The next chapter in a Regency Courtesan’s true story – as recorded in her memoirs

So let me continue the tale of Harriette’s pursuit of Lord Lorne, the future Duke of Argyll.

But first my intro for those of you joining Harriette’s tale today, please skip this section if you’ve read it before.

In 1825 Harriette Wilson, a courtesan, published a series of stories as her memoirs in a British broad sheet paper. The Regency gentleman’s clubs were a buzz, waiting to see the next names mentioned each week. While barriers had to be set up outside the shop of her publisher, Stockdale, to hold back the disapproving mob.

Harriette was born Harriette Debochet, she chose the name Harriette Wilson as her professional name, in the same way Emma Hart, who I’ve blogged about previously, had changed her name. Unlike Emma, it isn’t known why or when Harriette changed her name.

She was one of nine surviving children. Her father was a watchmaker and her mother a stocking repairer, and both were believed to be from illegitimate origin.

Three of Harriette’s sisters also became courtesans. Amy, Fanny and Sophia (who I have written about before). So the tales I am about to begin in my blogs will include some elements from their lives too.

For a start you’ll need to understand the world of the 19^th Century Courtesan. It was all about show and not just about sex. The idle rich of the upper class aspired to spending time in the company of courtesans, it was fashionable, the thing to do.

You were envied if you were linked to one of the most popular courtesans or you discovered a new unknown beauty to be admired by others.

Courtesans were also part of the competitive nature of the regency period too, gambling was a large element of the life of the idle rich and courtesans were won and lost and bartered and fought for.

So courtesans obviously aspired to be one of the most popular, and to achieve it they learnt how to play music, read widely, so they could debate, and tried to shine in personality too. They wanted to be a favoured ’original’.

The eccentric and outspoken was admired by gentlemen who liked to consort with boxers and jockeys, and coachmen, so courtesans did not aim for placid but were quite happy to insult and mock men who courted them, and demand money for any small favour.

We left Harriette last week once she’d gained successful revenge on a would be lover, Lord Lorne, by making him wander up and down the road at the turnpike waiting for her when she’d no intention of going there to meet him.

But it seems neither that, nor Harriette’s current lover’s mockery could put Lord Lorne off. Without any further encouragement from Harriette he sent a friend, and a former acquaintance of Harriette’s, to vouch for his reasons for standing Harriette up previously.

Lorne’s friend claims Lorne is really annoyed, but would not write himself for fear Harriette might read the letter with Frederick and merely laugh at him, and he said he could not call because he had been unable to bribe Harriette’s address from the local post mistress, hence him asking a mutual friend to write to her without revealing the reason and ask to meet her.

His friend says Lorne was not ‘coxcomb’ enough as to think Harriette cared for him, but that he wishes her to think as highly of him as she did before he missed his appointment. Then the friend tries to convince Harriette to go and meet Lord Lorne now.

Knowing just how to play the waiting game Harriette refuses and has his friend walk her home.

Her memoirs do not state her delay a deliberate action to obtain Lorne, but you cannot help but wonder. Because of course she does not wish to give herself away for free. She is living with Frederick who is supporting her on a pittance. What she is after is a richer man who would give her a better life and Lord Lorne was certainly that.

Well now that Lord Lorne’s friend had walked her home – of course he tells Lorne her address.

Harriette finally forgives Lord Lorne when she receives a message from her maid, stating Lord Lorne has been waiting outside the house for an hour in the hope of seeing her. She snatches up her bonnet and cloak and rushes out (I would say she is fairly sure of his interest now she has put him through several tests, and realises she must give a little back if she is going to get her wish… a contract (engagement, in Harriette’s phrasing) to be the courtesan of a wealthy young, reasonably good-looking man).

She immediately declares she has forgiven him, and agrees to walk with him, though she maintains that she will do nothing to be false to Frederick.

Harriette writes of one conversation which fascinates me, she is speaking to Lorne of a scenario regarding Frederick and uses the words ‘suppose I love you’. The devious little madam, bless her… She is busy fishing again… In the era of competitive Romantic love and the art of open devotion for a courtesan, of course Lord Lorne could not let her comment rest without reply and states, she must love him some day or other, because he has fixed his heart on it.

Harriette then goes on to say her ‘sentimental’ walks with Lorne continued for a month. Him waiting outside her house until she came out and walked with him. With Frederick Lamb’s knowledge, as Frederick trusted Harriette completely.

But I do not think Lord Lorne a man like Frederick, who’d endured similar temptations from Harriette and accepted her, no, in good humour. Lord Lorne had a roving eye and a reputation with women which preceded him. He was courting Harriette with expectation.

She describes one night when they walked, it grew dark, and in ‘a moment of ungovernable passion’ Lord Lorne frightened her with his ardour. She does not declare herself unmoved by it, completely contrary, she declares that their next meeting might ‘decide my fate’. My guess being she let him go so far, and then said, no, because she did not want to give him for free, what she wished him to pay for, and he probably then felt misled, cheated and became and angry and insistent. Anyway no, was no that night, even though Harriette was not certain her no would succeed as no the next time. She declares in her memoirs that, ‘There is a charm in the humility of a lover who has offended. The charm is so great that we like to prolong it. In spite of all he could say, I left him in anger.’

Again, I think this a ploy, I think she hoped he would wish to come back for more, but willing to make the offer Harriette hoped for – a large monthly sum in return for the favours she was more than inclined to give.

Lord Lorne was not easily played though. He was a recognised master at the game of seduction himself. He wrote to Harriette the next morning.

‘If you see me waiting about your door, tomorrow evening, do not fancy I am looking for you; but for your pretty housemaid.’

Such a cad 😀

Not about to be beaten Harriette plays her last all or nothing card, couched in a pretty letter which speaks of her natural affection for all, and her unwillingness to deceive her current protector Frederick Lamb. She says she may not meet Lord Lorne again, but then immediately says, ‘lovers, we must be, hereafter, or nothing.’ Then she states she has enclosed a lock of hair, because he liked her hair, and she does not care how the lack of that lock might have disfigured her head, as though she would be forlorn without him, though she doesn’t say it – clever as she is.

Sadly for Harriette, Lord Lorne saw straight through her and took the nothing option.

‘True, you have given me many sweet kisses, and a lock of your beautiful hair. All this does not convince me you are one bit in love with me. I am the last man on earth to desire you to do violence to your feelings, by leaving a man as dear to you as Frederick Lamb is; so Farewell Harriette. I shall not intrude to offend you again.’

Well if Harriette casting her line did nothing else, it drew Frederick Lamb’s attention back to her, and he began spending evenings with her once more, reading to her, or her entertaining him by playing the pianoforte….

Next week Harriette meets a fellow fallen woman…

Jane Lark is a writer of authentic, passionate and emotional love stories.

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Harriette Wilson, the true story of a 19th Century, Regency, Courtesan, and pastures greener

So last week we had left Harriette at the point her contract with Lord Craven had drawn to end. This week we’ll begin with her timely receipt of an invitation from Frederick Lamb, to join him and his regiment in Hull.

But before I begin I’ll review, for those who’ve not previously read my blogs, the brief introduction of Harriette’s history. I’ll put this piece in every week for people who might pick the blog up for the first time, but skip it if you’ve already read it.

She was one of nine surviving children. Her father was a watchmaker and her mother a stocking repairer, and both were believed to be from illegitimate origin.

You were envied if you were linked to one of the most popular courtesans or you discovered a new unknown beauty to be admired by others.

Harriette calls the letter Frederick Lamb sent her, ‘very affectionate’ and said, ‘He dared not… be selfish enough to ask me to share his poverty, and yet he had a kind of presentiment, that he should not lose me.’

Her heart ‘feeling lighter from the release of the cocoa trees’, and hating Lord Craven’s ‘fine carriage, and his money, and everything belonging to, or connected with him,’ Harriette set Lord Craven’s servant to secure a place on ‘the mail’, coach I presume, to Hull, where Frederick Lamb’s regiment was – I know it’s all awfully Pride and Prejudice isn’t it. Ha! Ha!

Harriette says Frederick flew to meet her and took her to his house, where his general met her and promised to ensure Hull was made as comfortable for her as possible. On other occasions in Harriette’s memoirs she mentions interactions with senior officers in regiments when one of the lower ranked, but titled, soldiers takes a mistress. It just again shows how accepted a thing it was for men to be open and social with their mistresses among other men in the Georgian and Regency period.

It seems Harriette was happy with Frederick for three months in Hull, but then Frederick returned to London, and therefore to all the social interaction of his class, the ton (the most influential of the titled elite in Great Britain). He attended balls, masquerades, and other events. Of course women were at these entertainments. Harriette could not go. So while he went out Harriette was left to endure dreary evenings alone. She doesn’t strike me as a girl who would appreciate being bored, and she notes that Frederick felt safe in her constancy because he knew she had been faithful to Lord Craven, so he made no effort to ensure she stayed with him. She calls him selfish, and then she starts to try and make him jealous and spur him in to being more attentive. When she doesn’t succeed and he leaves her alone in London with very little money, well then, she isn’t going to put up with it…

On to pastures greener… The Marquis of Lorne (a friend of Frederick’s), is known to be handsome and well-liked by women, so Harriette has a punt, well why not. She writes to tell him that if he walks up Duke’s Row, ‘he would meet a most lovely girl.’ I wish I was as confident of my looks as Harriette, and at this stage I think she was probably still only between sixteen and eighteen.

Her letter received a response, ‘If you are but half as lovely as you think yourself, you will be well worth knowing; but how is that to be managed? Not in the street! But come to No.39 Portland Street, and ask for me. L.’

Harriette’s reply was this;

‘No! Our first meeting must be on the high road, in order that I may have room to run away, in case I don’t like you’

You have to love that girl…

The Marquis (spelt in the old spelling Harriette used) replied;

‘Well then, fair lady, tomorrow, at four, near the turnpike, look for me on horseback; and then, you know, I can gallop away. L’

And thus an assignation between a courtesan and a gentleman was arranged. Harriette clearly knew how to spot her market and sell herself.

I really like their old-fashioned humour. In a blog I wrote a while ago, I mentioned about Jane Austen’s humour, which I think very often goes over our heads now, but would have been grasped easily when her books were first published.

Anyway back to Harriette. When she met the Marquis, who later became the Duke of Argyll, when he inherited his full title, he did not gallop away, and Harriette recalls, ‘I had never seen a countenance I had thought half so beautifully expressive. I was afraid to look at it, lest a closer examination might destroy all the new and delightful sensations his first glance had inspired in my breast.’

She says they walked together for two hours, and shared stories, and interests and then agreed to meet again. But when Harriette returned home she had a fit of conscience and decided to tell Frederick all, saying she could not become, ‘artful’ dishonest and manipulating, even if she was now fallen.

The way Harriette describes her fears of Frederick’s anger over her admission, I get the impression she would have loved him to get angry, I think she was really just attention seeking and trying to prove she could have someone better than Frederick. But Frederick did not get angry at all, he saw it as a great way to win one over on a friend who always had the best women. He encouraged Harriette to keep meeting Lorne, so he might mock his friend for expressing devotion to Harriette when Frederick was convinced Harriette would never be unfaithful to him.

Harriette therefore did go back for their second meeting. But;

‘With my heart beating very unusually high, I attended my appointment with Argyle (Harriette’s spelling). I hoped, nay, almost expected, to find him there before me. I paraded near the turnpike five minutes, then grew angry; in five more, I became wretched; in five more, downright indignant; and in five more wretched again-and so I returned home…’

Harriette, sent a tirade to Lord Lorne in a letter, but when he wrote back he pleaded that his lack of attendance had been unavoidable and that he did think highly of her and begged her to meet him the next day. Harriette showed the letter to Frederick for revenge, and then did not go…

Of course that was fuel to Frederick who then asked Lord Lorne, “How the air was at the turnpike”.

But having captured the competitive interest of Lord Lorne the game was not over…

(Note the portraits of Frederick Lamb and Lord Lorne shown above were painted much later than the days Harriette speaks of, then they were all young)

Jane Lark is a writer of authentic, passionate and emotional love stories.