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The Birtwhistles of Craven and Galloway
dinner as a spy’s chart of these shores, and the butterboat for Ross Island. It may be no coincidence that Frenchman’s rock may be seen in to the top left hand corner of the map of the Balmae headland in figure 32.
Figure 32 Balmae and environs, where Anna lived in the summer months in the 1790s, and briefly with her husband in 1822
The Rev William Gunn of Norfolk was a friend of the Flaxman family, and four letters from the Flaxmans to Rev Gunn now in the Norfolk Record office refer to their mutual friend “Vardilla’s” marriage, step-children, visits to London, and the encumbered inheritance 16 Oct 1822 …the fair Vardilla, no Mrs Niven I mean, haughty thing, she has taken to herself a spouse & he has whirld her down to the North to take care of himself and his – I do not know how many children, to Kirkcudbright in Dumfrieshire, and there is little chance of our seeing her in this great Town except for a flying visit to her mother, who remains where she did though the happy pair wished her to accompany them to the land of Cakes- he is a Lawyer and an acquaintance of long standing 19 Jan 1823 …Vardilla is well and happy in Scotland and must enjoy the novelty of living in a comfortable manner- her mother is so penurious she stays in bed to save fire and clothing 24 Oct 1823 …the former Miss Vardill was in London with her “Guid mon” and is well and in high spirits 13 Feb 1826 ….Vardilla is in town with her husband and daughter because of the death of her mother; any form of consolation would have been affectation as no-one could grieve for the departure of a being “all selfishness”, whose daughter’s comfort was sacrificed to her whims; there is a large inheritance but it comes in the form of a chancery suit. Agnes Vardill stipulated in her will in 1826 that her daughter’s inheritance should be held in trust until she was 52, and not subject to the debts of James Niven or any future husband. Henry Crabb Robinson was appointed her trustee, and his diary entry for 28^th September 1826 records him staying with the Nivens. HCR had been on a tour of Ireland to meet the political leader James O’Connell, and spent four days with the Nivens in Kirkcudbright before travelling to the Lake District to see his friend William Wordsworth.
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