We live in a very old city (1670) on a very old street.  In fact, in all of Charleston, there were only six original streets, when the town was first mapped out in 1680.

They were Meeting Street (our place of residence), King, Tradd, Church, Broad, and East Bay Streets.  There is a history lesson in every household positioned on these streets.

Across the street from us is the home of Thomas Heyward Jr.  He was one of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Just up the street.. is the original location of Colonel Isaac Hayne.  He was a Revolutionary leader of the South Carolina Militia.  The Brits caught him, held him in the dungeon of the Old Exchange Building.  His little son went there and spent the night… before his father, Isaac was hanged by the British.

So many stories.  Some of them are charming, some devious, others are ghostly, or funny…. and some… just plain interesting.

Now this one is a beauty….

Right down the street is wonderful old, four story home… which was owned in the early 1800s, by a woman.  Elizabeth Martin Middleton.  She was widowed.  (The Middletons were a wealthy plantation-owning family here.  But Liz was born a Martin, and there was a large family grievance over a shipping dispute.)  At any rate….  another story… for another day.

So she took on boarders to help with living expenses.  Around 1810, or so, there were two artists living with her.  A portrait painter named Burton Larson Henry.  The other fellow, was a poet by the name of Burton Andrew Drayton.  Neither one of them were very successful.

They were always behind on their boarding fees.  In fact, they rarely paid.  Despite her prostrations, they continued with their negligence.

So, in 1813, she decided to murder them. Seriously.  Poison was very popular in the day.  So she invited them down for afternoon tea one day, served them homemade pastries laced with arsenic… and …. kaput.  That freed up a couple of rooms right now…. I’ll tell you.

Well.  Given the obvious motive, and the resulting deaths of both tenants…  Mrs. Middleton was arrested and charged pretty quickly for the crime.

Feigning innocence, she demanded to know why she was being charged.

The police captain replied….. “Well, it seems, madam, that you……  have killed two Burts with one scone!”

Arrrrrrrggghhhhhhh……   🙂

They say we can learn from history.  Blow off a little steam BEFORE you serve tea?

Or… eating sweets is bad for you?

Crime doesn’t pay…. if you have dead renters?

Okay, truth of the matter is, I am not sure what the real lesson is here.   But… feed a starving artist a pastry, and he dies of arsenic poising.  Teach him HOW to bake his own pastries, and he might open a bakery.

“The charm of history and its enigmatic lesson consist in the fact that, from age to age, nothing changes and yet everything is completely different.” – Aldous Huxley