England's Mistress_ The Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton - Kate Williams [61]
Engraving by Charles Knight of Romney's own copy of Lady Hamilton as a Bacchante—the painting commissioned by an admiring Sir William in 1784. Greville made his friend paint the portrait repeatedly until he judged it beautiful enough for his discerning uncle. When it was finally finished, Bacchante became one of Romney's most popular paintings and prints of the engraving were soon bestsellers.
Emma claimed she had found a cheap apartment at Mrs. Darnwood's boardinghouse, now Dover House, 16 Station Road, but its pleasant position right by the sea came at a cost. Little Emma played with Mrs. Cado-gan by the sea while her mother embarked on a stringent detoxifying and beautifying regime that was, as she confessed, a "great expense": "a shilling a day for the bathing horse and whoman and twopence a day for the dress." Bathing machines were liberally advertised in the local papers: a carriage driven by a liveried man and a horse, which had at the back a long covered tunnel so that the lady could bathe in (dark) privacy.7 It seems as if Emma had developed eczema at Edgware Row, and it was particularly painful on her knees and elbows. Greville had been repulsed by her peeling skin, so she was anxious to prove it was improving, declaring she washed her knees and elbows at least twice a day in seawater and massaged them with moisturizing cream, as well as hiring a maid to slather seaweed all over her before she went to bed.
She missed him deeply. "I am allmost broken hearted at being from you," she pined.
You don't know how much I love you & your behavier to me wen we parted was so kind, Greville, I don't know what to do, but I will make you amends by your kind behaiveir to you for I have grattude and I will show it you all as I can, so don't think of my faults Greville think of all my good & blot out all my bad, for it is all gone & berried never to come again.
When he did not reply, she stepped up her promises, pledging to become a new woman, the epitome of "evenness of temper and steadyness of mind," thanking him for his "angel like goodness."8 She begged him not to "think on my past follies" and declared that the "wild unthinking Emma" was no more.
Am I not happy abbove any of my sex, at least in my situation, does not Greville love me, or at least like me, does not he protect me, does not he provide for me, is he not a father to my child… To think of your goodness is too much.9
When she finally received a letter from him, she replied in a tumble of gratitude, rhapsodizing how little Emma "hopes you will give her an opportunity of thankingyou personally for your goodness." She had fallen in love with her small daughter and had begun to cherish hopes that the little girl might charm her lover. Greville read the letter angrily, suspecting her of trying to wheedle a place for little Emma at Edgware Row. He dashed off a furious reply, making it clear that he would decide when he would meet the toddler, if at all.
Hurt, she replied that "you have mad me unhappy by scolding me; how can you," and promised he could decide her child's future: "I will give her up to you intirely… put her there where you propose." In her next letter, she regretted she never had the "luck & prospect" of an education like her daughter's. "All my happiness now is Greville, & to think that he loves me makes a recompense for all." She promised she would be "gentle & affectionate & everything you wish me to do I will do," and declared, "I shall think myself happy to be under the seam roof with Greville." She was trying hard to be as tender, dedicated, and grateful as The Triumph of Temper instructed, but her effusive promises no longer had the same effect on her lover. After ten weeks away from her, Greville was no longer titillated by games of punishment and forgiveness. He was as weary of her as any collector who tires of a piece he owns.
Greville returned from Wales