Current programme of talks and visits

Talks are normally held on the second Tuesday of most months starting at 7.30pm in the Hinton Hall, Tisbury.

March 10th 7.30pm

Well-known local personality Michael Maxwell Steer has a hidden secret. One of his forebears was a
famous opera singer who married an earl. Kitty Stephens, whom William Hazlitt called ‘the sweetest
voice on the Regency stage’. Kitty was the doyenne of Covent Garden between 1818- 1830, both as
a singer, an actress, and a singing-actress; that is to say she could take on a wide range of roles, from
works by Handel to Gay’s Beggars Opera, as well as straight acting roles opposite Charles Macready.
She even appeared with David Garrick, and sang in the premieres of two Mozart operas. No fewer
than 10 portraits were painted of her by leading artists and numerous prints made. Jane Austen and
many other writers commented on her.
Kitty retired from the stage in 1834, a wealthy woman, and in a fairly unusual turn of events the Earl
of Essex who had been her secret lover for about 15 years did the decent thing and married her
when his first wife died. He himself died a year later, sad for Kitty, but not so sad that he left her in
possession of a house in Belgrave Square and a position at the forefront of society as a musical
patron.
Maxwell has published a biography of her and will tell this dramatic story with many illustrations, a
little music and some wit at our next meeting.

14th April 7.30pm

Speaker Neil Burton

Heat, Light and Drains

12th May 7.30pm

Speaker Dorothy Treasure

Vernacular architecture of Wiltshire