Butler Records - Part 4
Jan. 17th, 2010 01:13 pmWas it a convention for Victorian families, at least those of a religious cast, to write lengthy accounts of the final hours of their loved ones? Certainly the Victorians are well known for their death-bed scenes in fiction, so why not in real life?
On the 8th January 1891, the Butler household was in a very sombre mood. In one room the paterfamilias, Thomas Butler (son of the younger Weeden), lay gravely ill. He was 81, and had enjoyed a long and full career at the British Museum, which amounted to a lot more than simply annoying Alfred Russel Wallace; but his life seemed to be drawing to its close. In another room his wife Jane was also dying. Her death, I can say quite punctiliously, took place at 7.50pm that evening, as noted by my great-grandfather Thomas, her son. Three days later, he compiled an account of her final hours.
( This is what he wrote... )
Jane had been certain that her own death would be followed swiftly by her husband’s. The day before she died, she had said: “Well, it is not easy to reconcile oneself all at once to the idea of Mother dying in one week, Father soon after, both being swept off, and the children left alone; but the LORD sitteth above the water floods.” And: “Tom will lie, like a tired child, for three weeks, and then he will come to me.”
( In the event... )
On the 8th January 1891, the Butler household was in a very sombre mood. In one room the paterfamilias, Thomas Butler (son of the younger Weeden), lay gravely ill. He was 81, and had enjoyed a long and full career at the British Museum, which amounted to a lot more than simply annoying Alfred Russel Wallace; but his life seemed to be drawing to its close. In another room his wife Jane was also dying. Her death, I can say quite punctiliously, took place at 7.50pm that evening, as noted by my great-grandfather Thomas, her son. Three days later, he compiled an account of her final hours.
Jane had been certain that her own death would be followed swiftly by her husband’s. The day before she died, she had said: “Well, it is not easy to reconcile oneself all at once to the idea of Mother dying in one week, Father soon after, both being swept off, and the children left alone; but the LORD sitteth above the water floods.” And: “Tom will lie, like a tired child, for three weeks, and then he will come to me.”