Читать книгу The Fatal Cup: Thomas Griffiths Wainewright and the strange deaths of his relations - John Price Williams - Страница 58

friend Barry Cornwall, that the real father was a “dissipated and impoverished peer”, though this has never been substantiated, and Wainewright would hardly have named the child after himself if he suspected he had been cuckolded, though Eliza herself was to prove less than trustworthy, and indeed deadly, in other matters.

However, the birth records show that Eliza and Wainewright - who is described in the column for Quality, Trade or Profession as “Esquire” - were the parents of the hapless Griffiths, whose childhood was to be ruined by Wainewright’s actions.

He was now the owner of the magnificent Linden House and another £5,000, for bachelor Uncle George had died without bothering to make a will and Wainewright was the only living relative. Dr Griffiths had not wanted to leave a penny more to his grandson than he had settled on his daughter, but now the dissipated dandy had inherited the lot – the huge house, its contents, horses and carriages - and cash.

Wainewright might have expected even more, but the Monthly Review had been loss-making and the costs of running a large country house were huge. He was now living in his usual high style, this time as a country gentleman, but he had inherited a white elephant which would make his problems much worse.

In April, he began selling off the library at Linden House, including around a thousand volumes of the newspapers and magazines that George Griffiths and his father had used in editing the Monthly Review. Rare books, pictures, music and casts were to follow. Notable among them were 200 volumes

THE FATAL CUP

58