В 19 веке и раньше бытовало выражение "в свете" (в высшем свете, дама полусвета и прочее). Как не путал народ с общепринятым словом "свет"? Было другое написание? Существовало много каламбуров, которые обыгрывали эту двузначность?
"At the age of 17, Seymour Fleming married Sir Richard Worsley, 7th Baronet of Appuldurcombe House, Isle of Wight, on 20 September 1775, and was styled Lady Worsley until his death. She was rumoured to have been worth £70,000 upon her marriage, but in truth only brought £52,000 to the union.
They were badly suited to each other and so the couple's marriage began to fall apart shortly after it began. The couple had one legitimate child, a son, Robert Edwin who died young. Seymour bore a second child, Jane Seymour Worsley in August 1781, fathered by Maurice George Bisset but whom Worsley claimed as his own to avoid scandal. James Gillray cartoon - "Sir Richard Worse-than-sly, exposing his wife's bottom; - o fye!"
Lady Worsley was rumoured to have had 27 lovers. In November 1781, Lady Worsley ran off with George Bisset, a captain in the South Hampshire militia. Bisset had been Worsley's close friend and neighbour at Knighton Gorges on the Isle of Wight. In February 1782, Worsley brought a criminal conversation case for £20,000 (2015: £2,220,000) against Bisset. Lady Worsley turned the suit in her favour with scandalous revelations and aid of past and present lovers and questioned the legal status of her husband. She included a number of testimonies from her lovers and her doctor, William Osborn, who related that she had suffered from a venereal disease which she had contracted from the Marquess of Graham. It was alleged that Worsley had displayed his wife naked to Bisset at the bath house in Maidstone. This testimony destroyed Worsley's suit and the jury awarded him only one shilling (2015: £5.54) in damages.
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timeasmymeasure
Seymour Fleming
Date: 2016-08-01 05:46 am (UTC)They were badly suited to each other and so the couple's marriage began to fall apart shortly after it began. The couple had one legitimate child, a son, Robert Edwin who died young. Seymour bore a second child, Jane Seymour Worsley in August 1781, fathered by Maurice George Bisset but whom Worsley claimed as his own to avoid scandal.
James Gillray cartoon - "Sir Richard Worse-than-sly, exposing his wife's bottom; - o fye!"
Lady Worsley was rumoured to have had 27 lovers. In November 1781, Lady Worsley ran off with George Bisset, a captain in the South Hampshire militia. Bisset had been Worsley's close friend and neighbour at Knighton Gorges on the Isle of Wight. In February 1782, Worsley brought a criminal conversation case for £20,000 (2015: £2,220,000) against Bisset. Lady Worsley turned the suit in her favour with scandalous revelations and aid of past and present lovers and questioned the legal status of her husband. She included a number of testimonies from her lovers and her doctor, William Osborn, who related that she had suffered from a venereal disease which she had contracted from the Marquess of Graham. It was alleged that Worsley had displayed his wife naked to Bisset at the bath house in Maidstone. This testimony destroyed Worsley's suit and the jury awarded him only one shilling (2015: £5.54) in damages.