This is a sensational story, which also happens to be a true one. At 5 a.m. on 8 June 1858 Lady Rosina Wheeler had just arrived with her friend Mrs Clarke at Hertford, after a long and difficult journey. Rosina reported that she had ‘shivers in every limb’ and that her head was burning. She had been forced to borrow money, but she was determined to do what she had planned. According to the people who knew her, at fifty-six Lady Rosina was still a beautiful, tall lady, with a finely chiselled nose, a broad and high forehead, dark hair, bright grey eyes (sparkling and changing in colour with every emotion), perfect teeth, a small mouth and a rounded, delicate face. The day before, on Tuesday, Lady Rosina and Mrs Clarke had taken the 3.20 p.m. train from Taunton, ‘but instead of going the direct way by London – for fear of meeting Sir LIAR or any of his gang – [they] went a round which, with the usual delays of the trains, made it 11 at night before [they] got to Bedford’.