ripts and
books. On one side glittered a "small but tastefully decorated altar,"
while scattered around were the many relics which have since drifted to
Camberwell.

181. The writing of the Life August 1892-March 1893.

In this loft Lady Burton spent many hours examining her husband's
papers, and in the autumn of 1902 she commenced in earnest to write
his life--a work that occupied her about eight months. That she was
absolutely unfitted for the task must be clear to all who have any
knowledge of Burton. Indeed, she was quite incapable of doing literary
work of any kind properly. The spirit in which she wrote may be gauged
both from the book itself, with its frequent offences against good
taste, and the following citation from a letter to a friend: "I do not
know," she said, "if I can harden my heart against the curs, but I can
put out my tongue and point my pen and play pussy cat about their eyes
and ears." By "curs" she means those who rated her for burning her
husband's manuscripts, but in justice to her, let it be borne in mind
that she had received some letters that were quite unworthy of the
writers.

The great questions was, Would she live to complete her task? Owing to
an incurable complaint she could give only a limited portion of her time
to the work, and there were whole days in which no progress was made.
Every page bears evidences of hurry. We have already told the story
of the three appearances of Sir Richard just before the burning of The
Scented Garden MS. Lady Burton persistently declared that after the
third appearance her husband came again and never left her until she had
finished her work. "He was constantly with me," she said to Mr. Murray,
"appearing exactly as in life, and he advised and comforted me. He
helped me most materially towards the compilation of his own biography,
and gave me references to books and manuscripts so that the biography
came comparatively easy to my hand. He gave me absolutely the position
of the book in the shelf and the page and reference itself which I
required."

A letter [683] of one of Burton's friends contains the following
comments on the work. "I plainly see that the objects of writing the
Life were two-fold. First to prove Sir Richard a Roman Catholic, and
thus fit him to be buried with her, and secondly to whitewash his
escapades and insubordination. As to the first, I know he despised [684]
the Roman Catholic religion; and if any very deep sense of