Isabella & George

Here is the full photograph (and the only one we have this side of the Atlantic) of Isabella and George.

Yes, George looks a bit cross and humorless, but this is how they posed people in those early days of photography.  When I first saw this picture, I thought, good Lord, he looks like a Victorian 'master of the house'.  But, I am pleased to report that from all accounts, George was in possession of a wonderful sense of humor and was very much loved by his granddaughter (my grandmother), as was Isabella.  So, lesson learned early on: don't judge an Ancient Rellie by his one and only photograph.

I wonder where they met.  He was from Cranborne, a fair distance from Portland.  Since he was a tailor and she was a dressmaker, A.R. speculates that they may have met while working for one of the 'big' houses belonging to the wealthy burghers.  And with the arrival of the railway in the 1870s, Bournemouth was growing like a bad weed, with bags of money and lots of families and domestic servants to clothe.  Will we ever know?