August 12th, 1857 - Hawthorne's 6th visit

 

12th August 1857
Old Trafford

Raphael: Virgin, Child and Kneeling Angel

I went to the Exhibition on Wednesday [12th August 1857] with Una, and looked at the pencil sketches of the old masters; 

Canaletto:Campanile of St Marks, under repair 

also at the pictures generally, old and new. 

John Linnell the Younger: A Surrey Landscape

I particularly remember a spring landscape, by John Linnell the younger. It is wonderfully good; so tender and fresh that the artist seems really to have caught the evanescent April and made her permanent. Here, at least, is eternal spring. 

His Grace, the 5th Duke of Newcastle 

I saw a little man, behind an immense beard, whom I take to be the Duke of Newcastle; at least, there was a photograph of him in the gallery, with just such a beard. He was at the Palace on that day.

Nathaniel Hawthorne 

There 260 sketches and drawings by the Old Masters, along with over 1100 paintings. It looks like Hawthorne and daughter Una concentrated on galleries A, B and C on this visit.

Plan of the Art Treasures Exhibition, Old Trafford, 1857

The Duke of Newcastle was Secretary of State for War when war broke out in Crimea. He resigned.  The Duke’s wife, Lady Susan Hamilton, had also been at the Exhibition a few days earlier. Or, rather ex-wife. They had divorced six years earlier, after she ran off with Lord Walpole and had his child.William Gladstone tried to rescue her as part of his work for distressed womenfolk (it says in a very badly written Wikipedia entry). 

There was more scandal to come. Their daughter Lady Susan, married to Lord Adolphus Vane-Tempest, had an affair with the Prince of Wales. Her brother Lord Arthur Clinton either (a) died of scarlet fever or (b) committed suicide or (c) fled to  France. He had been living with ‘Stella’ whose real name was Ernest Boulton. 

Fanny and Stella

Boulton was a cross dresser, appearing on stage with Frederick Park as Fanny and Stella. They were also gay, as was Lord Arthur. Stella lived with Lord Arthur as his wife, and even had business cards printed up as Lady Arthur Clinton. 

This was at a time when homosexuality was not acceptable in polite society, although in a step forwards the sentence for those convicted of sodomy had been reduced from the death penalty to life imprisonment (with hard labour) in 1861. In 1870 Boulton and Park were sent to trial for homosexual acts and Lord Arthur subpoenaed. Which was the day he contracted scarlet fever/committed suicide/took a ferry to France (delete as applicable).

We can take pride that we now live in a society that accepts people for who they are, and there is no stigma attached to be being gay or transgender.