Searching for the soul of Haggard
One of the pioneer authors of the ‘lost world’ literary genre was the Englishmen Rider Haggard who, for a time, lived in Durban on the Berea. Local historians Catherine and Michael Greenham share their fascination with a story-teller who was profoundly in
KING Solomon’s Mines, written in 1885, catapulted an unknown British novelist, Henry Rider Haggard, to instant fame.
He was an author who was influenced not only by the wide open spaces of Africa and war-like tribes, but also by larger-than-life adventurers such as Frederick Selous, who formed the model for his hero, Allan Quatermain.
Between 1875 and 1882, he had spent time in government positions in the Colony of Natal and also the Transvaal. He frequently visited Durban, often staying at the Royal Hotel, and made the Berea the home for his main character, Quatermain. His most notable works were King Solomon’s Mines, Allan Quatermain and She.
He was knighted in 1912 for his work in agricultural reform and not for his writing.
In King Solomon’s Mines, Allan Quatermain and his two partners sailing on the SS Dunkeld from Cape Town, studied a map showing the route to buried treasure, somewhere inland from Durban.
It is the story of their search for treasure which has captured the imagination of readers for more than a century.
One of the homes that Haggard is reputed to have stayed in is what we call “The Rider Haggard house” in Chelmsford Road (now JB Marks), a beautiful veranda house probably designed by no less than Joseph Cato circa 1880.
It still stands today, surrounded by tall trees and is one of Durban’s oldest houses. When we visited it we could not help but wonder how much of King Solomon’s Mines and Quatermain’s escapades were thought up here.
But, behind the swashbuckling character of Quatermain was the far more sensitive and easily depressed nature of Haggard.
At 19 he met and fell in love with Mary Elizabeth (Lilly) Jackson at a ball in Norfolk. She was about two years older than him.
In his article Rider Haggard’s Secret Love, DS Higgins, states that when he left for Natal in the summer of 1875 to establish a career, “he believed he was secretly engaged to the beautiful Lilly”. His father forbade any marriage until he had made a career for himself.
In 1878, Haggard became Registrar of the high court in the Transvaal. With his career now established, he wrote to Lilly in April, asking her to marry him.
Lilly wrote back, declining, and in June she married Frank Archer, a well-to-do banker, instead.
Haggard was devastated. In his autobiography, The Days of My Life, Haggard confessed that Lilly’s marriage was “a crushing blow, so crushing that at the time I should not have been sorry if I could have departed from the world”.
As crushing as it might have been, you have to wonder if he would have become one of the greatest novelists had he not had to deal with such heartbreak. It was this broken relationship that defined his life and his writing.
Later that year, Haggard consoled himself by having an affair with a married woman, Johanna Catherine Ford. The affair resulted in the birth of a girl, named Ethel Rider. Mr Ford appears to have been blissfully unaware as to who the father was.
Sadly, little Ethel died in infancy and was buried in Pretoria.
The deeply troubled and sensitive Haggard, who returned to England, married Louisa Margitson, an heiress in Norfolk, in August 1880.
Haggard resumed life in Natal with his young wife and began farming at Hilldrop near Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – Harrison Ford played the American version of distributed by Paramount Pictures dating from 1981 to 2008. Newcastle. Here, they had a son, named Jock. Haggard also continued his employment of “Mazooku”, his personal attendant.
The subsequent outbreak of the first Anglo-boer War made matters uncomfortable and the Haggards had to say an emotional farewell to Hilldrop, believing they would never see it again.
Before they left, Mazooku gave Haggard a knobkierie as a gift. Haggard kept it all his life.
He maintains that Mazooku saved his life. “Mazooku is the man who continued to search for me when others had abandoned the quest, and found me at last at one in the morning lying half frozen, starved and hurt by a fall from my horse on the winter Highveld.”
The Haggards returned to England where he wrote his novels. They also had three more children, all daughters. It seems that Haggard was destined to have to deal with heartbreak.
His beloved Jock died from measles at 10 years old in 1891. Haggard became depressed and his health deteriorated. The untimely death of the boy signalled the end of his most creative period.
As for Lilly, her decision to marry Archer was a disaster. They had three sons but Archer’s gambling addictions led to him embezzling funds.
He fled to South Africa. She followed him and his repayment for her loyalty was a dose of syphilis which he gave her before dying of it himself.
She returned to England penniless where Haggard supported her and her family until Allan Quatermain, Indiana Jones.this was the last of a series of four films her death in 1909.
These details were not generally known until the publication of the article by DS Higgins who wrote: “Even when he married, it was Lilly, as his daughter states, whom he still loved, with an affection that transcends all earthly passion and stretched out hands beyond the grave.
“Haggard continued to believe that his love for Lilly was eternal and that in an afterlife they would, in some way or other, be united. This belief in eternal love is a central theme that he constantly returns to in his fiction.”
While his books may seem a bit “boys’ own”, they are not. In She, Ayesha (She-who-must-be-obeyed) is a white queen ruling over a lost kingdom in Africa, an immortal woman inspired by immortal love.
Haggard may have been a literary legend, but he was no different from any of us. That overwhelming need we all have, he had too, that which forms the essence of our lives formed the essence of his, the need to love and be loved in return.
Returning to King Solomon’s Mines, you might be wondering what happened to Quatermain and his partners after they left Durban.
It turned out they had quite an adventure using their knowledge of an imminent lunar eclipse to help overthrow a tyrant and then went on to King Solomon’s Mines in which, through treachery, they were trapped.
With supplies exhausted, they managed to find an escape route and were soon on their way home to Durban, pockets bulging with diamonds.
There have been over a dozen films and related films made of the book, along with the Indiana Jones films where the Americans borrowed the “immortal” Quatermain. The almost immortal Selous was eventually killed in action in World War I at the age of 64.
One of our visits to “The Rider Haggard House” was on a beautiful day and we sat on the wraparound veranda drinking tea and chatting and thinking about Haggard. When you let your imagination run, you can surprise yourself. In your mind’s eye you can vaguely see a young man on horseback arriving. He is wearing Victorian clothing and has just been appointed Registrar of the High Court. He appears to have the world at his feet.