Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/437

 ii s. iv. NOV. 25, mi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

431

Elizabeth Anne Haryett (by some given as " Hargett ") seems to have been born in 1824, probably the daughter of a Thames boatman ; she became known as a courtesan in London in 1840 or 1841, and had then as her friend, or anyhow as one of her friends, Mr. Fitzroy, a gambler by profession ; in 1842 she gave birth to a son, who will be referred to hereafter. She was then living in sumptuous style at No. 277, Oxford Street, where she received well-known men. At her debut as a fast woman she assumed and retained afterwards the nom de guerre of "Miss Howard."

It was only in 1846 that Prince Louis Napoleon became acquainted with her, so that he cannot have been the father of her son, Martin Constantin, although he has often been credited with it. She then, or possibly a little later, lent the pretender Prince considerable sums of money, which are believed to have been advanced by her on the account, or in any case with the assistance, of her old friend Fitzroy. When Prince Louis Napoleon came to Paris in 1848 she followed him, and resided first at the Hotel Meurice, in the Hue de Rivoli, and afterwards at 14, Rue du Cirque. She was received at the Tuileries and at Saint-Cloud, and was recognized as the Prince's official mistress. The Prince bought for her the fine estate of Beauregard, close to Versailles, with 460 acres of park and the two farms of Bechevet and Bellebat, the purchase price of which is supposed to have been 240,0007. ; it is not quite clear whether that estate was presented to her in 1849, or only in 1853, when the Prince, who had then become Emperor Napoleon III., married Mile. Eugenie de Montijo, Comtesse de Theba more probably the latter, as the gift would then have been made by way of compensation for Miss Howard's wounded feelings and disappointed hopes. At the same time she was made Comtesse de Beauregard.

Her son, Martin Constantin, was created Comte de Bechevet, but I almost think that must have been later, as I recollect having had, in the sixties, a very pleasant school- fellow by the name of Beauregard, who was known to us all to be the son of " Miss Howard, the Emperor's lady friend " before his marriage. I lost sight of him after our schooldays, and he died on 24 Aug., 1907 ; his will appears to have been proved in London and to have given rise to a lawsuit, a report of which would doubtless be found in the English papers of that time, probably in October.

Miss Howard, or rather the Comtesse de Beauregard, married in 1854 a Cornish gentleman named Sir Clarence Trelaway (thus reported by the French papers, but may have been Trelawny) ; the marriage was an unhappy one. She lived afterwards a retired life on her Beauregard estate, devoting much of her time and money to works of charity, and after a short illness she died on 19 Aug., 1865, her death being registered as follows :

" In the year 1865, on the 19th August, died at the Beauregard Castle, Commune of Saint- Cloud (Seine and Oise), Elizabeth Anne Haryett, aged 41, born in London, wife of Clarence Tre- laway.

" The Mayor.

"Signed: L. Mention."

The estate of Beauregard was sold by her son in 1872 to Baron Maurice de Hirsch.

I am indebted for pretty well the whole of the foregoing to the collection of L'lnter- mediaire des Chercheurs.

H. GOUDCHAUX.

The pseudonymous author of ' The Court of the Tuileries ' states that in the entry of Miss Howard's death, in the registers of La- Celle-St. -Cloud, near Paris, she is described as " Elizabeth Anne Haryett, called Miss Howard, Countess de Beauregard, born in England in 1823." He also says that some English works (unnamed) state that her real name was Hargett. That, I think, is a mistake, for in certain legal proceedings relative to the final division of her English

Property, which took place before Mr. ustice " Warrington in Chancery in June, 1909, it was stated by counsel that a large settlement was made upon her in 1854, when she was described as Elizabeth Ann Haryett Trelawney.

The author already cited states that Miss Haryett or Howard was first the mistress of a famous steeplechase rider in London, and then of Major Mount joy Martin, 2nd Life Guards (born 1809, died in London, 1874). She had an exquisite figure, and a head and features like the masterpieces of Greek sculpture. At her house in London such men as the Duke of Beaufort, the Earl of Chesterfield, the Earl of Malmesbury, and Count D'Orsay used to meet, and it was the last-named who introduced Louis Napoleon to her. He was smitten by her charms, and it is said that her wealth helped to finance his Boulogne expedition of 1840. After his escape from Ham in 1846, and until after his election as President of the Republic in 1848, she continued to finance his opera- tions. She followed him to Paris, and settled