11 The Beacon, Exmouth, onetime home of Mariana Starke

(Photo courtesy of Sylvia Morris and Historic England)

As I mentioned in my last ‘Mariana Starke’ post (The De-Ciphering of Mrs Crespigny’s Diary), I don’t know if, or for how long, the friendship continued between Mariana Starke and Mary Crespigny after Mariana set out for the Continent on 25 October 1791. The last evidence I have found of contact between the two women is the entry Mrs Crespigny records in her 1791 diary, noting she had received letters from Lyons on 3 December – presumably from Mariana and her party. I am sure the correspondence would have continued, at least for a while, but, with no surviving letters or other evidence, I have no proof.

I did wonder if relations between the two women had at some point faltered only because there is no mention, as far as I remember, of Mary Crespigny in any of Mariana’s surviving letters or of Mariana Starke  – either in the flesh, as a direct correspondent, or even as an off-stage character – in Mary Crespigny’s one other surviving diary – that for  1809/1810. At this time Mariana was back in England, living in Exmouth, and Lady de Crespigny (as she now was) was meeting regularly, in London and in Bath, friends they once held in common. But, again, the absence of a mention is no proof of any discord.

In fact, the name ‘Starke’ is not entirely absent from Mary de Crespigny’s 1809/10 diary, for on 25 August 1809, while enjoying a protracted stay in Brighton, Lady de Crespigny mentions that she ‘had a present of a turtle from Mr Starke’. There is no suggestion that Mr Starke – this must surely be Richard, her erstwhile lover – was in Brighton at the time – so presumably he had arranged for her to be sent this prime delicacy, Lady de Crespigny doesn’t describe how Mr Starke’s turtle was served, but later in the diary, back in her London house, she does detail a dinner she hosted at which another turtle was the centrepiece of the meal.  As turtle was the most expensive and desirable food of the period, a gift such as this would appear to indicate that there had been no lasting rift between Richard Starke and the de Crespignys.

And, from another, rather remarkable source, I think we can infer that, whatever the relations between the two women, Lady Mary de Crespigny was still very much present in Mariana Starke’s thoughts – and speech.

For, in 1840 there appeared in Bentley’s Miscellany,  a short story, ‘Are There Those Who Read The Future?’: A Tissue of Strange Coincidences’ in which ‘Mrs Mariana Starke – the celebrated tourist’ features, alongside a mysterious foreigner to whom the author gave the name ‘Hortense de Crespigny’.  I could not believe that the conjunction of the names was purely coincidental, so undertook a spot of sleuthing.

The story’s seaside setting of ‘Sunny Bay’ was known to be based on Exmouth, and was, for that reason, reprinted in Memorials of Exmouth (1872) The author of the story was anonymous, merely described as ‘Author of “Recollections of a Prison Chaplain”’. But it did not require much research to reveal him to be the Rev. Erskine Neale [1804-83], the son of Adam Neale (d.1832), onetime physician to the forces. In  1812 one of Erskine Neale’s younger brothers was born in Exmouth and I conclude that the family – at the least the mother and children – spent some time there – at the seaside – before settling in Exeter when Adam Neale returned from the Peninsular War.

Lady Nelson’s House, 6 The Beacon, Exmouth

(Photo courtesy of Exmouth Journal)

In the story another of the real-life characters involved with Hortense de Crespigny is Lady Nelson, the unfortunate widow of Horatio. Erskine Neale appears very au fait with Nelson family affairs, as well he might; his younger brother was married to Frances Nisbet, Lady Nelson’s granddaughter. When Erskine Neale was young,  Lady Nelson was living a few doors  away from Mariana Starke on The Beacon and I am imagining – yes, imagining – that Mrs Neale was present at ‘Afternoons’ in one or either of the houses and her son was either told – or overheard – scraps of conversation by or about the older women. He must also have encountered Mariana Starke in person, for his depiction of her attire and style of speech accords with the memories of other of her contemporaries.

My thinking is that, as a boy, Neale noted that ‘Lady de Crespigny’ featured frequently in Mariana’s conversation and, many years later, when searching for a suitably foreign name for his mysterious character, ‘de Crespigny’ sprang to mind. Erskine Neale accorded Hortense de Crespigny with the ability to foretell the future and, at the end of the tale, suggests she may have acted for the British government in some ‘cloak and dagger’ capacity. I doubt that it was in those terms that Mariana Starke discussed Lady de Crespigny but, let me just say that the tale is a ‘Tissue of Strange Coincidences’ on more than one level. A mysterious remark on which I may elaborate before too long.

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