Thursday, May 26, 2016

Wanstead House, Its Heiress, & Her Unfortunate Choice in Men

Richard Westall, Wanstead House
Loretta reports:

The clipping from the Annual Register sent me off in 2NHG search of more, as you’d expect, and boy, did I find a story, straight out of melodrama: Young Heiress Ruined By Fortune-Hunting Scoundrel.

A site devoted to Wanstead House tells the story here.

Annual Register May 1823
Further searching led me back to a beautifully illustrated site for Wicked William Pole-Tylney, which Isabella had very recently called to my attention for an altogether different nerdy historical reason (a lovely post on coaching inns). And which included an advertisement for the auction of the house’s contents the previous year.

Geraldine Roberts, who’s written a book about Catherine Tylney Long, The Angel and the Cad, outlines the heiress's story on her website, with many fine images, including the (rare) one of Catherine below.

William Pole-Tylney
Catherine Tylney Long
Image at top: Richard Westall, Wanstead House, undated (I’d guess about 1790s), courtesy Yale Center for British Art.

Clicking on the image will enlarge it.  Clicking on the caption will take you to the source, where you can learn more and enlarge images as needed.

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1 comment:

  1. HelsMay 26, 2016 at 3:08 AM

    Catherine might have been very young, but she wasn't stupid. So when a creep came along who was known to be a womaniser, gambler, debaucher, scoundrel and all-round villain came sleazing around, red flags should have been raised. Catherine's aunt, or a guardian or a local cleric could have said to disregard the charm and charisma, and run for the hills. And not just on financial grounds.

    Sigh... were women always vulnerable to charm?

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