Napoleon chez the Balcombes- A Review

Volume 3 of Michel Dancoisne-Martineau's series, Napoleon and St Helena, the end of an emperor.

This volume provides a very comprehensive account of Napoleon's debarquement from the "Northumberland", his single night in Jamestown at Porteous House, his stay at the Briars and of the people he met during his short time there.

The main character was William Balcombe, "a pathological liar, happy to let people on the island believe he was of royal descent, who because of friends in high places got the apparentlyly lucrative job of procuring supplies for the French and for a time was the host to Napoleon and some of his entourage at the Briars.

Amongst the many unsavoury things we learn about Balcombe is that he continued to import slaves to St Helena after it was illegal, and when he left in 1818 his "herd"" of blacks, as it was called, consisted of twenty males, nine under sixteen, and ten women, four under the age of thirteen.(1) There is much information here also about the whole family after their time on St Helena, including the story of Betsy and her short, disastrous marriage to Edward Abell. Here too is a full account of the life of the slave Toby whom Napoleon befriended and tried to free. A year or so after Napoleon's death Toby was robbed of what was left of the significant amount of money that Napoleon had given him. Fellow slave, Sam, was convicted of the robbery and duly executed in August 1823.

The biggest surprise of this volume was the background about Napoleon's decision to stay at the Briars. The usual version is that on his way back from Longwood to Jamestown Napoleon spotted the heart shaped waterfall and the pleasant property in front of it at the Briars, was taken down to it, and asked if he could stay rather than go back to Jamestown. The author suggests that this turn of events was in fact the culmination of a plan agreed between Balcombe and Admiral Cockburn, and perhaps originally the idea of former governor Alexander Beatson.

Cockburn had consulted Beatson before sailing for St Helena, and he had recommended Balcombe, "a respectable inhabitant" to him. Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt, Balcombe's unfailing supporter was informed of this by Beatson, and wrote to Balcombe telling him that the choice of place to confine Napoleon would be left to the two commanders, Cockburn and Bingham, but that Beatson thought that "when this inspection has taken place, they will fix upon the Briars." This of course was before the decision to locate Napoleon at Longwood was thought of

In October 1815 Cockburn visited Balcombe while Napoleon was still on board the Northumberland to discuss Balcombe's role in procuring supplies for Longwood. On that visit Cockburn spotted the new pavilion at the Briars and agreed to hire it for a year for himself and for those admirals who would follow him. So when Napoleon arrived at the Briars on his return from Longwood, he asked if he could stay at the Pavilion, but was told by Balcombe that he had rented it to Cochburn the previous day. Cockburn,"feigning surprise " said that since it pleased "the general" he would give it up to him, and he himself would remain in Jamestown. (2)

This interpretation somewhat undermines the speculation of Anne Whitehead that Napoleon cultivated the Balcombes because of their connection to the Prince Regent through their benefactor Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt. On one minor detail though Anne Whitehead was right, Betsy's daughter was born in 1822, not 1825 as this book says. (3) Betsy was pregnant at the time of her ill-fated marriage, which perhaps explains her parents absence and relocation to France.

Anyone interested in Napoleon's time on St Helena or in the Balcombe family will find this an interesting and informative read. Like the other volumes of this bilingual series, it can be purchased from the online shop, with a relatively small charge for packing and postage. Unfortunately the two books on Napoleon's stay at Longwood, vols 6 & 7 are not yet available.

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1. Michel Dancoisne-Martineau, The Briars, Napoleon's stay with the Balcombe family pp. 36, 42, 98, 100. 2. The Briars pp 50-58.
3.Ann Whitehead, The Emperor's Shadow, Bonaparte, Betsy and the Balcombes (London 2015)

The Emperor's Shadow : The Strange Story of the Balcombes

The Emperor's Shadow, London 2015

The author has done a tremendous amount of research, and has gathered together a large amount of information on the Balcombe family, much of which was unknown to me at least. Her basic thesis is that Napoleon, the calculating arch-manipulator, cultivated the Balcombe family because of their connection to the Prince Regent through their benefactor, Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt.(1)

"He had no intention of adjusting to the situation; he would devise how best to escape from it - and the Balcombe family might just offer an avenue. Meanwhile, surprisingly, there was some pleasure to be had.(2)

And of course whilst Napoleon may have enjoyed himself, Mme de Staël's somewhat biased judgement of him is endorsed:

"doubtless there was calculation on his part even amid the fun and silly games. He knew the accounts of them .. made him seem sympathetic, humanised him." (3)

The author makes a good case for Betsy being several months pregnant at the time of her marriage to Edward Abell in 1822. This she suggests may be the reason the marriage took place at Exminster, rather than Chudleigh where the Balcombes had been living. The author also makes a good case for her daughter being born in St Omer in France, away from the gossip of London and Devon.(4)

As for the bridegroom Edward Abell, solid facts are a bit thin on the ground. He was an Indian Army Officer, about 11 years older than Betsy, and the author speculates that they may have met on St Helena four years earlier when his ship docked. The evidence suggests that he married Betsy because of her family's connections. The author speculates that he may have impregnated Betsy deliberately so that he could marry her, "maybe he heard stories that her father was the natural son of George IV." Abell soon deserted Betsy, but later followed her to Australia, intending to sue William Balcombe for keeping his wife from him. (5)

The book sheds light on the deal which Balcombe made with Hudson Lowe to support him in his case against O'Meara. This cleared the way for Balcombe's appointment as Colonial Treasurer in New South Wales, where he spent the remaining five years of his life, and some of his heirs were to prosper. (See the Melbourne Blogger for more information on the Australian connection.)

Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt (1762-1833)

Over all the manoeuvering on St Helena and off presided Balcombe's mysterious benefactor, Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt. Tyrwhitt met Lowe in 1815 before he sailed to St. Helena and helped Balcombe secure his lucrative role procuring supplies for Longwood. It was he who came to Balcombe's aid when Lowe and Lord Bathurst began to have suspicions about his relations with Longwood. It was Tyrwhitt who strongly advised Balcombe to leave the island, whilst at the same time flattering Lowe with Royal gossip and making clear his lack of sympathy with the Whigs who were critical of Lowe's treatment of Napoleon.

Lord Holland is in a week or two to give us a Display upon Napoleon's Calamities; but as long as you keep him close, nobody cares for speeches.(6)

It was also probably Tyrwhitt who got the Times to retract a story that the Balcombes had been forced to leave St Helena, and it was Tyrwhitt who again met with Lowe and brokered the deal that removed Lowe's objection to Balcombe's subsequent colonial appointment. (7)

Balcombe, despite his association with Longwood House and Napoleon, was far better connected in London and better rewarded than Sir Hudson Lowe who had done the dirty business of the Liverpool Administration. On return from St Helena, Balcombe is to be found in the company of Sir Pulteney Malcolm and Admiral Sir George Cockburn, neither of them admirers of Sir Hudson Lowe. He is also interviewed three times by Lord Bathurst, who had to endure Lowe's endless long letters from St. Helena and perhaps was looking for an alternative source of information. Bathurst did however over-rule Balcombe's wish to return to St. Helena in 1819.

The author's conclusion about the famous relationship between Betsy and Napoleon is perhaps worth quoting, although it does overlook Napoleon's acknowledged love of children.

Betsy had brought out the best in Napoleon, that complex, brilliant, calculating and turbulent man, severely formal with others but always approachable for her. She had loved him and she would never recover from knowing him.(8)

Overall I have to admit that this book is really not to my taste. It meanders over some 400 pages, and includes material on Peterloo, the Cato Conspiracy, Queen Caroline, the Royal Divorce, the King's Coronation and much else besides. It includes a great deal of speculation and also gives an account of the the extensive travels the author undertook on her research. A more concise, factual treatment would have suited me far better, although I appreciate that I am a far from typical reader. Nevertheless it is a very useful source for anyone interested in the Balcombes and the story of their association with Napoleon,
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1. Apparently the Prince Regent was unusually loyal to Tyrwhitt but he didn't take his advice on the Royal Divorce Bill and it was Tyrwhitt who had to present the divorce bill to Queen Caroline. Whitehead pp 257-259. Tyrwhitt had a number of nicknames among the royal family: ‘the Dwarf’, the ‘twenty third [sic] of June’ or ‘the shortest night’; ‘Saint Thomas’ from ‘the shortest day’, and so to ‘the Saint’.
2. Whitehead pp 54-55. The author says that says that Napoleon would have remembered Tyrwhitt's visit to Paris in 1801 as secretary and emissary of the Prince Regent.
3. Mme de Staël is uncritically quoted at some length in support of the author's view, concluding with, "he is a chess-master whose opponents happen to be the rest of humanity". She also quotes Philip Dwyer in claiming that Napoleon dispensed with people when they ceased to be useful. One does wonder about his tolerance of Talleyrand and Fouché in this respect! Anne Whitehead, The Emperor's Shadow, Bonaparte, Betsy and the Balcombes (London 2015) pp 49,62, 94
The author also exaggerates Napoleon's desire to escape, which was virtually non-existent, but which nevertheless understandably preoccupied Hudson Lowe and Lord Bathurst. For example the author comments on a conversation between Napoleon and Admiral Pulteney Malcolm in which the latter said had rowed around the island, that it was "useful information that a rowing boat could approach the cliffs." Whitehead p. 129.
4. Whitehead pp 281,300, 330.
5. The author and I disagree whether William Balcombe was actually at the wedding. I have a copy of the certificate and am pretty certain that the first signatory was Jane Balcombe, not William Balcombe. It could of course be Betsy's mother, but her mother although known as Jane was christened Emma Jane.
According to Betsy, Abell later admitted that he never had any affection for her, and that "he merely married under the hope of gaining something good thru my father and his exalted interests. " Letter from Betsy to Major-General Sir Henry Torrens, 10 August 1824, quoted in Whitead pp330-332.
6. Tyrwhitt to Hudson Lowe, Dec 8th 1817, quoted in Whithead p 191.
7. Whitehead pp 203-4, 282-4.
8. Whitehead p 197

Exminster Devon, May 1822: Betsy Balcombe's Wedding

Exminster Parish Church Register, May 28th 1822. (For a better image click on the above).

Transcript:

Edward Abell Esquire, Bachelor of the Parish of St Gregory London and Lucia Elizabeth Balcombe spinster of this Parish, married by Licence, with consent of parents, by H J Burlton, witnessed by Jane Balcombe, Thos Tyrwhitt, Francis Stanfler, RN, Jane Sophia Turner, Henry Brown.

The marriage was also reported in Trewman's Exeter Flying Post or Plymouth and Cornish Advertiser on May 30th 1821.



Interestingly the marriage was not witnessed by Betsy's parents, who presumably were absent, although Betsy was recorded as a resident of Exminster and presumably they lived there too.

The most interesting name on the list of witnesses is that of Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt (1762-1833), son of an Essex clergyman, educated at Eton and Oxford, with a distinguished career as private secretary to the Prince Regent, Member of Parliament and then Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod from 1812 until 1832. A local Devon landowner, Sir Thomas was the creator of Prince's Town, named in honour of the Prince Regent, where Sir Thomas founded the now famous Dartmoor prison originally used to house French and American prisoners of war.

Sir Thomas was also the inspiration behind the proposal to create a railway between Plymouth and Dartmoor in 1819. When the prospectus was published in 1819 William Balcombe was listed among the 61 subscribers.

The presence of Sir Thomas at Betsy's wedding and his connection with the Prince Regent inevitably raises again the old rumour that William Balcombe was the Regent's natural son. The most likely story however, is that he and his brother were sons of a naval officer lost at sea and, as was the practice in those days, were assisted in their education by the King's Bounty. (1) That at least is what his descendant Dame Mabel Brookes believed.

The bridegroom although recorded as being from London had in fact been educated in Exeter, and his family lived in Alphington in Devon. He served for a time in the Madras Army, and resigned around 1816. His elder brother Francis Tillet Abell became mayor of Colchester in Essex, the county from which Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt originated.

Edward and Lucia Abell had a daughter, soon separated but apparently never divorced, for at her death in 1871 Betsy was styled as the widow of Edward Abell.
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(1) It appears that William Balcombe was born at Rottingdean in Kent in 1777 to Stephen Balcombe and his wife Mary (nee Vandyke). A younger brother also called Stephen was born in 1880.

Betsy Balcombe, Napoleon and the Briars

My life has been a chequered and a melancholy one ..- Betsy Balcombe (1802-1871)

Napoleon never ceased to be the preoccupation of my mother's life..suddenly thrown into close proximity with the most dramatic figure of the age, she was ill-prepared to withstand the resultant repercussions: glamorous, disturbing, intimate, even sinister . - daughter of Betsy Balcombe





Whilst still a baby Lucia Elizabeth Balcombe (known as Betsy) and her elder sister Jane were brought to St. Helena by her parents William and Jane Balcombe, and lived on the family's small estate at the Briars.(1) In subsequent years three brothers were born. Then, in 1815, when she was still only 13, Napoleon came to stay in the pavilion in the garden, and for her things would never be the same again.

Napoleon stayed a couple of months until his new home was ready. Living in close proximity to the Balcombe family was to be his happiest time on the island. When Napoleon left for Longwood Betsy was heartbroken, but was comforted by Napoleon's insistence that she should come and visit him at Longwood.

William Balcombe (portrait below) acted as a purveyor for Napoleon's household, and so the family were able to make frequent visits to Longwood House and to Mme Bertrand. In 1818 however, they left the island, ostensibly because of Mrs Balcombe's health, but at least in part because of Hudson Lowe's suspicions about William Balcombe's dealings with Napoleon. (2) Betsy was again in tears. For Napoleon this was one of a number of departures which increased his isolation. In saying goodbye he told them that he would surely die on the island he hated.



Balcombe's subsequent efforts to return to St. Helen were frustrated, and the family lived in very straitened circumstances in England. Finally, after agreeing to testify on Hudson Lowe's side in the anticipated court case with O'Meara (Napoleon's doctor), Lowe removed his objections to Balcombe's preferment, and he obtained a government post as Colonial Treasurer in New South Wales in 1823.

Betsy herself married Edward Abell at Exminster in May 1822 and they had a daughter. (3) Her husband soon deserted her and she left with her family for Australia. On the journey her sister Jane died.

William Balcombe remained in Australia until his death in 1829.


Her mother (portrait left) briefly returned to England with Betsy and Betsy's daughter, to petition the Government for a settlement; she was rewarded with £250 and promised government posts for her children. The three then returned to Australia.

Betsy and her daughter finally returned to England in 1834, but her mother and her three brothers remained in Australia for the rest of their lives.






The second son, Thomas Tyrwhitt Balcombe (b.1810) became a distinguished artist, but took his own life in October 1861 in his house in Paddington, New South Wales, which was appropriately named Napoleon Cottage. Betsy's youngest brother, Alexander Beatson Balcombe (b 1811), named after the governor of St Helena, became a successful landowner and gave the name "The Briars" to his house at Mount Martha near Melbourne.(3)

For Betsy the rest of her life was to be a struggle. She met Napoleon's brother Joseph and his nephew (soon to become Napoleon III), and in 1844 published her Recollections of the Emperor Napoleon . (5) She was later given a grant of land in Algeria, which she never visited, and died in gentile poverty in London.

The Recollections is a delightful read, although not a completely accurate historical record. I have included a number of extracts in the next section.

Betsy Balcombe and the Emperor

Those who have a preconceived view of Napoleon are likely to be as surprised by Betsy Balcombe's account of her friendship with Napoleon, as she herself was surprised when he failed to live up to the advance billing.

The name of Bonaparte was still associated, in my mind, with every thing that was bad and horrible.
I had heard the most atrocious crimes im-
puted to him ; and if I had learned to
consider him as a human being, I yet still
believed him to be the worst that had ever
existed. Nor was I singular in these feelings;
they were participated by many
much older and wiser than myself; I might
say, perhaps, by a majority of the English
nation. Most of the newspapers of the
day described him as a demon; and all
those of his own country who lived in Eng-
land were of course his bitter enemies ; and
from these two sources alone we formed our
opinion of him.

Over a quarter of a century later she reflected

I think his love of children, and the delight
he felt in their society, — and that,
too, at the most calamitous period of his
life, when a cold and unattachable nature
would have been abandoned to the indul-
gence of selfish misery, — in itself, speaks
volumes for his goodness of heart. After
hours of laborious occupation, he would
often permit us to join him, and that
which would have fatigued and exhausted
the spirits of others, seemed only to recruit
and renovate him. His gaiety was often
exuberant at these moments; he entered
into all the feelings of young people, and
when with them was a mere child, and, I
may add, a most amusing one.

Among her recollections is her brother Alexander sitting on Napoleon's knee and calling him "boney".

One day Alexander took up
a pack of cards, on which was the usual
figure of the Great Mogul. The child
held it up to Napoleon, saying, " See, Bony,
this is you." He did not understand what
my brother meant by calling him Bony.
I explained that it was an abbreviation —
the short for Bonaparte, but Las Cases inter-
preted the word literally, and said it meant
a bony person. Napoleon laughed and
said,. " Je ne suis pas osseux,"

She also recalls the story of old Huff:

This old man, since the arrival of Napo-
leon, had taken many strange fancies into
his brain ; among others, that he was des-
tined to restore the fallen hero to his pris-
tine glory, and that he could at any time
free him from thraldom. All argument
with this old man upon the folly of his
ravings was useless; he still persisted in
it, and it soon became evident that old
Huff was mad, and, though strictly watched,
he found an opportunity one fatal morning
to destroy himself. An inquest was held
on him .. and his body was ordered to be
interred in the spot where three cross roads
met. The nearest to the scene where the
act was committed was the road leadingr
to the Briars, and there they buried the
old man.

I had amongst many other follies a ter-
ror of ghosts, and this weakness was well
known to the emperor, who, for a consider-
able time after the suicide of poor Huff,
used to frighten me nearly into fits. Every
night, just before my hour of retiring to my
room, he would call out, " Miss Betsee, ole
Huff, ole Huff." The misery of those nights
I shall never forget ; I used generally to
fly out of my bed during the night, and
scramble into my mother's room, and re-
main there till morning's light dispelled
the terrors of darkness.

One evening, when my mother, my sis-
ter and myself were quietly sitting in the
porch of the cottage, enjoying the coolness
of the night breeze, suddenly we heard a
noise, and turning round beheld a figure in
white — how I screamed. We were then
greeted with a low gruff laugh, which my
mother instantly knew to be the emperor's.
She turned the white covering, and under-
neath appeared the black visage of a little
servant of ours, whom Napoleon had insti-
gated to frighten Miss Betsee, while he
was himself a spectator of the effect of his
trick.

The stories about Napoleon's romping with Betsy got back to Europe, inspired largely by reports by the French Commissioner, about whom nobody seems to have had a kind word to say:

After Napoleon had been on the island
a few months, some newspapers arrived
containing anecdotes of him, and all that
occurred during his stay at the Briars.
Amongst other sottises, was a letter written
by the Marquess de Montchenu, in which he
described all the romping games that had
taken place between Napoleon and our fa-
mily, such as blindman's buff, the sword
scenes, and ending his communication by
observing, that "Miss Betsee" was the
wildest little girl he had ever met ; and ex-
pressing his belief, that the young lady was
foue.

Napoleon offered her a present if she revenged herself by applying caustic to a pigtail on Montchenu's wig, a suggestion forbidden by her mother. On being told that she had followed her mother's advice Napoleon pinched her ear, and said, " Ah, Miss Betsee, tu commences à être sage ", and he gave her the present anyway.

One well known episode shows Betsy mocking Napoleon for his fall from power

I recollect exhibiting to Napoleon a cari-
cature of him in the act of climbing a ladder,
each step he ascended represented some
vanquished country ; at length he was seat-
ed astride upon the world. It was a famous
toy, and by a dexterous trick Napoleon ap-
peared on the contrary side tumbling down
head over heels, and after a perilous de-
scent, alighting on St. Helena. I ought
not to have shewn him this burlesque on
his misfortunes, but at that time I was
guilty of every description of mad action,
though without any intention of being un-
kind ; still I fear they were often deeply felt.

For this Betsy's father decided she should spend a week in a dark cellar:

the excavation swarmed with rats, that leaped
about me on all sides. I was half dead
with horror, and should most certainly
have been devoured alive by the vermin,
had I not in despair seized a bottle of
wine, and dashed it amongst my assailants;
finding that I succeeded in occasioning a
momentary panic, I continued to diminish
the pile of claret near me, and kept my
enemies at bay. As the first faint light of
morning dawned through my prison bars, I
was startled to perceive what my victory
would cost my father, for I was surrounded
by heaps of broken bottles, and rivulets of
wine, and either from exhaustion, or the
exhalation from the saturated ground of
the cellar, I was found by the slave who
brought me my breakfast in the morning,
in a state of stupor from which I was with
difficulty aroused. My father was too happy
at my escape to blame me for the means I
resorted to to preserve myself from my
hungry foes ; and I was forgiven my ill-
judged pleasantry to the emperor.

Today Mr Balcombe would surely have received a visit from a Social Worker! At least it is pleasing to know that Napoleon judged the punishment too harsh.

The latter [Napoleon] expressed regret at my severe punishment for so trifling an offence, but was much amused by my relation of the battle with the rats;

And so those of us with regard for historical truth await the forthcoming film of Betsy and the Emperor with some trepidation, although it will be interesting to see how Al Pacino plays Napoleon.

Postscript
Did William Doveton really take a coffin made of St Helena wood with him when he visited London in 1818 - just in case? And was the decision to give him a Knighthood only taken by the Prince Regent after a meeting with him? Or was Mrs Abell's memory letting her down in this case?
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1. There seems to be some uncertainty as to when the Balcombes arrived on St. Helena. usually it is put as 1807, but one recent source suggests he was there by 1805.

2. There was a lot of speculation that Balcombe was the natural son of a member of the Royal Family. Dame Mabel Brookes , great grandaughter of William Balcombe, suggests that although he and his brother spent a lot of time at Carlton House in their youth, they were actually sons of a naval officer lost at sea. Whatever the truth, William Balcombe was obviously well connected.

3. The date of this marriage is sometimes given as 28th May 1821, but a search of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints genealogical site gives the year as 1822. Her husband was apparently a former officer in the Madras Army, who had left in 1816. I have been unable to find out anything else about him.

4. The Briars is now a National Trust property and houses a museum of Napoleonic and early Australian history, See also Briars Park Mornington Peninsula. For useful information on the Balcombe family see Australian Dictionary of Biography

5. Mrs Abell, Recollections of the Emperor Napoleon is available online. The modern version, To Befriend an Emperor , edited by J. David Markham, has been reviewed by Tom Holberg for the Napoleonic Society. In the same series is an account of Napoleon's relationship with children on St Helena, which puts the friendship with Betsy in its proper context.

The Briars: Napoleon's 1st Home on St. Helena

Now to the Briars, the home of the Balcombe family, where Napoleon spent the first two least unhappy months of his exile, and where the Duke of Wellingon had stayed some years before.

From Maldivia we took the road that twists up the mountain. At the junction at the top there is the most difficult of right turns into the road to the Briars. Sensible people take the left fork from the centre of Jamestown, up Napoleon Street, which takes a less twisty approach to the same junction and avoids the sharp right turn. The best approach is to abandon your car in upper Jamestown and walk on the old pathway marked as the Barnes Road.

The story of how Napoleon came to stay at the Briars is well known. He spotted an oasis of green on his way back from inspecting Longwood, rode down to investigate, and indicated to Admiral Cockburn who accompanied him, that he would rather stay there than go back to Jamestown, where he was naturally the object of curiosity. The Balcombe family offered him their house; he accepted the one roomed Pavilion. There he stayed, until Longwood was ready.

The story of his stay is delightfully told in Betsy Balcombe's book, mentioned previously.

Some idea of how the Briars must have looked is given in the print below - although it dates from a half century later. (Views of St. Helena, Published by T.E. Fowler, St Helena, 1863).

The Balcombes' house can be spotted on the top left hand of the picture, and the smaller Pavilion just to its right. (Again you will need to click on the picture)



The surrounding hills have not been built on, and the heart shaped waterfall is still recognisable, although it was without water at the time of our visit. Much of the land surrounding the Briars, including the heart shaped waterfall, has been purchased and given to the National Trust by Michel, thereby securing the whole location for future generations.

The Balcombes' house has gone, demolished after the second world war. In the grounds as you approach is a later cottage, being renovated by the curator of the French properties (not personally!), pictures of which can be seen on his blog.

I have to confess that my first impression was not very favourable. I am not sure why. Perhaps it was the approach to the Briars - what Kauffmann described some 15 years ago as having the appearance of "an abandoned worksite". Cable and Wireless still own a large chunk of what was once the Balcombes' estate, and they have different priorities.






Perhaps it is simply that I preferred the more English pastoral scenery around Plantation House, Oaklands and Farm Lodge which I had seen previously. My reaction was not shared by my wife, who loves the mountain landscapes of her native Norway, and also immediately liked the Briars.

So this is it. Napoleon's first home since his brief and poignant stay at Malmaison at the end of June, where he had said his farewells to his brother Joseph, his stoic mother and his tearful step-daughter Hortense, bound he then hoped, for the United States.




"I do not know what is in store for me. I am still in good health and I have fifteen years ahead of me. I sleep and wake up when I want to; I can ride four hours on end and work ten hours a day. My food does not cost much. I could live very well on a lois a day. We shall see." So he reportedly told Jacques Lafitte before he left.

Kauffmann describes his entrance into the pavilion at the Briars as "quite a banal moment ... it has no dramatic significance at all"


The pavilion itself has been faithfully restored since 1959 when it was offered to the French Government by Dame Mabel Brooks, and so became the third of the French Properties on the island.

Mabel Brookes was a descendant of William Balcombe, and an admirer of Napoleon. She was the wife of Sir Norman Brookes, the first Australian to win Wimbledon. She herself had a distinguished public career and was awarded the CBE in 1933 and in 1955 became a Dame of the British Empire. In 1960 she was appointed a Chevalier (Knight) in the Legion d'Honneur, France's highest decoration which had been instituted by the Emperor Napoleon. She appropriately received this honour at Malmaison.

In the early years of the twentieth century the Pavilion housed a director of the Eastern Telegraph Company which owned the whole estate. Before then the estate had been owned for half a century by George Moss, employee and business associate of Saul Solomon, and French vice-consul from 1847 until 1889. Among his other jobs he was for a time (from 1857) Consul for his Majesty the King of Sardinia!



This is a similar view to the one that the Emperor would have had every morning - except that I would not be there, and there was a marquee on the lawn in which he dined and slept. (1)

The sea off Jamestown can just be seen in the background.

It should be noted that the two wings of the Pavilion were added after he left, when the Pavilion became the residence of the British Admirals who were stationed on the island during his captivity. Napoleon himself never returned to the Briars. The whole building now is I believe the official residence of the Curator of the French Properties, although the current one does not live there.

We returned to the Briars a number of times, and I came to appreciate its calmness and its beauty. Under the guidance of Michel I discovered the pathway that Napoleon had called the "Philosophers Walk" - a place where he could walk and contemplate, unseen by any curious visitors. We also saw what I call the Briars' allotments.



Here I am told there is no shortage of water, and you can grow three crops of potatoes a year, but there are few takers. In England there would be a very long waiting list.

Fellow visitors to the island often speculated as to why so little is grown on the island now - particularly as we searched the shops in vain for onions!

In Betsy Balcombe's day all manner of tropical fruits were grown at the Briars, and she claimed that her family made £500 a year profit from the sales, not an inconsiderable sum in those days.

So what began with the story of Napoleon's brief sojourn at the Briars ends with gardening. Perhaps not inappropriate since he too for a short time found the therapeutic effects of gardening at his next and final home.

Note


1. "There was a small lawn in front, railed round, and in this railing the marquee was pitched, connected with the house by a covered way. The marquee was divided into two compartments, the inner one forming Napoleon's bedroom ... Between the two divisions of the tent was a crown, which his devoted servants had carved out of the turf floor.." Betsy Balcombe's Memoirs of Napoleon on St Helena p. 50.