S.J. Wright

Following on from The Letter Bag of Elizabeth Spencer Stanhope, I wanted to learn more about 'Madame' Diana Beaumont of neighbouring property Bretton Hall in West Yorkshire and came across this title. Sadly, the emphasis is very much on the 'bureaucracy' in the title and I learned little more about Diana, bar this rather blunt summary:

'It is generally accepted that she was aggressively domineering, generally disliked, even loathed, and that her designation as 'Madam' was pure sarcasm. She seems to have countered the genteel sneers at her illegitimacy by, to use a military adage, 'getting there firstest with the mostest.'

Sounds like my kind of woman! She was the illegitimate daughter of Sir Thomas Wentworth, the fifth and final Baronet of Wentworth, who - the Spencer Stanhopes claimed - inveigled her way into her father's will, inheriting his property and a great fortune which should have gone to a young namesake. Her great rise in wealth, if not status, lead to a successful marriage, large family and impressive additions to Bretton Hall in Wakefield, including the grounds which Diana supervised herself. Eldest son Thomas Wentworth Beaumont loathed his mother, however, and upon her death set about destroying all her hard work at Bretton (Wright diagnoses him as suffering from 'severe clinical paranoia' which 'could well run in the family'!) The house and grounds were sold to the Council in the 1950s and became a college, now also closed.

This is a very academic, dry and repetitive 'monograph' with occasions glimmers of historical interest. Diana Beaumont's life story is crying out for an unbiased, sympathetic biography - heads up, Catherine Bailey, another branch of the Wentworth family needs your magic touch!… (mer)