"Mr and Miss Rossetti" : Elizabeth and Rossetti's Holiday Jaunt During Their Estrangement

 

By the end of summer 1858 Elizabeth and Rossetti's fraught seven year romance and quasi engagement had fractured . Leaving picturesque Lime Tree View,  in Matlock*, where they had lodged together on and off for the previous eight or so months, as Lizzie convalesced , they parted  with their relationship seemingly over.

Rossetti's reluctance to marry, his infidelities, and attraction for other women had taken its toll on the relationship. Elizabeth's  unhappiness, bitterness and struggles with  poor health  had added to ever growing tensions. Rossetti returned  permanently to London, and Elizabeth vanished from his life.  Resuming his life and work  in London, Rossetti embarked on a relationship with Fanny Cornforth  while no records exist of Elizabeth’s whereabouts or activities, nor is she mentioned in any of Rossetti’s letters. Possibly she had returned to her parents'  home in Southwark. Apparently estranged from each other for the next 20 months,  they  rekindled their relationship in   Hastings in April 1860 when  Rossetti rushed to her bedside on learning , reportedly from  John Ruskin  in turn alerted by her parents , that she was gravely ill and possibly at the point of death. Conscience- stricken, a distraught Rossetti decided to make good his earlier promises to marry her. They married on 23 May 1860 in St Clement's Church, Hastings when she was fit enough to walk down the aisle.

* https://www.andrewsgen.com/matlock/pix/e_matlockhydro_limetreeview1863.htm

However it now appears that this traditional accepted timeline of their estrangement is inaccurate following remarkable new documentary evidence. According to Dr Jan Marsh  , Elizabeth and Rossetti  had reunited,  at least briefly,  four months earlier to enjoy a travelling holiday together  in Warwickshire around Christmas 1859  staying at an hotel in Stratford-upon-Avon where they signed the register as “Mr and Miss Rossetti”, presumably posing as  relatives to ensure respectability. Their signatures in visitors' books reveal that they visited the Lord Leycester Hospital in Warwick on 23 December 1859 , and  then nearly three weeks later  Shakespeare’s birthplace  in Stratford-upon-Avon on 9 January 1860. The excerpt below , from Norma Hampson on the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust,  notes their signatures in the visitors' records: .https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/blogs/dante-gabriel-rossetti-1828-1882-poet-illustrator-painter 

Lord Leycester Hospital
Wikimedia Commons
 Visited by Elizabeth Siddal and D G Rossetti 23rd Dec, 1859 
 

"On 9 January 1860 Rossetti accompanied by his muse and lover Eleanor Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal visited the Birthplace and signed the Visitors’ Book. Having, some years ago, entered the names of visitors at the Lord Leycester Hospital, Warwick on to a data base (now at Warwick County Record Office) I was aware that they had visited there on 23 December 1859 and signed the book in similar fashion. It is thought that they were enjoying a walking holiday in the county."

Yet another twist in the saga of their troubled  relationship, the surprising discovery of their holiday jaunt sheds light on this unknown reunion  between Elizabeth and Rossetti during their separation.  At the very least it changes the time line and traditional narrative of their estrangement  but  tantalisingly  it also adds to its mystery   How significant was this holiday reunion? Was it a one-off or a feature of a more permanent reconciliation,  or simply part of an ongoing truce between them?  It raises many questions, not least what, if any,  interaction they had after this holiday before their dramatic reunion and unexpected marriage in Hastings four months later..