BEAUTY SHOP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 December 1940, Page 8

BEAUTY SHOP

FASHIONS IN SEVENTIES

CAREER OF FIRST RACHEL. ROGUE AND BLACKMAILER. Face powder of a certain shade is still called "Rachel” after the Victorian Madame whose Bond Street beauty shop flourished in the late ’sixties and early ’seventies (writes “T.A.,” in “John o’ London's Weekly”). She sold “Magnetic Rock Dew Water of Sahara” for £2 2s; it was “brought to Morocco on swift dromedaries for the use of the Court"; the right to import it had been acquired from the Sultan of Morocco “at an enormous outlay”; it was guaranteed “to increase the vital energies, restore the colour of grey hair, give the appearance of youth to persons far advanced in years, and remove wrinkles, defects, and blemishes.’ ’ She sold also “The Royal Arabian Toilet of Beauty, as arranged by Madame Rachel for the Sultana of Turkey, the facsimile of which is used by the Royal Europeans Brides, from 100 to 1,000 guineas”; the “Souvenior de Marriage from 25 to 100 guineas”; “Venus's Toilet, 10 to 20 guineas”; “Jordan's Water,” at the same price per bottle.

On her profits she was able to take, and elegantly furnish, a house in Maddox Street, reserve a pit tier box at the Opera costing £4OO for the- season. And at the same time she was a crafty crook and blackmailer.

Mr William Roughead, connoisseur of crime and murder, resurrects her in a further vintage collection, “Rascals Revived.” Little is known, apparently, of Sarah Rachel Russell’s earlier life, except that she had a husband and a fried fish shop—a pleasant prelude to those Perfumes of Araby—then another husband named Leverson or Levison and seven offspring. In her ascendancy, we are told, she resembled “if the image be conceivable, a dissipated Queen Victoria.” More to the point for Mr Roughead’s story is that she began to treat for “beauty” a Mrs Mary Tucker Borradaile, widow of an Indian Army colonel, who possessed £5,000 in funds, property, plate, jewellery, and no sense. This lady spent £l7O on “something for my skin,” which must have been a pretty thick one, and looked for results. iTOLD TO TAKE A BATH.

Instead, Madame Rachel suddenly informed her that a nobleman of rank and fortune, Lord Ranelagh, had seen and loved her; and subject to the completion of the beautiful-for-ever process, proposed to make her his wife. A meeting was arranged and milord presented his card. The enchanted lady testified later:

“I saw Lord Ranelagh there on several subsequent occasions. On one occasion Madame Rachel told me to go and take a bath. The baths were at a Mrs Hicks’s, in Davis Street, Berkeley Square, close by. I took the bath, and on my return to the shop I found Lord Ranelagh there. Madame Rachel again introduced me to him. He made a bow to me. but I forget the conversation. Lord Ranelagh then again retired, and I had a further conversation with' Madame Rachel. She again told me he would make me a good husband . . .” Well, at least she had had the bath. But Madame informed her that his lordship’s “express desire” was that his prospective bride proceed at once with the rejuvenating “beauty” process costing £l,OOO. Madame’s attorney, one Mr Haynes, subsequently described in court as “a disgrace to his profession,” sold £1,300 of Mrs Borraaaile’s stock for £9BO, which went into Madame’s pocket, less £2O expenses. WOOED IN LETTERS. Then the wooing began in earnest — but only in love letters. His lordship signed himself “William.” though his name was Thomas, and Rachel ascribed this to a desire for secrecy. Later there was some small lapse and he signed himself “Edward.” The fragrant letters were in three different hands, and sometimes the spelling was atrocious. “When I complained to her (Rachel) about the bad spelling of some of his lordship’s letters,” said Mr Borradaile, “she accounted for it by saying that he had injured his arm and had to emplay an uneducated amanuensis.” In ohe he wrote: “ . . . Your coronet is finished, my love. ... I shall be at your feet—those pretty feet that I love —and you may kick your ugly old donkey ...” His letters were always delivered by Rachel; Mrs Borradaile wrote hers to Madame’s dictation, and they were left, to Madame to pass on. That beauty treatment needed quite a lot of fuelling. Rachel persuaded her to deliver up her jewels, because his lordship deemed them unworthy and would indue course provide others. Rachel told her she must buy diamonds costing £1,260 from Mr Pike, the Bond Street jeweller, so she sold, through Mr Haynes, property at Streatham for £1,540, of which Rachel took £1,400 “to pay for the diamonds.” On being asked what had become of this money. Rachel explained that “it was required for ‘William’ for the purposes of the Volunteers" —a movement with which his lordship was known to be concerned. Actually the diamonds had been returned to the dealer, who accepted £lOO to cancel the sale. Mrs Borradaile was consoled by a promise that she should have those which had belonged to Lord Ranelagh's mother, in token whereof Rachel exhibited “an oldfashioned coronet, which she said would be altered. GIVEN A CIGAR. There were other items: £32 for hair ornaments, £l6O for dresses, ditto for linen, £4OO for wedding gown lace. “The articles were all sent to Madame Rachel’s shop." said Mrs Borradaile; -I never had one of them.” What she did get was a cigar. “I recollect her giving me one in February of this year. , It was lighted: and as she gave it to me she said, ‘Here comes Lord Ranelagh. I saw a person out of the door at the time, but I could not see his face. Madame Rachel said the cigar was as warm as his love.” Rachel’s solicitude was touching. She accompanied Mrs Borradaile io a Bond

Street coachbuilder’s to select a carriage for the wedding—Lord Ranelagh’s arms to be blazoned on the panels. She took her to choose a house worthy of the noble couple. Mrs Borradaile had plate which belonged to her late husband: a silver tea service, also bought in Bond Street. These, together with rings, trinkets, family seals, marriage settlements, even her dead husband's letters, were all impounded by Rachel to await the wedding. When Mrs Borradaile ventured to inquire about certain articles she received the cynical reply. “You must ask the man who loves you for them back.”

Finally, when her victim was left with only the clothes she stood in. Rachel induced her to execute a bond for £1,600. had her arrested for debt and east into Whitecross Street prison, whence she obtained release by making over to her “creditor” for the remainder of her life, her £350 pension! DEATH IN PRISON. It was a job too well done to escape the law. Mr Roughead describes the trials with relish. Lord Ranelagh deposed that, while he had met Mrs Borradaile twice, on Rachel's introduction, he knew nothing of the marriage scheme or letters. Rachel's defence was that Mrs Borradaile had been carrying on an immoral intrigue with the mythical "William," and the moneys and so forth were in the nature of a procuress’s rake-off .... She got five years’ penal servitude, and her magical beauty preparations were exposed as compounds of starch, fuller’s earth, pearl ash, hydochloric acid, and whatnot in a subsequent preparation which earned her another five years. She died in Woking prison in 1880.