A long case clock at one end of the room struck six and doors, which Doyle had not noticed before, opened. Through them walked a young woman of small stature and somewhat plump. Yet Doyle recognised the nose and jowls from cartoons and pamphlets as being unmistakably Hanoverian. She was wearing a simple white silk and muslin evening dress embroidered all over in small white glass beads – some could be pearls, Doyle later thought – which caught the reflection of the light. The dress had an ivory silk Van Dyke collar, with ivory silk cording on the puffed sleeves. In her hair, which was up, sat a delightfully small tiara of diamonds and pearls. But what surprised Doyle most was that the dress, tiara and its wearer headed directly to the chair next to him.
From Chapter 2, The Jane Austen Murders.
Leopold George Christian Frederick, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duke of Saxony was, at 27, five years younger than Doyle. When he was five, he had been made a colonel in the Imperial Regiment of Russia, and at 16 was taken by Napoleon to Paris where he was offered the position of adjutant to the French Emperor. This he refused, instead joining the Imperial Russian cavalry and fighting against his erstwhile employer at the battle of Kulm in 1813, a bloody victory for the allies against the French where over 25,000 men lost their lives. Two years later he was made a general of the Imperial Russian Army, but last year he married Charlotte Augusta and had become a member of the royal family, exchanging the Russian Order of St Andrew for the British Order of the Garter. Had Doyle known any of this, he might have not been so forthcoming in his conversation with the Prince. Instead, the doctor saw before him a decidedly fashionable young man dressed soberly in a dark blue morning coat and immaculately tailored matching cream waistcoat and pantaloons. This gained Doyle’s immediate approval far more quickly than any number of titles and honours.
From Chapter 17, The Jane Austen Murders.
Henry Addington, the first Viscount Sidmouth and home secretary since 1812, was a consummate politician. He had been Prime Minister of the nation between 1801 and 1804 and his term in office was noted for the doubling of income tax, the construction of the Martello tower sea defences along the south coast and the raising of more than 600,000 men at arms. It can be fairly said of Sidmouth that he understood how to apply the smack of firm government though, to give him his due, during his administration Napoleon was at the zenith of his power, bestriding the European landmass like a colossus, albeit a five foot one.
