Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol I (1901).djvu/411

Burton hereditary count of the Holy Roman Empire. Her mother was a sister of the first Baron Gerard.

She was born in London, at 14 Great Cumberland Place, on 20 March 1831, and educated in the convent of the Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre, near Chelmsford, and afterwards at Boulogne, where she first met Burton in 1851, and forthwith formed a romantic attachment for him. They met again in 1856, from which time their engagement may be said to date, though it was never recognised by her parents. It was not until 1861 that she consented to marry him without their approval, and then only after she had obtained a dispensation for a mixed marriage from Cardinal Wiseman, who was made acquainted with all the circumstances of the case. They were married at the Royal Bavarian Chapel, Warwick Street, on 22 Jan. 1861, the ceremony being performed by Dr. Hearn, the cardinal’s vicar-general, in the necessary presence of the civil registrar. Henceforth she shared her husband’s life in travel and in literature so far as a woman could. She became his secretary and his aide-de-camp. She rode and swam and fenced with him. When Burton was recalled from Damascus he wrote to his wife the following laconic note: ‘Ordered off; pay, pack, and follow.’ Except in the case of ‘The Arabian Nights,’ she was usually her husband’s amanuensis, and saw many of his books through the press. He encouraged her to write on her own account. ‘Inner Life of Syria’ (2 vols. 1875; 2nd edit. 1879) and ‘Arabia, Egypt, India’ (1879) are mainly her work, with contributions from her husband. Her name also appears as nominal editor of his ‘Camoens,’ and as author of ‘The Reviewer Reviewed’ appended to vol. iv. The method adopted for issuing ‘The Arabian Nights’ to private subscribers was devised by her, and she deserves all the credit for its financial success. Her own ‘household’ edition of the work resulted in loss [see under ]. At Trieste one of her chief interests was to manage a local society for the prevention of cruelty to animals.

Lady Burton’s constant efforts to further her husband's career, in the press and through semi-official channels, were not always judicious. She regarded him as the greatest and least appreciated Englishman of his time. He requited her devotion by extending to her absolute confidence, such as no male friend obtained from him, though even to her he did not soften the angularities of his character. During the last years of his life she proved herself a devoted nurse. After his death she lived solely for his memory. She took a cottage close to his tomb at Mortlake, where she was glad to receive his friends. All her time was spent in writing his biography, and in preparing a memorial edition of his works. In this duty she would accept neither assistance nor advice. Though partly based upon autobiographical reminiscences dictated by Burton himself, and also upon his private journals, her biography (2 vols. 1893) was not admitted by his surviving relatives to be the true story of his life. The glamour which tended to distort her vision is yet more marked in her own autobiography, which was edited by Mr. W. H. Wilkins in 1897.

In 1891 Lady Burton received a pension of 150l. on the civil list. She died on 22 March 1896 in a house in Baker Street, which she shared with a widowed sister, Mrs, Fitzgerald, and she was buried by the side of her husband in the mausoleum tent in Mortlake cemetery.

 BURTON, RICHARD FRANCIS (1821–1890), explorer and scholar, was the eldest son of Colonel Joseph Netterville Burton of the 36th regiment. His paternal grandfather was the Rev. Edward Burton, rector of Tuam, and owner of an estate in co. Galway. The family originally came from Shap in Westmoreland. His mother was Martha Beckwith, daughter and co-heiress of Richard Baker of Barham House, Hertfordshire. His parents led a nomadic life, and his father seems to have been a thorough Irishman at heart. In his youth he had seen service in Sicily under Sir John Moore, and was for some years stationed in Italy. Shortly after his marriage (in 1819) he retired from the army, and ultimately died at Bath in 1857. He had three children, of whom a daughter married General Sir Henry William Stisted [q, v.], and the younger son (Edward Joseph Netterville) became a captain in the 37th regiment.

Richard Francis Burton was born at Barham House (the residence of his maternal grandfather) on 19 March 1821, and was baptised in the parish church of Elstree. He never had any regular education. When about five he was taken abroad by his parents, who, according to the fashion of those days, wandered over the continent, staying sometimes for a few years, sometimes for a few months, at such places as Tours, Blois, Pau, Pisa, Rome, and Naples. For a short while, in 1829, he was placed at the well-known preparatory school of the Rev. D. C. 