32 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE 
blowing splendidly opposite our windows. Iam glad 
you have got a Lodging to suit you but I should not 
like residing at an inn, even with a view of the Royal 
Gardens from my Windows. It seems by your account 
of it that you must have got the Ball Room. Take care 
that they don’t kick up a bobbery some day when you 
are out of it and you on your return find them all a 
dancing and a dancing. Now good night, with our 
kind remembrances. 
From later letters, it would seem that Miss 
Benett was rather frail, despite her earlier energetic 
collecting activities, for she was often ill and 
affected by the extremes of weather. At times her 
medical adviser prescribed doses of quinine to gain 
relief from the pain of arthritis and eventually she 
became very lame. From 1842, she had difficulty in 
moving about — ‘now I am unable to go to see 
anything’. Her trips were limited to drives in a pony 
carriage around the neighbourhood and her jaunts 
to London and Weymouth ceased, for she declared 
that she had not yet got sufficient courage to use the 
railroads. During the following year on 9 August 
1843 she informed Mantell, ‘my fossil room is a 
perfect chaos. It is so very long since I have been 
able to do anything to it... but I cannot help 
buying when they come my way’. 
To achieve all that she did in her life, apart from 
being resourceful, she would need to have been 
rather formidable and determined. This is reflected 
in her forthright concern over the correct spelling 
of the family name. In a letter to the Norfolk 
geologist Samuel Woodward (2 May 1829), she 
wrote: ‘Pray excuse my saying that there is only one 
‘nin my name — it is Benett’. 
In November 1842, writing to Gideon Mantell, 
who had been a correspondent for thirty years, she 
took him to task in a postscript for a more critical 
error: ‘Pray allow me to remark that you have lately 
taken to spelling my Christian name Ethelred 
whereas it is Etheldred as above’ [referring to her 
signature]. Confusion over her name had earlier led 
to the assumption that her gift of fossils to the 
Emperor of Russia had been made by a man and an 
honorary doctorate from the University of St. 
Petersburg was sent in acknowledgement. (Jackson, 
1881, 40). 
She was also cautious when determining the 
fossils, realising that ‘more good specimens’ were 
needed before recognising a new species; and was 
extremely cautious about lending her specimens 
unless she had numerous duplicates. When 
assisting Sowerby to determine the nature of the 
large Cretaceous bivalves then being found 
throughout the Cretaceous, by lending him her 
specimens, that he named ‘Inoceramus’ (see Trans. 
Linn. Soc., 13:453-8), Miss Benett waited until she 
could safely take them up as ‘travelling 
companions’ on a coach journey to London (letter 
10 Feb. 1815). 
Conclusion 
She was undoubtedly a lady of consequence, both in 
the 1800s and even at the present time, for research 
on her fossil collections still continues. The 
obituary attributed to Mantell (1846), recorded that 
‘in private life this excellent lady was highly 
respected and beloved by a large circle of friends for 
her sincerity of manners and never tiring charity 
and benevolence.’ Her concern for others is 
apparent from the contents of many letters, but 
must have been rather awkward for Mantell 
himself, as Miss Benett persisted in enquiring 
about his wife and family, long after they had all 
separated from one another. 
In the future, it is hoped to publish further 
transcriptions of her letters, together with 
chronological lists of all the correspondence that 
has been preserved in various archives, for the 
benefit of other researchers. 
Acknowledgements 
I owe a particular debt of gratitude to Tim Lovell- 
Smith, of the Manuscript & Archives Section, at the 
Alexander Turnbull Library, who kindly provided 
copies of the Benett letters in the Mantell Archive 
in connection with my research on Mantell’s 
collections and publications. These, together with 
the occasion of the Mantell Bi-centenary 
Symposium in 1990, resulted in their use for an 
entertainment based on these letters ‘Believe Me, 
Dear Sir!’, which induced this further study of Miss 
Benett. 
It is also necessary to record my appreciation of 
the help given me by the librarians and staff at the 
Natural History Museum, London, during my 
various projects on 19th-century natural history 
derived from work on the Sowerbys. Similarly, Iam 
very grateful to the Librarian of the Special 
Collections at Bristol University for access to 
Benett letters in the Eyles collection and to staff at 
Norwich Castle Museum for the opportunity to 
examine the Samuel Woodward archive volumes. 
