Ebook Lady Hester Lucy Stanhope

In his six volumes of "Memoirs of Lady Hester Stanhope" and "Travels of Lady Hester Stanhope" Dr. Meryon, her physician, confined himself chiefly to material which he gathered from her Ladyship's conversation and such portions of her correspondence as came into his hands. More than half a century after the publication of these works the late Duchess of Cleveland's loyal and detailed life of her aunt was privately printed, in 1897. Besides referring to Dr. Meryon's MSS., the Duchess had access to family papers he had never seen; but even then there are many incidents of Lady Hester's story of which the Duchess was ignorant, or which she chose to pass over in silence. In the first place, she does not mention Lady Hester's love affair with Michael Bruce, and her magnanimity in giving him up when the time came for him to follow his career in England - a career which unfortunately did not turn out as brilliantly as Lady Hester expected. This episode is the pivot upon which Lady Hester's Eastern experiences turn.