Muriel didn’t want the opportunity of finding out more about her possible relative, Miss Poulett, to come to nothing, so the next week, she sent a letter to Miss Eva Walker of Perdiswell Hall, thanking her for the ball, and asking if she could provide any details of her guest, Miss Poulett, whom Muriel thought might be a relative.
She eagerly awaited the post, and it was over a week before a reply came.

“Dear Miss King

I have delayed in replying to your letter, as I felt it was incumbent upon me to ask permission of Miss Poulett before I provided you with her personal details. I have now done that, and she agrees that you might know her address, so that you might write to her.

She is of course curious as to why you think you are relatives, as she knows of no connection with the King family.

Her name and address are as follows:

Eleanor Poulett, 60 Queen’s Gate, Kensington.

I am pleased that you enjoyed my ball, and it was very nice to make your acquaintance. I thought I saw you and your friend at church a few Sundays ago. Perhaps if you are in this area again in the future, we might possibly  meet.

Yours sincerely,

Eva Walker”

Feeling like she was on the way with her quest to find her long lost relatives, Muriel immediately wrote to Eleanor Poulett at the address provided.  She explained about how she thought her grandmother Williams had been related to the Poulett’s (or perhaps Paulett’s as the hand writing wasn’t very clear) and how the letters had come to her attention. She asked Miss Poulett if she thought she had descended from Peter Poulett, the Marquis of Winchester.

It was several weeks later before she had this reply.

“Dear Miss King,

Thank you for your letter. I don’t think we met when we both were attending the ball for my friend Miss Eva Walker at Perdiswell, but I am pleased to reply to your enquiries.

As far as I know I do not descend from “noble lineage” as you think that you do. However as I move in circles with many gentry, I have come across others with the name Paulett which is of course very similar to ours, and I can tell you a bit about some of them.

The head of one noble family, Lord George Paulett, was born in 1804 and lived in London. He was in the Royal Navy and eventually became Rear Admiral. His wife Georgina was born in Calcutta, and they had two sons, George born in 1837 and St John Claud born in 1839. Neither of the sons married. George was a 2nd Lieutenant in the Dragoons.  In 1871 the family retired to 36 Pillamore Gardens in Kensington. By 1881 Lord George had died, and his widow and her son St John lived at Corktree House, Farnbow Road, Berkshire. George at that time lived in Marylebone, as a lodger and retired from the army.

There was another ancient branch, headed by Lord William Paulett born 1805 who come from Andover in Hampshire. This family had a lady, whose name I cannot remember, but she was Lady something beginning with an L, presumably his daughter, and she was living at Amport House, Andover. She was born 1860, but I don’t know what happened to her.

Lord Charles William Paulett, born in 1833 was a Lt Captain in the 7th Hussars. He lived at Wellesbourne House, Mountford, Warwickshire. He and his wife had two sons.

I’m afraid none of this information will be of much use to you, as you say your Lord Peter and Lady Elizabeth Paulett had only daughters, and all of these families I have listed seem to have only sons.

I am sorry not to be of more help, but you might try some of the addresses I have given above as someone may have more information than I do.

Yours sincerely,

Eleanor Poulett”

Muriel was disappointed and frustrated at this letter, as she had so much hoped she would now be further on with her quest.  She decided that she would leave the situation for the time being, as it was now nearing the summer, and she needed to concentrate on the other part of her quest – getting John Day to ask her to marry him.

May’s house, number 9 Lansdown Crescent looked very similar to Muriel’s. They were on either ends of a terrace of three houses but the middle house had an extra floor. May’s house was home only to herself and her mother at the moment; however they had lived in Worcester all May’s life, and all her mother’s too.  Her mother was born Eliza Smith, and was now aged 50. Her father, May’s grandfather had been George Smith who in 1871 moved in Lansdown Road, and his daughter and her husband Tom had lived with him. George Smith was a seed merchant and master miller and had 10 men working for him. His wife had died much earlier, so having Eliza and Tom live with him brought him company and someone to run his household.  But when he became older the tables were turned, and Tom and Eliza bought a house on Rainbow Hill Terrace – and he then moved in with them for his last years. Also his son, Sydney, who also worked as a miller, lived with them for some time. But about ten years ago, Tom and Eliza chose to move again, but still within the neighbourhood, and bought this house on Lansdown Crescent.  May’s younger brother Tom, named after his father, also lived with them, but he attended Kings Cathedral Grammar School and at age 14, he was not much in the house. Tom, like his father was of an academic bent, and hoped to become a Classics Scholar, attend Oxford, and then perhaps become a Headmaster.

Also living in the house was the maid, Elizabeth Wilcock who was from Martley and was in her mid 20’s. So the five bedroomed, 3 reception room house, with a cellar was quite full when everyone was at home.  The garden stretched out slightly in front of the house and greatly to the back with a high hedge on each side separating number 9 from its neighbours and a high brick wall marking the end of the gardens.

There were many features that May and Muriel’s houses had in common. At May’s house, Number 9, the ceilings were high, over 9 feet, with moulded cornices and sash leaded windows. The entrance hall was elegant with a fine spindled cantilevered staircase with paneling beneath. Because the houses were built into the steep hill, they had several half floors. The dining room in each house had twin sash windows which opened right up from floor level into nearly ceiling height enabling direct access to the southerly facing terrace.  There was a polished marble fireplace surround and mantle with a cast iron insert. The floor was polished English oak parquet and there was a multi paned glazed door from there to the sitting room. Again this room had sash windows overlooking the garden, an ornate pitch pine fireplace surround with a polished marble and hearth insert. There was extensive book shelving, deep mouled plaster cornicing and a picture rail.  The kitchen to the rear of the house was a large room but it combined as a breakfast room. The cook used a large black Aga.

Going up to the half floor above, there was a very large drawing room, 22 feet by 15 feet, which overlooked the garden and had a magnificent cityscape of  the Cathedral and St Andrew’s spire to the Suckley Hills beyond over a wooded conservation area to the Malvern Hills. The fireplace had a carved marble fireplace surround, mantle and hearth.

Also on this level were a bedroom which was used by the maid, and a bathroom.
The garden featured a southerly facing flagged terrace enhanced by dwarf topiary box hedging, and enjoyed a magnificent outlook over the garden. A natural stone step down between low stone walling, well stocked herbaceous borders and beautifully maintained lawns overhung by flowering cherry and encircled by ancient yew hedging and mellow brick walling.  A graveled path continued between he shrubbery and a seating area was located in a sheltered spot. At the lower edge of the garden, a pedestrian  gate was inset into a yew hedge leading to the lower road  of Lansdown Crescent.

Upstairs there were four large bedrooms and another bathroom.
Muriel’s house, No. 7, called Linacre, was very similar – again having five upstairs bedrooms. However in the King household, the cellar area contained the kitchen and also had the bedrooms for the servants.   Muriel was an only child, and her parents, George Williams King and his wife Louisa had two servants, Amy Bunce and Emily Smith, both 22 years old. Amy was from Abberley and Emily from Worcester. 

George Williams King had been born in Guildford Surrey. His wife Louisa, neé Trew was born in Axbridge Somerset. George came to Worcester in the late 1870’s having gone into the grocery business earlier in his life in Guildford, with his father, also called George. He and his wife Ann had 3 children George Williams, James Downes (named after his grandmother) and George had a much older son from a first marriage, William. James Downes tragically died when he was only 12. After his father’s death in 1870, his mother remarried, and George Williams (his second name was his mother’s maiden name as was the tradition) came to Worcester where he was taken into the James Williams’ family and treated as a son.  In the mid 1870’s he became part of his uncle’s grocery business which had been established in Worcester for decades under the name of J.J. Williams and Co.     At that time, they had  two groceries – one on High Street, Pershore, where James and his family lived, and the other on the corner of the Cross and St. Swithin Street in the city centre. They catered for the rich – offering the best coffees and teas available, wines, spirits imported from abroad.  So they made a great deal of money, and by 1881 James and his family had retired to Surrey, they sold the Pershore Store and left George to manage the Worcester business.  James died soon after they moved and Emily, his widow and their children continued to live in Sutton, Surrey. Percy Williams was the only one of their five children to carry on in the grocery business, and he was also a Tea Planter. Charles became an electrical engineer and the girls, Kate, Ethel and Mary married and settled in the Surrey area.
George Williams King invested much of his money in works of art.  He had brought Muriel up with a great love of painting, and she had learned a great deal about it at her secondary school.  He had many paintings in his house which he hoped would appreciate with time, and he knew he was offering a legacy to Muriel and her family to come, that would be worth much more than money itself.

Muriel’s mother, Louisa came from Axbridge in Somerset but had not spent much time there.  It had been her grandmother, Martha Trew, née Banyer who had written the poem that Muriel had read at the Queen’s memorial service.  Louisa herself was brought up by her grandmother for her earliest years, her father Richard having lost his wife when she was born. But after her grandmother died in 1860, Louisa was sent to a boarding school.  She met George when she was visiting friends in Worcester, and he swept her off her feet, marrying her within months of meeting her in the summer of 1877.

Muriel and May, both aged 20, both highly educated for girls, spent much of most days together. Sometimes they accompanied their mothers when calling around the neighbourhood or doing good works, but as they had been allowed a degree of independence not often given to girls at this time, they took full advantage of it, and did more or less as they wanted most of the time.

Muriel rang the bell at May’s house, but she was so well known, that when the maid answered the door, she went automatically into the house. The maid said that May was in the morning room so Muriel went right in.
“We must make plans for going back to Perdiswell,” she said. “John will be back for his summer holidays, and he did invite us to come up again and to have a picnic with him and his brother.”

“Perhaps it would be pleasant if we took our bicycles on one Sunday soon and rode there. It isn’t that far and would be good exercise for us,” said May.

Cycling was becoming more popular in Worcester, and a new shop selling them had opened in the town centre. Both girls owned cycles but they had never taken them on quite such an outing before.

“I will write to John and suggest that we go next Sunday the 30th of June,” said Muriel, “if that suits you.”

“Oh, that will be fine with me.  I very much look forward to seeing John again too.”

“Don’t forget it is my quest to marry him,” said Muriel. “You might see what you think of his younger brother, Harold, who will be tagging along.”

“I don’t see why you should think you are the only one John likes. And I think Harold will be far too young for us, and if I remember correctly, he seemed very shy and withdrawn.”

“Well, so are you shy and withdrawn. He would suit you perfectly,” teased Muriel, as no one could seriously describe May as shy.

“I was also thinking that we should pay a visit on the Tree girls this summer. They will be finished with their school and might enjoy a bit of company. Shall I write and enquire?”

“Yes, do,” said May. “I should greatly enjoy going to visit them.”

It had been two years now since the girls had finished at The Worcester High School for Girls, run by Miss Alice Ottley. The school had offered them a wide choice of subjects including English, French, German, Music, and Art. It also offered the preparation for exams for Cambridge and was the Local Centre for Metropolitan Exams for the Royal College of Art and the Royal College of Music. Muriel was interested in Art and had taken all the classes she could to further her knowledge of the subject. May was the musical one and had had lessons from Mr. Edward Elgar, whose father owned the local piano shop.

Most girls of their age would be thinking of getting married. It would be a lie to say that Muriel and May didn’t think about it too. But now that Muriel (and May to an extent) had their hearts set on a certain someone, they needed to put their plan into action if something concrete was going to come out of it.

Muriel duly wrote off to Margaret and Jessie Tree to enquire if she and May might call on them sometime in the near future. 

The Tree family was quite large – quiet a contrast to Muriel and May’s experiences. Margaret, 18, and Jessie, 16 were the eldest, but they then had three more sisters, Beth, 15, and Catharine Mary (called Carrie) ‘’14, Janet, 8 and three brothers, Warren Francis 12 (named after their father but called Frank), Charles, 11 and Philip (called Peter) 6.  They lived at Battonhill Grange, Camphill Road, Worcester.  As well as the huge number of children, they also had Warren’s sister, Louisa who was 45 living with them. They had 2 servants, Emily Wilkes, aged 56 who was the cook, and Laura Powell, aged 16 who was a housemaid. Mr. Tree was a well known solicitor in Worcester and he had an office (with a telephone) on 25 High Street near Pump Street in Worcester.  As well as this he also a Commissioner for Oaths, and Deputy Clerk of the Peace. And he was on a committee for the running of the Museum.

The Trees’ house, as the girls knew from having been there before, was huge, much bigger than their houses. But of course, the Tree family was much larger than theirs too.  There were eight bedrooms altogether, a study, music room, games rooms, a coach house (Mr. Tree owned an automobile) and a conservatory. The garden was over an acre.

Muriel finished her letters, one to John Day and one to Margaret Tree and went to post with them. They luckily had a posting box not far from the end of their road, and the mail service was very regular and efficient.