“ In an age when reputation in society was everything and adultery would destroy a reputation , this was certainly the stuff of lurid headlines .”
HISTORY
“ In an age when reputation in society was everything and adultery would destroy a reputation , this was certainly the stuff of lurid headlines .”
who resisted covering herself or getting dressed . Seymour , it appeared , was not at all shocked - unlike the bathing attendant Mrs Marriott . The following month the Militia was given orders to move to Sussex and this , it seems , was the trigger for Bisset and Seymour to run off together . This was an age when there was no legal mechanism for a woman to divorce her husband and , it seems that Seymour was putting her faith in Sir Richard divorcing her . In the Georgian era , a woman publicly accused of adultery in the courts would be a pariah in fashionable society . The brief illness of Sir Richard on November 18th , 1781 provided Seymour with her opportunity to elope . She made no advance plans , but following a gathering at an officer ’ s home , she wrote a note to her maid Mary asking her to gather her wardrobe and bring it to London . Seymour and Bisset fled at dawn and booked into the Royal Hotel in Pall Mall , spending the next four days in their bedroom and occasionally requesting the hotel staff to remake the bed . When Sir Richard discovered what his wife had done , he refused to allow her clothes to be sent to London . She had also left him a letter saying that she wanted a divorce . He , however , believed that Seymour would eventually return . In the late 18th century , divorce was hard to obtain even for a man of means . It required a legal device called , “ A suit of Separation from Bed & Board .” This allowed a husband divorce from an unfaithful wife , but neither party could marry again while their partner lived , and
Lady Worsley , 1775 , by Joshua Reynolds
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