‘And Finally Virginia’: Cameron, Ritchie, Stephen and Woolf’s Constructs of her Ancestry

Abstract

Woolf flamboyantly constructs her own ancestry: ‘Marie Antoinette loved my ancestor: hence he was exiled; hence the Pattles, the barrel that burst, and finally Virginia’ (L6: 461). She here traces a direct line to her great-great-grandfather, Ambroise-Pierre Antoine de L’Étang, who was born in 1757. Family story has it that as a dashing young Chevalier he was appointed to the household of Marie Antoinette, but left France hurriedly when he became too close to the young Queen.¹ He went to Pondicherry, a French settlement in India, where he married Thérèse-Josephe Blin de Grincourt. They lived remarkably long lives through some of the most turbulent and exciting of times. They faced death, defeat and loss on many occasions, but they were resilient and adaptable survivors. Had de L’Étang remained in Paris he might have been guillotined in the Revolution, but soon after he arrived in Pondicherry it was taken by British forces. He again managed to survive possible death or captivity, allegedly by negotiating with the English commander. His equestrian skills and experience were in high demand, and for the rest of his life he remained in India training and breeding horses for the British East India Company and the Nawab of Oudh. He died in 1840, aged 83. While de L’Étang led an adventurous, nomadic life, Thérèse frequently travelled back to France with her daughters. Finally she moved there permanently, dying in Paris in 1866 just three months short of her 100th birthday.