The Story of Mary Shelley and Isabella Baxter

The Story of Mary Shelley and Isabella Baxter Part 8

The Story of Mary Shelley and Isabella Baxter

Chapter 8

In the spring of 1853, after returning from an exploration of the headland at St. Andrews, Isabella was tired out and as she nodded of in her favourite chair in her sitting room, she awoke with a start hearing her maid crash down a tray filled with all the things necessary for a good afternoon tea.

"Oh! Thank you... sorry I must have nodded off. I'm looking forward to a refreshing cup of tea. James! James, where are you? Come along now, tea has arrived," she called.

"I'm right here Grandmama," said James as he entered the room and took up his usual seat opposite Isabella's at the little round table in their sitting room.

"I'm starving," declared James.

"Hardly," said Isabella, "But do help yourself to some scones."

The hungry boy eagerly began filling his plate with scones, jam, and cream, when he said, "Grandmama, I was just thinking, why did the war with France make everybody short of money? I'm thinking about what you said earlier about Mr Shelley helping Mr Godwin financially. How could a faraway war affect Mr Godwin's bookshop?"

"Good question, James," she replied, "Excellent question. That's difficult for me to explain. Your Grandpapa could have given you a better answer to that question than I ever could, but I shall try my best. It wasn't just Mr Godwin's bookshop that suffered financially due to the economics of the country, it was the majority of people. The fact is, many people make more money during a war. My father, for example, made a lot of money from the manufacture of sails, for Britain's war ships, and by making naval uniforms etc. The rich often become richer at a time of war, and the poor always become poorer, according to your Grandpapa anyway. The more ships they lost, the more the government taxed people and the longer the war continued, the higher the taxes became, and of course, restriction of movement. They seemed to believe there were spies everywhere. One couldn't join a literary society for fear of being arrested because they banned gatherings. We nearly lost the war to Napoleon you know, and if they government had become any stricter, they may well have had no-one to fight for them.

Mr and Mrs Godwin found it difficult enough to sell their books and those of others, but Godwin was already known by the government for his publication on Political Justice, but when Shelley and Mary eloped... well the scandal caused Mary Jane Godwin to close her book shop and closed shops make no money. Percy Shelley came from a very rich family. His Grandfather even lived in a castle, and he had been supplying money to Godwin from his inheritance allowances ever since he met him, due to his admiration for him.

Godwin, like most Glasites and Sandemanians, believed in the sharing of wealth, as my father did to a certain extent, whereby those who have ought to help those who don't, as did most members of the Glasite congregation, who helped one another. Godwin would have made a good politician I think."

"I'm going to be a politician Grandmama," said James.

"Are you, indeed?" said Isabella, surprised, "how so?"

"I promised Mama that I would become one and help the rights of women," the young man replied.

"How commendable! But what about your father's Balgonie Mills? Who is going to manage that?" asked Isabella.

"One of my brothers, perhaps," replied James. "May I leave the table now, I have homework to do."

"Of course James, off you go," Isabella said, as she took on another one of her dreamy looks and her mind drifted back to her early days at Newburgh, just after Mary's elopement.

                                                                                                 -0-

Newburgh 1814