Footnotes

'ALONE, NAKED, AND WITHOUT A FRIEND': a last desperate plea from Frederick Rolfe, 'Baron Corvo', before entering the workhouse. Corvo had arrived at Holywell, near Chester, in 1895. Here he had painted a series of sacred banners for the local church, under the aegis of Fr Charles Beauclerk, a Jesuite priest who was trying to turn St Holywell into the 'Welsh Lourdes'. However in November 1898 a series of articles appeared in the Aberdeen Evening Gazette vilifying him and his murky past, which were reprinted in the Catholic Times and distributed throughout the country. For this, Corvo held Fr Charles responsible. On 9 January 1899 a destitute Corvo entered the Holywell Workhouse: 'He was broken in spirit and numbed in mind and body. The workhouse was the acme of his pain' (Miriam J. Benkovitz, Frederick Rolfe: Baron Corvo, 1977, p. 103).

Just before entering, he wrote this letter, by way of final appeal; although Corvo's invitation to join his feud at the end of the letter may not have appealed greatly to Scott-Hall (indeed most offers of help ended in the hand being bitten, as Fr Charles could have testified): "I am paralysed for the moment and my perceptions have been dulled by this long-enduring agony... I would gladly come to you if you will not be ashamed of my horrible appearance. I am clean, although in rags. I have not the smallest idea of your position or of the kind of establishment you keep. It maybe that you would not care to take the trouble; but I remember well what kind of man you used to be; and that is why, in my dire necessity I have asked you to be a friend to me now. The best thing I can do is to put myself in your hands... Something must be done, immediately: for, at any moment I may be without a roof to cover me. The most direct way would be for you to bring me to Oxford for a few days... Yes. I have always heard that England is a free country, and I never would have believed that a Jesuit could succeed in taking away an Englishman's liberty. Yet that is precisely what my persecutor is doing. Actually he menaces my life as well as my liberty. When he cursed me, he swore to ruin me, to make me suffer, to prevent me from ever earning a living, and to have me hounded out of the town. And he is doing that exactly. What can I do, alone, naked, and without a friend, against that? Yet, at the present moment I can expose and crush him, (I speak seriously,) if only I can have your help... I am in your hands".