwin Pears, Forty Years in Constantinople, pp. 71–4.
8 Ibid.
9 BL, Wentworth Bequest, 53892, Anne Blunt’s diary, 8 April 1878.
10 Lady Anne Blunt, Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates, p. 108. Anne Blunt spells Medjuel as Mijuel, but as elsewhere I have changed it in her narrative to avoid confusion.
11 BL, Wentworth Bequest, 53892, Anne Blunt’s Journal, 22 April 1878.
12 Ibid.
13 Ibid., 23 April 1878.
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid.
Chapter 24 Sunset Years
1 MH/04, 15 May 1878.
2 Ibid., 18 May 1878.
3 BL MSS Dept, 53892, Wentworth Bequest, Anne Blunt’s diary, 12 December 1878.
4 MH/04, several entries during May 1878.
5 BL MSS Dept, 53892, Wentworth Bequest, Anne Blunt’s diary, 5 December 1878.
6 Ibid., 6 December 1878.
7 Ibid.
8 MH/04, 8 December 1878.
9 BL, Wentworth Bequest, Anne Blunt’s diary, 12 December 1878.
10 The Times, 4 September 1881, p. 11.
11 Sir Valentine Chirol, Fifty Years in a Changing World, p. 81.
12 MH/04, 7 November 1879.
13 BL, ADD 54146, Wentworth Bequest, JED to Anne Blunt.
14 RB/01, JED to KD, 12 January 1880.
15 MH/04, 3 April 1880.
16 BL, ADD 54146, Wentworth Bequest, JED to Anne Blunt.
17 MH/04, 20 June 1880.
18 Ibid., 3 August 1880.
19 During Ramadan the cannon sounded to mark the end of the fast at sunset each evening.
20 MH/04, 4 September 1880.
21 Ibid., 5 September 1880.
22 Ibid., 27 November 1880.
23 BL, MSS Dept, 53892, Wentworth Bequest, Anne Blunt’s diary, 17 March 1881.
24 Ibid., 21 March 1881.
Chapter 25 Funeral in Damascus
1 RB/01, letter from Mrs Reichardt to Emmie Buxton and Hon. Rev. Kenelm Digby, September 1881.
2 RB/01, Suzette H. Smith, Mt Lebanon, to Mrs E. N. Buxton, undated.
3 E. M. Oddie, A Portrait of Ianthe, pp. 322–3.
4 RB/01, appendix to letters, pp. 117–18: ‘Account Written by Roland L. N. Mitchell’. The entire report of Jane’s funeral, which follows in the text, is taken from this eye-witness account.
5 When I read about this nephew I wondered if Mr Mitchell had been mistaken and that the young man was Afet, who was very attached to Jane. But Medjuel had many nephews, the sons of his eight brothers, and Afet spent most of his time in the desert, so he was probably not contactable.
6 Hussein Hinnawi to author, 20 August 1993; see also Charles Glass, Tribes with Flags (Atlantic Press, NY, 1990), p. 244.
Epilogue
1 BL, MSS Dept, 53912, Wentworth Bequest, Anne Blunt diaries.
2 RB/01, ‘Edward Digby, Written Account’, appendix notes, p. 114.
3 Ibid. William Wright was also a witness to Jane’s will.
4 William Wright, Zenobia and Palmyra.
5 RB/01, appendix notes, p. 114.
6 E. M. Oddie, A Portrait of Ianthe, p. 325.
7 Mr Dickson succeeded T. S. Jago and HBM Consul at Damascus.
8 Colonel H. R. P. Dickson, The Arab of the Desert (Allen & Unwin, 1949), Preface (written 26 September 1936), p. xiii. Colonel Dickson was subsequently a member of the British Political Agency, and played a significant part in the discovery of Kuwait’s oilfields.
9 Ibid.
10 Roz Broadmore, New Zealand, in telephone conversation with the author, May 1994.
11 BL, Wentworth Bequest, diary entry 5 September 1905; also letter to the author from the Earl of Lytton, 11 August 1993.
12 W. H. Wilkins, The Romance of Isabel, Lady Burton, p. 539.
13 Ibid.
Praise
For more information on Mary S. Lovell visit www.4thestate.com
‘An enthralling tale of a nineteenth-century beauty whose heart – and hormones – ruled her head.’
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By Mary S. Lovell
STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING
The Biography of Beryl Markham
THE SPLENDID OUTCAST
(with Beryl Markham)
THE SOUND OF WINGS
The Life of Amelia Earhart
CAST NO SHADOW
The Biography of Betty Pack
A SCANDALOUS LIFE
The Biography of Jane Digby
A RAGE TO LIVE
The Biography of Richard and Isabel Burton
THE MITFORD GIRLS
The Biography of an Extraordinary Family
Copyright
First published in Great Britain in 1995 by Richard Cohen Books
This paperback edition first published 1996 by
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Copyright © 1995 by Mary S. Lovell
The right of Mary S. Lovell to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
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A Scandalous Life: The Biography of Jane Digby (Text only) Page 48
