27 The original edition has the following note: ‘The late Justice Coltman told us, when he and Lady Coltman came to see my father and mother at Siena, that he recollected when he first went the circuit seeing more than twenty people hanged at once at York, chiefly for horse-stealing and such offences.’ – Editor.
28 The Texel is an island off the north tip of Holland. Earlier in 1797 had occurred the more notorious mutiny at the Nore, a sandbank anchorage in the Thames estuary; the leader, Richard Parker, was hanged from the yardarm of his ship. The spate of mutinies was certainly a protest against the appalling conditions of the men. As Mary Somerville explains, two ships, the Venerable and a frigate, remained loyal, undoubtedly in part due to the courage of Admiral Duncan, a man of great height, girth and presence. After Camperdown, Duncan commended William Fairfax in despatches but Fairfax did not significantly profit financially.
29 The Battle of Camperdown: the village of Camperdown is in the Northwest Netherlands on the North Sea. The British defeated the Dutch here in 1797. Admiral Duncan’s flagship, the Venerable, with William Fairfax as captain, was subjected to severe fire. The British finally captured eleven ships and suffered 220 killed and 812 wounded; the Dutch suffered 540 killed and 620 wounded. The victory was a remarkable one and there was some feeling in the country that Duncan should immediately have been made an Earl.
30 The Greenwich Royal Hospital was designed by Wren and became the Royal Naval College in 1873. The painting is by Samuel Drummond, RA, who also painted Richard Parker of the Nore mutiny.
First Marriage (1804) – Widowhood – Studies – Second Marriage
[Mr Samuel Greig was a distant relation of the Charters family. His father°, an officer in the British navy, had been sent by our government, at the request of the Empress Catherine, to organise the Russian navy. Mr Greig came to the Firth of Forth on board a Russian frigate, and was received by the Fairfaxes at Burntisland with Scotch hospitality, as a cousin. He eventually married my mother: not, however, until he had obtained the Russian consulship, and settled permanently in London, for Russia was then governed in the most arbitrary and tyrannical manner, and was neither a safe nor a desirable residence, and my grandfather only gave his consent to the marriage on this condition. My mother says:—]
MY cousin, Samuel Greig, commissioner of the Russian navy, and Russian consul for Britain, came to pay us a visit, and ultimately became my husband. Fortune I had none, and my mother could only afford to give me a very moderate trousseau, consisting chiefly of fine personal and household linen. When I was going away she gave me twenty pounds to buy a shawl or something warm for the following winter. I knew that the President of the Academy of Painting, Sir Martin Archer Shee°, had painted a portrait of my father immediately after the battle of Camperdown, and I went to see it. The likeness pleased me, – the price was twenty pounds; so instead of a warm shawl I bought my father’s picture, which I have since given to my nephew, Sir William George Fairfax. [1D, 53: I never repented, though I suffered for it. My husband had a gig which he drove to the City where he was engaged the whole day, and on coming home late in the evening used frequently to take me to drive. On these occasions I suffered severely from the cold as winter came on having only a small scarf; for although I could ask money for the household, I could not ask it for myself.] My husband’s brother, Sir Alexis Greig°, who commanded the Russian naval force in the Black Sea for more than twenty years, came to London about this time, and gave me some furs, which were very welcome. Long after this, I applied to Sir Alexis, at the request of Dr Whewell°, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and through his interest an order was issued by the Russian Government for simultaneous observations to be made of the tides on every sea-coast of the empire.
LETTER FROM DR WHEWELL TO
MRS SOMERVILLE
UNIVERSITY CLUB, Jan. 5, 1838
MY DEAR MRS SOMERVILLE,
I enclose a memorandum respecting tide observations, to which subject I am desirous of drawing the attention of the Russian Government. Nobody knows better than you do how much remains to be done respecting the tides, and what important results any advance in that subject would have. I hope, through your Russian friends, you may have the means of bringing this memorandum to the notice of the administration of their navy, so as to lead to some steps being taken, in the way of directing observations to be made. The Russian Government has shown so much zeal in promoting science, that I hope it will not be difficult to engage them in a kind of research so easy, so useful practically, and so interesting in its theoretical bearing.
Believe me, dear Mrs Somerville,
Very faithfully yours,
W. WHEWELL
My husband had taken me to his bachelor’s house in London, which was exceedingly small and ill ventilated. I had a key of the neighbouring square, where I used to walk. I was alone the whole of the day, so I continued my mathematical and other pursuits, but under great disad-vantages; for although my husband did not prevent me from studying, I met with no sympathy whatever from him, as he had a very low opinion of the capacity of my sex, and had neither knowledge of nor interest in science of any kind. I took lessons in French, and learnt to speak it so as to be understood. I had no carriage, so went to the nearest church; but, accustomed to our Scotch Kirk, I never could sympathise with the coldness and formality of the service of the Church of England. However, I thought it my duty to go to church and join where I could in prayer with the congregation.
[1D, 55: The members of the Russian legation came frequently to see us, but as they were all unmarried I had no female society. Baron Nicolai, the secretary, Mr Greig and I once spent a day at Windsor and went in the evening to see George III, the Queen and royal family taking their usual walk on the terrace of the castle. The princes and princesses were fine looking merry young people, the whole party talking frankly to everyone they knew.]
There was no Italian opera in Edinburgh; the first time I went to one was in London as chaperone to Countess Catharine Woronzow°, afterwards Countess of Pembroke, who was godmother to my eldest son. I sometimes spent the evening with her, and occasionally dined at the embassy; but went nowhere else till we became acquainted with the family of Mr Thomson Bonar, a rich Russian merchant, who lived in great luxury at a beautiful villa at Chiselhurst, in the neighbourhood of London, which has since become the refuge of the ex-Emperor Napoleon the Third° and the Empress Eugénie. The family consisted of Mr and Mrs Bonar, – kind, excellent people, – with two sons and a daughter, all grown up. We were invited from time to time to spend ten days or a fortnight with them, which I enjoyed exceedingly. I had been at a riding school in Edinburgh, and rode tolerably, but had little practice, as we could not afford to keep horses. On our first visit, Mrs Bonar asked me if I would ride with her, as there was a good lady’s horse to spare, but I declined. Next day I said, ‘I should like to ride with you.’ ‘Why did you not go out with me yesterday?’ she asked. ‘Because I had heard so much of English ladies’ riding, that I thought you would clear all the hedges and ditches, and that I should be left behind lying on the ground.’ I spent many pleasant days with these dear good people; and no words can express the horror I felt when we heard that they had been barbarously murdered in their bedroom. The eldest son and daughter had been at a ball somewhere near, and on coming home they found that one of the men-servants had dashed out the brains of both their