p109  Chapter Ten

Last Journeyings

Here I send you, my dearest Constance, a copy of the Article I alluded to in my last, premising that I was almost compelled to write it. As I had no one who could act for me, I was obliged to address the Editor myself: this accounts for the little praise I threw in to disguise the writer. I saw in Galignani's paragraph, copied from a Scotch paper, giving an account of a visit paid to Scotland by two young men, brothers, one Chs Edward, the other John Sobieski, represented in glowing colours &c &c. I felt certainly ruffled, and having made up my mind not to stir any more in this melancholy business, I would not have taken any further notice of the paragraph if I had not been teazed into compliance. There must be an answer to my letter, and you shall know it, when I get it, which I think will be before we go from hence.

Many thanks for your kind letter, my dear Friend [Constance]; it arrived on the 27th July, and I have lost one courier, that I might inform you of R's answer. All's right; the money has been paid this morning. My letters ought to reach you much sooner than yours arrive to me, since they are intrusted to the master of a Barge, who is an honest man, and put into the post office at Naples, as this shall be to morrow morning, being the post day; I cannot account for the great delay you complain of. The postage of yr letters is more than double that which you pay for mine, and English letters do not pay half as much. I knew all about the King, and the news you communicate, even to Mdlle Garnerin, also the great heat you suffer at Paris, since I continue to read G's paper, twenty days old.

I am sorry to hear the Cholera is raging at Vienna, and nearer us, in the north of Italy, at Venice &c. They have already reestablished the Quarantine here, no, they would not let escape such a good opportunity of plaguing and plundering Travellers. The Italians are persuaded that it is contagious: I have not found it so last year at Genoa; but when I reflect that they are great  p111 cowards, the experience I have of this strange and as yet little understood malady induces me to believe that with them it may be in many instances contagious, for I am convinced that wherever it rages, those who tremble, are most liable to fall victims to the Cholera.

Should you wish to write, contrive it so that your letter may reach me in the early part of September, for our time is out on the 15th, and I hope we shall not prolong our stay here. The only inducement for coming to Sorrento during the hot weather is that the place is free from moschettos: true we have none, but we have plenty of little black flies, called sunflies, or I believe modges [sic] in England, and another specie of gnat, much smaller than the usual, and fully as troublesome. I am all covered with their sting, and they annoy me beyond expression: hardly any night passes away without my having the fever, so very maddening they are: partial as I am to Italy, I trust this will be the last summer I ever pass in it. You may rely on my writing you before we leave Sorrento, and when I know our further proceedings. The green tea, I find, is a most excellent remedy, and it is owing to bad management if it did not answer with yr friend — nonsense about the bad smell! There is no such thing. Let me end my letter by bringing back to your mind a very good resolution I heard you take several times, but which I have not had the pleasure yet of seeing you adopt: I had quite forgotten to mention it before: — it is to take lessons of French, not to speak it, because you do it indeed very well, and yr pronunciation is good, but to enable you to write the language correctly: for you must have found most distressing not to be able to do it when required. I shall expect in your letter half a sheet of French as a specimen of yr progress.

Ever truly and sincerely yours

Stuart.

1st Augst 1836.

With regard to descendants of Clementina Walkinshaw, I may mention one (the last) with whom I was personally acquainted for some years before his death, and that was a Baron Rohenstart, a Swedish nobleman, who was said to be a grandson of Clementina Walkinshaw, and I have no reason to believe that he was not, whose father Baron Rohenstart, it was stated, was married to the daughter of Clementina Walkinshaw, which also I have no reason to doubt. Their son bore the names (as Christian names) of Charles Edward Stuart prefixed to his own family name of Rohenstart, which also I see no reason to dispute. He was first introduced to me as Baron Rohenstart in Prague, in the Casino, the club of the nobles of Bohemia, of which he was also a member. But he never assumed the title of Count of Albany. Had he assumed any title from his mother, it must have been Duke of Albany . . . but . . . Baron Rohenstart . . . was contented with the title which he inherited from his father. . . .

Baron Rohenstart, who died from injuries caused by the upsetting of a stagecoach in which he was travelling from Edinburgh to Inverness . . . was the same as stated above. . . . How in the inscription on his tomb he came to be called Count Rohenstart I cannot understand. . . . During my acquaintance with him we often conversed about Scotland; and as he had been accustomed to verse that country from time to time, we talked frequently about its history (which was generally brought about by me, as I had heard, many years before I became acquainted with him, that he was the grandson of Clementina Walkinshaw, though delicacy prevented me from touching on that subject, as he did not; neither did he ever allude to his relation­ship with the Stuart family or to the fact that he bore as Christian names Charles Edward Stuart).

Fonda del Oriente Barcelona   13th May [1854]

My dear Charles: — I must trouble you again with another of my epistles before I shall have the pleasure of meeting you. I duly received your kind letter directed to Valencia, and both yours & that of my dear cousin Lord Amelius, afforded me great satisfaction, although I must observe that you make too much of a thing which came of course & naturally, and did hardly deserve being mentioned. I had requested L. A. to tell me the state the oranges arrived in; and his silence on the subject proves that this was a failure: I am very sorry for it: but there is no mending the thing this year; I only trust that the same disappointment did not happen with the wine and that you did receive the quality I had selected. — I forgot to mention that they do not allow any letter to be paid in Spain for England, & therefore your last letter was paid twice. —  p114 Pray write me a short note, and if you are too much engaged, I request L. A. to do it for you, acquainting me with your plan that I may act accordingly, and direct it to Hotel Beauvau, Marseille. 'Tis very strange, but we were all three engaged in the same pursuit at the same time. I mean the search after pictures. I have seen many surpassingly fine, splendid beyond all description, and you will no doubt be surprised to hear me give the decided preference to the Madrid Museum over that of Paris! The Spanish School is extremely rich and hardly known either in France or England. — I have been very lucky in my ferretings, and I have actually laid my hand upon a Murillo which I paid extremely cheap, not one tenth of its value. — Two days after my purchase, I was offered $2500 piastres fortes which I did not accept; perhaps I was wrong! we shall see later. — What do you think of all my expenses being largely repaid, and having besides above £500 clear profit, — I have a pretty addition to make to both of your collections: however you must not expect anything in the style of Murillo: — they are modern but excellent cabinet pictures of the costumes & manners of Andalusia.

I have been unwell for above one week; but I am now quite recovered: 4 days & as many nights on the road (and what roads) had done for me, and my old bones could not bear it any longer. This is about the time I had fixed for leaving Spain, and I intend taking my passage by the next steamer to Marseille in about 4 or 5 days. I must go instantly to Nice to pay a last visit to a dying friend, and as I fancy that the German waters may do me some good, I think of proceeding straight on from Nice to Baden Baden, where I may remain a fortnight nursing myself a little, and then I shall move on to give you the meeting wherever you choose to fix it for that relaxation from business which you must want sadly. Recollect, I beg, that should you find necessary to give up for this year your excursion on the continent, this will equally please me, and I shall cross the sea from Ostend to join you in England, where they [sic] are many attractive spots to spend 6 weeks or 2 months in a charming way, besides auld Scotland all over which I should feel happy to chaperon you. — The little attention I am obliged to make cannot in the least interfere with you, since your time is not yet up, and I am afraid there is no chance of your stirring before July, even perhaps as late as the end of August. Then dear Lady A's interesting situation may detain you in town longer than you thought. I merely mention all these casualties to prove that my going so early in the season to a watering place cannot in any manner interfere with your project, and should it jar with anything you have resolved, I am sure I would give up with pleasure everything of mine in order to meet you on your own ground. — I had so many things to communicate, and I do not now recollect any more, besides 'tis time I should bid you adieu. With my best regards to all your circle, I remain most sincerely yours

Stu

This is the last Will and Testament of Charles Edward Stuart, Count of Roehenstart, now residing at No. 7 Cambridge Square, Hyde Park, London.

I give and bequeath to my friend Charles Harrison, Esquire, all my fortune and effects whatsoever in England and France, and I make him Executor of this my will, subject to the following bequests:

I give to the first born child of Lady Amelius Wentworth Beauclerk One Thousand Pounds Sterling, and should the said child die before he or she becomes of age, then the said sum of One Thousand Pounds, is to go to the next child and so on.

I give to Mrs. Margaret Hughes Five Hundred Pounds Sterling.

I give to Elizabeth Constance White Two Hundred Pounds Sterling.

I request Mr. Harrison to pay to Colonel Julien and his wife of No. 9 Rue Ne De de Lorette, Paris, Twenty Pounds Sterling, free from duty, to buy a little remembrance of me. They have taken charge of Two large Trunks & two small boxes belonging to me, containing Books, some plate, old rings & other valuable things, which they will deliver to Mr. Harrison.

 p116  I also wish him to pay for the same purpose and free from duty Twenty Pounds to Madame Dafour [Dufour?], wife of Dr Dafour, rue Lamartine No. 46 Paris.

My papers are to be burnt, but particularly two sealed Parcels marked "to be burned at my death."

This is my will, to which (written with my own hand) I have subscribed my name this Twenty ninth day of December one Thousand Eight Hundred and fifty-three. C. E. S.

Count of Roeh–––––

The late General Stuart, Count Roehenstart

It is very desirable that some one should bring forward authentic intelligence regarding the gentleman passing under that name, who died at Dunkeld on the 28th ult., in consequence of an injury by a fall from a stage-coach. A gentleman on whom we place reliance has known him as an occasional visitor of this country since the year 1830. He reports that the deceased General described himself as a son of the Duchess of Albany, the daughter of Prince Charles Stuart by Clementina Walkinshaw.

His father was also a Stuart, a Swedish count of Scottish descent, whom the Duchess had married without the sanction of her father. The Prince had become reconciled to the marriage, and the deceased remembered having often sat on the knee of his grandfather, at whose death, in 1788, he was about seven years old.

General Stuart had been in the Prussian [Russian?] service. He was a mild and amiable man, of dignified appearance and refined manners, and spoke of his connection with the Royal House of Stuart in modest and becoming terms. For many years he was accustomed to make a tour of the Highlands, to gratify his mind with recollections of the romantic struggle in which his grandfather had been engaged in 1745. He seemed to be an isolated individual, although in easy circumstances.

Assuming this report of his parentage and history to be correct, it is certainly an affecting consideration that the amiable old man should have perished  p117 in the Scottish Highlands in so unfortunate a manner. It may be added that, according to his own account, the title he bore was from an estate in Sweden, which had acquired from its first Scottish possessor the name of Roehenstart, with reference to a family legend, to the effect that at a hunt in the company of an early Scottish king, his ancestor had caused a roe and a hen to start at the same moment, greatly to the admiration of his Majesty.

This account is meant merely as a summary of what General Stuart stated regarding himself, and its verification by other intelligence is, of course, required before any great consequence can be attached to it.