Above left: Monument to Eliza Draper by John Bacon, Senior, 1791. Marble. On the right is a closer view of the marble relief. John Bacon the elder's late eighteenth-century marble monument to Eliza Draper can be found in the cloisters of Bristol Cathedral. It relates to one of the great romantic stories of the era.
A letter from Lady James, the wife Commodore William James, a retired senior officer of the Bombay Marine Service, has survived in a private collection, dated November 1773. It indulges in the latest juicy gossip from Bombay; notably the scandalous Eliza Draper affair in which a young wife of an officer in the Bombay Marine Service had abandoned her husband. “I will not judge too hardly of one I so tenderly loved, till I am thoroughly convinced I have been mistaken in Eliza's Character, and even then my esteem shall turn to pity - for I have no doubt but the severity of her husband has occasioned this mistake in her conduct.” Lady James’s embarrassment stemmed from the fact that she had introduced Eliza to the writer Laurence Sterne in January 1767, and Sterne had been much taken with her (see the the entry for 1868 in Sterne's chronology).
A fascinating article by Raghini Bhuyan describes the area of Magazon in Bombay (present-day Mumbai) which is now derelict but once was a high status part of the city overlooking the dockyard:
Here, amid broken glass shards and overgrown weeds is a small memorial stone. The faded lettering informs us that in the 18th century, this hill was home to the mansion of “Mr and Mrs Draper.” Elizabeth Draper, it says, was immortalized by the writer Laurence Sterne, whom she had met during a three-month stay in London in 1767. Sterne, the author of the popular humorous novel, The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy, died of tuberculosis in 1768, but he kept up a steady correspondence with her through his illness, beseeching her to not return to India.
The Laurence Sterne Trust provides an account of how the great writer became infatuated with Eliza:
It was in January 1767 that Sterne met and fell in love with Eliza. Eliza, now twenty-three, was often known as the "Belle Indian." She was considered to be intelligent, widely read and a good writer.... After the Drapers’ return to Bombay in the early months of 1772, Eliza became gradually more and more estranged from her husband. He in turn had grown choleric after his fall from grace and displayed nothing but indifference to his wife’s ennui. The Drapers took up residence in Belvedere House on Mazagon…. It was from this bungalow that Eliza fled on the night of 14 January 1773, seeking the protection of Commodore Sir John Clarke, whose flagship lay in the harbour of Bombay at that time. The common romantic version of the elopement tells of her descending by a rope into a boat waiting below.... By December 1774 Eliza had returned to England, taking up residence in the fashionable Cavendish Square. Here she was to remain until her untimely death in 1778. Eliza basked in the reflected fame of Sterne throughout the final years of her life and it was probably with her approval that the Letters from Yorick to Eliza appeared in print for the first time in 1775.
From the Trust we also learn that Eliza later had a relationship with another great literary figure, the French philosopher and historian, Abbé Raynal, and that the monument in Bristol Cathedral is reputed to have been set up on this later lover's request. Designs for the monument can be seen on the Royal Academy website.
Links to Related Material
Photographs by the author. You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. — Jacqueline Banerjee
Bibliography
Bhuyan, Raghini. "A Morning in Mazagaon." Livemint.com. Web. 27 September 2024. https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/NN8ElW2M1HHjCzWBUQfE6M/A-morning-in-Mazagaon.html
Design for Mrs Draper's Monument. Web. 27 September 2024.
"Eliza Draper." The Laurence Sterne Trust. Web. 27 September 2024.
Created 27 September 2024