1897: The Marquess of Tolbury and His Valet’s Inconvenient Loyalty to the Truth
The Courts of Law and Kensington
The Marquess of Tolbury, sued for breach of promise by a young woman of the professional classes whose expectations had been, by all accounts, not unreasonably formed, made the elementary error of calling his valet, Blandy, as a witness to his character and general habits of reliability. Blandy, who had served the Marquess for fourteen years with a conscientiousness that apparently extended to accurate memory, provided the court with a calendar of his Lordship’s movements over the preceding two years that coincided at no point with the Marquess’s own account and at several points coincided, rather precisely, with the dates cited in the young woman’s correspondence. The Marquess’s counsel attempted to discredit Blandy. But Blandy, who had kept a pocket-book, was not discreditable. The Marquess settled. Blandy was dismissed, naturally—a decision his Lordship may come to regret if Blandy ever finds a publisher.
The pocket-book, we understand, is in safe-keeping. As is, one imagines, Blandy.
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