The Campbell divorce case : copious report of the trial / With numerous portraits of those concerned drawn from life by Harold Furniss.

Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Campbell divorce case : copious report of the trial / With numerous portraits of those concerned drawn from life by Harold Furniss. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    Allingham; the communication to his wife in Bryanston-square in June, at the house of his brother; and, finally, the marriage on July 21st, 1881. With regard to the delicate communication made on the occasion of the visit to Bryanston-square, he might remark that Lord Colin (Campbell asked Miss Blood to keep it a secret. She said she would do so with one exception, that exception being her mother, She mentioned the fact to her mother, and he might say that that lady had kept it secret even from her husband. On July 21, 1881, the parties were married at the Savoy Chapel, the relations of both parties attending. They set out for the Isle of Wight, where they remained five days. On that melancholy honeymoon Lord Colin Campbell was attended by an hospital nurse, and he might add that from the period, or soon after the period of his engagement to Miss Blood, in September, 1880, down to the •end of her married life, which practically came to an end in 1883, he -never was without an attendant of that kind. After leaving the Isle of Wight they stayed at the Grosvenor Hotel, at Westbourne-place, and in Sloane-street. At the latter place, Lord Colin Campbell had a recurrence ■of illness, and was confined to his bed a week or ten days. In August of the same year they went to various places in Scotland, and returned to London in September, 1881. In October of the same year they went to Bournemouth, at which time the marriage had not been consummated. Ip, that month Lord Colin handed a slip of paper to his wife purporting t< •contain an extract from a doctor's letter, in which the doctor said ov ■suggested that intercourse would be beneficial to him (Lord Colin Camp- bell). He would not stop to make any comment on the effect such a com- munication would have on a young and pure-minded woman—it was -enough to say that it did cause—with all her regard and affection for her husband—a feeling of revulsion on her part, and the marriage was not then •consummated. The parties went to Scotland, and there, at Inverary, in October, marital intercourse for the first time took place. That inter- course was accompanied by suggestions, which he might more properly call injunctions, on the part of Lord Colin, of a shameful kind, which •could not but be a shock to his young wife. She was told to take’precau- tions so that she might not suffer herself. At this period one of the parties sitting in the well of the Court made an •exclamation of dissent. The Judge: There must be no interruption. If there is, I must order the person interrupting to leave. Sir C. Russell, resuming, said he believed he should be able to prove from •documents that what he had stated was correct. Lord Colin was no doubt ■under the impression that, although it might be a source of danger to him- self to have intercourse with his wife, yet from statements made to him by •doctors the danger to his wife was a very remote one ; but that he advised her to take precautions for the purpose of guarding against infection ; and that he would prove from documents, The marriage was consummated in October, 1881, and in November of the same year Lady Campbell found she was suffering, and in pain, which caused her some alarm. She naturally kept this to herself as long as she could, even from her best friends, but at a later stage it could not be concealed, and he might say ■that from that time, with rare intermissions, down to the time till after her married life had ceased, she suffered seriously in her body and in her 'health. In November, 1881, Lord Colin and his wife went to live at 79, Cadogan-place, and in the following month of December, he was obliged <to undergo another operation. The operation was pronounced to be a