The Hellfire Club by Daniel P. Mannix

Author:Daniel P. Mannix [Mannix, Daniel P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: English History
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 2015-11-14T00:00:00+00:00

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The repercussions of the 45thNorth Britonwere still great. Bute was ruined. Dashwood lost his position as Chancellor of the Exchequer, not because he had turned out to be “the worst chancellor in history”as he had prophesied, but because the government was now very leery of Hell-Fire Club members. However, the grateful King George made him Lord le Despencer—the premier baron of Great Britain—“to decorate his fall,”as Wilkes unpleasantly put it. Dashwood was too important a man for even the King to offend. Sandwich was also forced to resign from the Admiralty, although he was reappointed a few years later.

The Hell-Fire Club, however, continued on its merry way and its members were preparing for a spectacularcomeback when a blow hit them from a completely unexpected direction.

A book calledChrysal, or The Adventures of a Guineaappeared and instantly became a sensational best seller. The book was a sort of 18th CenturyConfidentialwith the guinea telling the story itself. The guinea would be lying on the dressing table of the beautiful Lady C—— when Lord L—— climbed in the window only to find the Honorable Sir W—— R—— in bed with the lady. While the maids were mopping up the blood from the ensuing duel, Lady C—— would tell the second footman to take the guinea and get her a shot of brandy. Naturally, the footman would arrive at the winesellers just in time for the guinea to overhear a conversation between Baron M—— and Captain E—— of the C—— st—— in Guards giving the real inside dope on what happened when the elderly Duke of B—— found his young wife in a box-stall with the groom. On one of its journeys, the guinea belonged to a member of the Hell-Fire Club and so got the chance to witness a Satanic ceremony and an orgy with the nuns.

The author ofChrysalwas a man by the name of Charles Johnson. He was never a member of the club and no one knows where he got his information. It probably was from Charles Churchill, who was leaving the country with Wilkes and, needing money, sold the information. The description of the abbey contains some obvious inaccuracies whichwere almost certainly put in to throw curiosity seekers off the track. If so, these tricks failed in their purpose. Until the publication ofChrysal, the existence of the club had been known only to a select group in the upper crust of society, but once Mr. Johnson’s novel hit the stands, everyone was determined to have a look at the abbey. The real location of the abbey was quickly discovered and tourists began arriving by carriage loads and by barge on the Thames. The abbey servants couldn’t handle the crowds who overran the Garden of Lust and even tried to break into the abbey itself.

Maintaining a secret society under these conditions was difficult. When the robed monks left their barges in the evening for the solemn parade into the abbey accompanied by the ghostly tolling of the bell, the banks of the river were lined by sightseers who had come down from London for the day with picnic baskets.

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