A lady in waiting

A secret marriage that took place this month nearly 150 years ago saw a ‘banjoplaying barmaid’ join one of the wealthiest families in England. The notorious Lady Meux was just getting started

- Gillian Thornton

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Every generation has its own colorful characters, but they don’t come much more flamboyant than Lady Valerie Meux, chatelaine of Theobalds Park in Cheshunt, and the despair of polite Victorian society. Today, the small-time actress from humble origins would be the delight of the glossy gossip magazines, but at the turn of the 20th century, backs were often turned and invitations declined by established members of the British aristocracy.

Ask someone to picture a typical Victorian society couple and most people would imagine an elegant lady in floor-length skirt and jewels, seated beside an upstanding gentleman in dapper suit and waistcoat. The kind of posed portrait taken to impress the neighbors. But a grainy sepia photo of Lady Valerie Meux and her husband Sir Henry Bruce Meux – pronounced ‘Mews’– immediately suggests a somewhat unconventional couple.

Lady Meux is seated out of doors, absorbed in playing the banjo with a large dog at her feet. Sir Henry sits on the ground beside her, dressed in tweed knickerbockers and deerstalker, lolling languidly against her thigh. One can only imagine what the neighbors had to say about that.