Love’s own goal for Best
QUESTION What are the most famous breach of promise cases?
Breaking off an engagement was once treated as a breach of contract and the offended party could sue.
This was an important protection for women. after a long engagement, a jilted bride might face spinsterhood and reduced financial circumstances.
in the 17th century, breach of promise began to be recognised legally. it developed through common law so that by the late 19th century, it was on the statute books, where it remained until 1970. There were similar provisions in Scottish law until 1984.
Breach of promise resulted in a host of celebrated cases, almost invariably involving an actress and a lord, which were reported by the nation’s scandal sheets and devoured by the masses.
The most famous was that of a love triangle involving actress Maria Foote. Despite her limited talent, she was a renowned beauty who, in 1815, had become the mistress of Colonel William Berkeley, a Flashman-esque figure and the later earl Fitz-Hardinge, with whom she had two children.
Maria ended the relationship in June 1824 when pregnant with the second child. She started a relationship with a ‘rich, foolish and dissipated young man about town’ called Joseph Hayne.
Berkeley nicknamed him Pea green on account of his lack of worldliness.
When Maria went to Barnard Castle in Co. Durham, 250 miles from London, to give birth, the naive Hayne believed she was seeking a cure for a pulmonary complaint brought on by the smell of gas in theatres. On her return, he made a firm offer of marriage.
Berkeley took it upon himself to tell the young suitor about the children. When Hayne broke off the relationship, Maria sued him for breach of promise. He made such a fool of himself in court that she secured £3,000 in damages and Pea green was widely lampooned in the pamphlets.
More famous than ever, Maria returned to the Covent garden Theatre in 1825 to a rapturous reception.
She continued to tour until 1831 when, at the age of 34, she became Countess Harrington, having married 51-year-old Charles Stanhope, 4th earl of Harrington and Viscount Petersham. a man of fashion, he gave his name to the Petersham overcoat and Harrington hat.
There were other famous cases. in 1884, arthur William Cairns, 2nd earl Cairns, was successfully sued for breach of promise by emily Mary Finney, an actress with the stage name of May Fortescue.
He had fallen for her after seeing her in gilbert & Sullivan’s comic opera iolanthe. assisted by gilbert’s solicitors, she received £10,000 in damages.
The actress Daisy Markham successfully sued William Compton, Marquess of northampton, for breach of promise in 1913. He paid damages of £50,000.
after World War ii, the position of women in society changed and there was little use for the law.
However, there was to be one last major case. in 1969, footballer george Best had persuaded a Danish newspaper to track down eva Haraldsted, an admirer for whom he’d signed an autograph. Within eight days they were engaged.
Best outrageously boasted of being ‘very partial to Scandinavian crumpet, it being generally beautiful, always willing and a bit thick . . .’
Three days later, they split up. a writ was issued for breach of promise, but it never went to trial. Haraldsted received a £500 out-of-court settlement.
Best would later brag he was the last man to be sued for breach of promise. Louise Westwood, Birmingham.
QUESTION In the 1959 film The Nun’s Story, Audrey Hepburn and Dean Jagger stroll along the side of a canal with attractive terraced buildings across the water. Where was this filmed?
FRED Zinnemann’s The nun’s Story is the moving tale of gabrielle van der Mal/ Sister Luke (audrey Hepburn), who chooses to devote herself and her medical skills to god.
it is an adaptation of a novel based on the life of Marie Louise Habets.
The film was shot on location in Belgium and the Belgian Congo ( now the Democratic republic of the Congo). interior scenes were filmed at the studios of Cinecitta in rome.
The street where gabrielle and her father are walking is the Potterierei in Bruges. The name Potterie (pottery) dates to the time when potters had their workshops along the water.
The convent where gabrielle was a novice is Onze-Lieve-Vrouw ter Potterie (Our Dear Lady at Potterie), a religious hospital founded in the 13th century. it is now a museum of religious art.
Zoe Hume, Chichester, W. Sussex. QUESTION
What makes us cringe even at the thought of someone scraping their fingernails down a blackboard?
FINGERNAILS scraping down a blackboard, a fork’s tines being dragged down a bottle, a woman screaming and a baby wailing are among a group of sounds that fall into the 2,000 to 4,000 hertz frequency — the range at which the human ear is most sensitive.
Because these sounds fall into this auditory sweet spot, it suggests our ears developed to amplify these frequencies for an evolutionary purpose.
They may trigger a fight or flight response in the quiescent brain that acts as our first line of self-defence.
researchers believe the shape of the ear canal may have evolved to amplify frequencies that are important for communication and survival.
The hair trigger nature of such a response probably explains why we are so sensitive even to the thought of hearing such sounds. Dr Ian Smith, Cambridge.
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