– Our Authoress –

Diana Adamson

With thanks for our past and hope for our future.

Email: book.montagu@gmail.com

First Published: 2016

Copyright © Diana Adamson 2016

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.

Cover design by Linden Browne

Email: book.montagu@gmail.com

Cover picture: Benson family photograph album and Clementine

Printed in Australia by DIGITALPRINT AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

National Library of Australia

Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Adamson, Diana

Clementine Montagu our Authoress

ISBN-13: 978-0-646-96079-1

19th Century Authoress – Historical Fiction

A lady richly clad, was she

Beautiful exceedingly. – Coleridge

Clementina Isabelle Enoch was born on 11 January 1830, at Hay-On-Wye, Breconshire, Wales. Her parents were William Enoch and Lucy (nee Jackson). Although her birth name was registered as Clementina, she was known throughout her life as Clementine, so this is the name that will be used for this story.

Clementine never really knew her mother. Not in the way that a baby begins to see her as a separate being from themselves. Not in the way that a child begins to appreciate their skills and talents. Not in the way that one adult can relate to the only other adult who has a true appreciation of that baby who grew into an adult. Her mother died when she was scarcely more than one year old.

But Clementine did inherit one important skill that has carried on for nigh on two hundred years. Her mother’s love of poetry and writing is evidenced by the book that was published in 1832, entitled The Bower and Other Poems by the late Lucy Enoch of Breconshire.

While future generations haven’t earned their living from their writing skills the way that Clementine did; that love of the rhythms of language lives on. Throughout the ensuing generations, many of us have inherited her love of descriptive language.

Now here I am, launching forth on a story of Clementine’s life. She has inspired me with her writing skills, and given a wealth of detail from her life, to fold into an interesting saga.

What a beautiful trait to have passed so strongly through so many of our family.