Mary Robinson (Buttermere)

Mary Robinson , known as The Maid of Buttermere or Beauty of Buttermere (* 1778 in Buttermere , Cumbria , † 1837 ), was the daughter of the landlord of the Fish Inn in Buttermere. She became famous when she married John Hatfield in 1802. Hatfield pretended to be the brother of the Earl of Hopetoun and called himself Colonel Hope . This marriage of a commoner with a nobleman caused a sensation. Samuel Taylor Coleridge even wrote about her in the London Morning Post . Shortly after the marriage, Hatfield was exposed as a cheater and bigamist and tried in Carlisle and sentenced to death. This act again caught the public eye, who raised funds for Mary Robinson. Robinson finally married the farmer Richard Harrison in 1807, with whom they had 4 children. Mary Robinson's death was reported on the Annual Register ; she was buried in the cemetery of St Kentigern's Church in Caldbeck .

Mary Robinson in Literature

Described in Joseph Budworth's 1792 guide A Fortnight's Ramble to the Lakes , she is known as the Beauty of Buttermere . The poet William Wordsworth writes about the story of Mary Robinson in his poem The Prelude , where he called her the Maid of Buttermere . Author Melvyn Bragg wrote a book on Mary Robinson called The Maid of Buttermere .

swell

• Melvyn Bragg, The Maid of Buttermere , London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1987, ISBN 978-0-340-40173-6

Individual evidence

1. ^ William Wordsworth, The Prelude , Book 7, Residence in London, lines 297-399 here: online