EPILOGUE
The Slopes,
Trantridge,
Wessex
15/7/94
Dear 'Miss G.',
(I'll always think of you like that, although you're no more my assistant housemistress now than I'm your pupil!) - Many thanks for your congratulations - can't tell you how delighted I am with my grades - University here I come!
I remember how keen you always were on strange historical stories - we used to think YOU were strange in the House- so I thought you'd like the enclosed. As you see from the address, I'm down in Wessex with my grandparents for the vac. Grandpa found a manuscript at the bottom of a desk in the library, and asked me to type it up for him, so I made a spare print-out of it for you. It's a draft case study by the famous Dr. John H. Watson (as in "Sherlock Holmes and") about a juicy scandal re: my great-great-grandparents in 1890! It wasn't published at the time because even with the sort of fictionalisations Watson usually used (changing names, etc.) it would still have been recognisable. There was enough trouble with a libel suit over a roman à clef by some architect, which led to an out-of-court settlement (the writer gave up prose for poetry soon afterwards as a result!).
Tess and Alec's marriage turned out very happily, and they had four more children. Being 'received in Society' wasn't something he gave a damn about, so the fact she was divorced didn't matter much. They were pretty un-stuffy for Victorians: broad-minded, fun-loving, and preferred more pleasantly bohemian company. But in the end, his heavy smoking (I've heard you could hardly see him for cigar-smoke sometimes!) caught up with him, and she outlived him by about 30 years. She died in 1949, when she was 80, having done a lot for the village. (The school was paid for by her and Alec in 1903 - but it closed a couple of years ago because of numbers, so now the local kids have to catch the bus into Chaseborough). Tess got a bit eccentric as an old lady, devoted to her aviary. There are still descendants of her finches and fancy poultry here - I suppose they descend from the original Stoke birds!
Grandpa says the scandal was never mentioned while Tess lived. The most he knew about it for a long time was that she'd divorced a first husband in the days when that was still considered shocking. He was amazed to discover that his dear old Granny could've had such a STEAMY past! Time's cruel. But if you ever see the old photos and portraits - the Sargent especially (you must come to see it some day, Miss G.- we've got a small Rossetti, too, which belonged to Great x 3-Grandpa Simon - Holmes was right!) - you'd know what it was all about! She was VERY beautiful in the hour-glass '90s style (no stick-insect supermodel!), and he was SO dashing! This may sound weird, but I'm almost sure I've seen them when I walk past the rose-garden - she loved the old cabbage-roses.
Grandpa says that HIS father had told him about visits from Aunt Polly Brooks, an old Scottish lady - sort of a godmother /adopted grandmother. She used to wear ropes of huge jet beads and brooches with dead people's hair in - the sort of thing you like (historic or not, I still think it's a bit sick). But the oddest thing he remembers now makes sense, he says. Apparently, at Xmas, Tess used to put any cards with ANGELS on in the fire, and swear at carol-singers for 'Hark, the Herald'-ing on the doorstep! Obviously it was still a sensitive subject - but then, that Angel Clare would've given anyone the creeps! What a perve! I wouldn't have fancied being alone with him at Stonehenge - not that you could, these days; you'd be arrested for trespass, or for being a hippie, I suppose.
As for Clare, it was very lucky Tess didn't really do anything with him. It turned out that what he'd had in Brazil was a flare-up of a dose of pox he'd caught in London, so he ended up even madder than he was to start with. Aunt Lu must've been counting her blessings! After leaving prison, she led a quiet life - charity work, and so on: whether she was truly repentant or not, I don't know - no-one seems to know much about her, not even Grandpa. I think she became a recluse later on.
Anyway, I'm sure you'll find it intriguing. I think it's funny being descended from a real femme fatale - I'll have to see if any of it's rubbed off on me when I go to Uni.!
Best wishes,
Teresa
(Stoke-d'Urberville)
