Trieste

This is part of a local history note on Sir Richard and Lady Isabel Burton. See the start of this local history note.

Sir Richard and Lady Isabel Burton. Photograph.

Richard left for Trieste in October and Isabel followed a month later, but they both met up unexpectedly in Venice in December and arrived at Trieste together on 7 December 1872. Apart from visits home and journeys to other countries, Trieste would be their home until Richard’s death in 1890. For the next 15 years, Richard continued to lobby the Foreign Office for a better posting, but, in fact, he only spent an average of 5 months of the year at his official duties!

In the New Year 1876, the Burtons left Trieste for a 6 month tour of India. They landed in Bombay and made their way round the country visiting the places where Richard had been stationed when he was in the Army.

During 1877-1878 Richard made 2 expeditions to the Midian – an area of the eastern shore of the Gulf of Aqaba which then belonged to Egypt and now is part of Saudia Arabia – looking for gold. The expeditions explored, surveyed and mapped a 600-mile stretch of Northern Midian. The remains of 18 cities and 20 settlements were identified as well as 40 ancient sites known to mediaeval geographers. Some minerals were found, but sadly no gold!

Early in February 1879, Isabel’s book A.E.I. or Arabia, Egypt and India came out, but it was not as successful as her first book The Inner Life of Syria (1875). In December, Richard took the 6 month leave that he had postponed and sailed for Egypt, hoping to persuade the Khedive to grant him mining rights. But, in June, the Khedive abdicated and his son and heir saw no reason to keep his father’s promises.

The following year, in August, the Burtons travelled to Oberammergau to see the Passion Play which was performed every 10 years. Isabel wrote a book The Passion Play at Oberammergau which was published posthumously in 1900.

The first signs of the cancer [of the right ovary] that would kill Isabel appeared in early 1882. In 1883 Richard had a bad attack of gout and then a minor heart attack. Isabel inherited a small legacy the following year and Richard was by now becoming more and more ill, he was now nearly 64, but the retirement age was then 70. In February of that year he lost the use of his legs for 8 months and he used the time to start editing and translating The Arabian Nights and sorting out the material he had accumulated over 30 years. May 1885 saw the Burtons return to England to see doctors about his health and to arrange publication of his work. Isabel had acted as her husband’s business manager and The Arabian Nights was a great success and brought in 10,000 guineas. She wrote “It came just in time to give my husband the comforts and luxuries and freedom which gilded the last five years of his life.” In 1886 Richard received recognition for his work with the Foreign Office and was knighted. “The Conservatives made Dick Sir Richard Burton, K.C.M.G. The Queen’s recognition of Dick’s forty-four years of service was sweetly done at last, sent for our Silver Wedding, and she told a friend of mine that she was pleased to confer something that would include both husband and wife.”

For the next 3½ years the Burtons spent little time in Trieste as their health continued to decline. They left London to return to Trieste in January 1887 but, because of Richard’s health, travelled to Cannes where he had another heart attack, finally arriving in Trieste on 5 April. That summer and winter was spent in the Tyrol before returning to Trieste in the spring of 1888. Then home to England in mid-June until October when they left to spend the winter in Switzerland before their return to Trieste in 1899. That winter, they spent in North Africa as Richard searched for an original Arabic manuscript which he referred to as The Scented Garden. They arrived back in Trieste on 19 March, Richard’s 69th birthday. The Burtons made their usual summer trip to Switzerland for 2 months before returning to Trieste for the last time on 8 September.