Illustrated life and career of William Palmer of Rugeley : containing details of his conduct as schoolboy ... with original letters of William and Anne Palmer and other authentic documents ... / [William Palmer].

  • Palmer, William, 1824-1856.
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Illustrated life and career of William Palmer of Rugeley : containing details of his conduct as schoolboy ... with original letters of William and Anne Palmer and other authentic documents ... / [William Palmer]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    34/140 (page 32)
    It was at Abbot’s Bromley, and among the oaks at Bagot’s Park, that the plausible, soft- spoken William Palmer, fresh from the embraces of one of his many victims round about Hay- wood, spoke to the unsophisticated girl in the accents of love; it was here that vows of constancy were sworn; and it was here that Mr. Dawson discovered the lovers, and forbade William Palmer to enter his house. It is to be supposed that Dawson cautioned his ward, and, in so far as he could, exposed the man who sought her only for her money ; for she rejected him about that time (the latter part of 1845); and it only explains the art and dissimulation which he knew so well how to practise, when we narrate that he repeated his offer with such effect as to be tliis time accepted; and Annie Brookes, notwithstanding the strong and continued opposition of her guardians, became (by an order of the Court of Chancery in 1817), his wife. During these so-called halcyon days of love, innumerabledetters, of course, passed between them. We have been so fortunate as to procure three unpublished specimens, which we here lay before the reader. The two letters subjoined were written to Palmer by his intended bride—the first has no date, and we are unable to suggest one by interval evidence. We may, however, state, that the ' Bath Post” on which it is written, bears date the year 1845.