AN AMAZING HONEYMOON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14235, 4 December 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

AN AMAZING HONEYMOON.

SOCIETY BRIDES SUFFERINGS

THREATS OF THE ATTIC

•As strange a honeymoon as was ever spent was described in the London Divorce Court, when Lady Emily Frances Stirling secured the revocation of her marriage with Colonel Sir Walter Gilbey Stirling, Bart., on the grounds of cruelty and misconduct.

Mr. Barnard (for petitioner) said hie client was the widow of the second Baron Dc LTsle and Dudley. Even as the parties to the present cafe left the church after the marriage in 1903 Sir Walter said to hie wife, " You have a cold, confound you. lam going abroad for my health, and shall start -morrow. You are not well enough ; I stall go alone." However, they travelled that day to Dover, but the husband would not speak a word to his .wife. In Paris the same conduct was continued. When Lady Stirling spoke to Sir Walter she was ignored. They visited another city, bid matters got no better; in fact, Sir Walter said once or twice that he would leave his wife.

When they returned to London Sir Walter said that if his wife did not leave the house he would put her in one of the attics, keep here there, and tell her friends she was mad. Her husband's unkind conduct seriously affected her health, and in consequence she consulted a doctor. On June 10. 1903, she left her husband, a deed of .separation being entered into in the following month. The parties lived under this deed till last July, when it was discovered that the respondent had stayed at the Great Central Hotel with a lady who passed as Mrs. Stirling. Dreaeed in black with a fur stole, Lady Stirling gave evidence corroborating Mr. Barnard's opening. She added that when she asked for an explanation of her husband's conduct he said he would tell her some other time. At Cimiez he told her the marriage was a very Bad thing for him. and he thought it would be better if he went his way and she went hers. While they were at Cimiez her husband came to her bedroom one morning very angry, and shook the bed. He said dreadful things. After the threat as to the attic, her brother and Dr. Hyley saw her husband, and the latter told" her her brother had the- impertinence to find fault with him. and that if he said anything more he (the husband) would neglect her lea times more. ,

Dr. Jauves Beresford Ryley. who knew the petitioner before her second marriage, said that on seeing her two months after her union with Sir Walter he was shocked to observe her changed condition", she was unusually emaciated and haggard. To discover, if possible, the true state of her health he examined her tinder an anaesthetic and found no trace of disease, and then learnt of the life she had endured. Lady Stirling had now recovered. Having regard to what he saw in 1905, he did not consider it safe for her to return to her husband under conditions such as then, existed.

Mr. F. E. Smith, K.C., informed the court that he held a watching brief for the husband, and said he could do nothing in the circumstance*.

His Lordship : You can do nothing where nothing is to be done ! The affidavit of a chambermaid at the hotel was read, and a decree nisi was granted.