It was thought that his relationship with Catherine Walters had been brief but as it turned out Blunt, the poet who was inspired by Catherine and had her ear, had in his possessions a couple hundred letters between Catherine and Spencer which proves that they had contact for four years, writing to each other every week. Spencer and Catherine were affectionate with each other. The two of them rode to the hunt, sporting together. Maybe it was even true love.
Like last month's Courtesan, Sophia Baddeley, who was an earlier, Georgian England Courtesan, and who managed to keep a bit of good reputation and a status because of her stage presence as an actor and singer, Catherine was able to use her skill as a horsewoman to be accepted by some of those who would otherwise ostracise her.
Page 281 : "Catherine's horsemanship, for which she was passionately admired by her contemporaries, meant that she found an acceptance on the hunting field that was denied to her in every other social situation, Stories about her daring, both on the field and off, abound. SHe once cleared the eighteen- foot water jump at the National Hunt Steeplechase at Market Harborough for a 100 pound bet with ease, after three other riders had tried and failed.
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By 1850, letters prove, Catherine Walters was already the Marquis of Hartington's mistress and living in London. He was beginning to get involved in politics and so he was busy and could not always come by but she made useful her time by being tutored, improving her writing.
She also believed he would marry her if his father approved, despite her not being accepted by society.
Page 283 : "As a protector, however, he was generous to a fault. For all his great expectations, by the standards of the day Hartington was not personally very rich, and he was obliged to survive o an allowance from his father. Despite this he paid Catherine a generous allowance of her own, and in his letters there are references to additional gifts of 100 pounds, 150 pounds, and even 250 pounds.
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Not one to sit around and wait for him, Catherine rode on horseback in Hyde park, both for exercise and to show herself off as other courtesans also did. Though she might have not exactly have started out wanting the fame she got, it was part of the life and she became a star, like Sophia Baddeley had. The notoriety went against her dearest wish to have Spencer as a husband. In 1861 he wrote to her hinting that it might be best if she forgot all about him. The man was not going to make a marriage with her and he knew it. By 1862 he admitted that their relationship had to end.
Catherine knew what she wanted and was not one to let Spencer go without a fight. She followed him to New York where he later claimed he was reluctant to have more to do with her. The relationship was off and on for another year. Finally when she knew he would not take her back and marry her, she sold her London house, her horses and carriages, and moved to Paris. It was not impossible for a man to marry a courtesan but it was rare and usually scandalized his family and society. Perhaps her heritage background, her Irish and Catholic beginnings, as well as her common status would have made marriage with someone as elevated as the Marquis of Hartington impossible even if she had not been a courtesan?
Though he could not and would not marry her, the Devonshire family didn't abandon Catherine Walters financially. She received 500 pounds a year from them which continued to her death in 1920, even after Spencer's death. The 500 pounds a year gave her a financial freedom and once again, still a very young woman, Catherine could have taken that money and ended her life as a courtesan. I find it honorable that the Devonshire family kept to that agreement and that people of their status and means understood what being put aside may have meant to a young woman who had to seek her own living as a teenager.
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