Mr. Jameson:

Was he then calling himself Alister Crowley?

Rose Kelly:

No, he was then Count Skellet. I knew, however, his real name was Alexander Edward Crowley. Later he called himself Macgregor to identify himself with Scotland.

In July, 1903, she went to Strathpeffer, and while there she met Mr. Crowley. He was then calling himself Alister Crowley Macgregor. She knew he bought Boleskine before 1900, and that his home was there—the only home he ever had. He was mush attached to Scotland, and tried to identify himself with it as much as possible.

He used to wear the kilt and all that sort of thing, and always gave himself out as a Scotchman. At Strathpeffer on August 11 he asked her to marry him, and she consented. They were married next day in Scottish fashion, because he told her he was a Scotsman. The marriage was registered in the usual way, and in the certificate he gave his name as Macgregor, but his father’s name was given as Edward Crowley. After the marriage they went to stay at Boleskine, which was a large house with two or three farms on the property.

Shortly after the marriage he assumed the name of Lord Boleskine. This was, he said, because people in Scotland took the names of their property.

Mr. Jameson:

I think he is a little eccentric?

Rose Kelly:

Oh, yes.

In June, 1904, a child [Nuit Ma Ahathoor Hectate Sappho Jezebel Lilith] was born, which died twenty-one months later. For a year they travelled about the East together, and in 1906 she and her husband were at Hong Kong. Her husband left her there to return home by America, telling her to go straight home to be confined. She was very annoyed at being left in that condition. She came back to England, and joined her father in June, 1906. At her father’s house she was confined in September, 1906, and was suing for the custody of that child.

     They then lived at Chiselhurst for two years, and in March, 1908, she went to stay at Warwick-road, where the house was taken in her name, as her husband wished to avoid responsibility for the rent. He was becoming a little bit impecunious. He stayed there until the summer of this year, and she left on July 21, because he had been treating her cruelly. He had been frequently bruising her.

     On 5th August she learned from the charwoman that her husband had a woman staying with him on the previous night. Some time before that Mr. Crowley has asked her to take care of a child for one of his most intimate friends, and from what he said she thought he was a friend’s child. She, however, accidentally opened a letter addressed to the respondent, which gave the address of the mother, a Miss Zwee, and she went to see her. She learned that the defendant was the father of the child, and she thereupon raised that action.

Mrs. M. Danby:

Mrs. M. Danby, of Fulham, a charwoman, stated that the stayed the night at 21, Warwick-road. After Mrs. Crowley left, in order to finish some work, the husband, about midnight on August 4 rang for two cups of tea, which Mrs. Danby took up to the library. There she saw a short, and dark woman, who was gaily dressed, and wore a lot of jewellery.

She heard a lot of laughter during the night, and in the morning took up two cups of tea to the husband and his companion.

Charles Randle:

Charles Randle, of Chelsea, chauffeur, said Miss Zwee, who was a friend of his wife, boarded with them. The defender, whose portrait he identified, frequently visited her.

Lord Salveson:

Lord Salvesen (looking at the photograph): He looks as if he belonged to the stage.

Mr. Jameson:

He is a literary character; he rather affects the artistic.

Gerald Kelly:

Some of Mr. Crowley’s peculiarities were described by Gerald Festus Kelly, artist, who is brother of the wife. He said he became acquainted with Alister Crowley in Cambridge about August 1897. They were both undergraduates. Since then they had been intimately acquainted. The year after leaving Cambridge he went to Paris to study art, and Crowley was a frequent visitor at his studio, where he met his sister. Crowley was very fond of having Scottish blood in his veins, as he thought, and in 1900 or 1902 he bought Boleskine to be his permanent home. He had curious ideas of how to fit up the house. He had a room covered with mirrors, which he called a temple. He was a cabalist, and studied ancient MSS.

When he got to Boleskine he took the name of Macgregor, to identify himself with Scotland. While travelling abroad he sometimes signed himself Crowley and sometimes Macgregor. He changed his name from Alexander to Alister because it was Scottish, but he retained the name of Alister Crowley for literary work. He got some mark of distinction from an Indian chief, and he announced his intention of calling himself “Lord Boleskine.”

Mr. Jameson:

That is the history of how he became a peer?

Gerald Kelly:

In every way he tried to identify himself with Scotland.

Mr. Jameson:

He took his title from Scotland, and Boleskine is a good estate?

Gerald Kelly:

Oh yes.

Mr. Jameson:

There is a good deal of land about it?

Gerald Kelly:

Yes, but it is perpendicular, most of it. (Laughter).

Boleskine, said Mr. Kelly, was a big house, and many objects of art were stored in it. When he went to Strathmore in 1903 Crowley was appearing in complete Highland costume, and the Macgregor tartan was very, very bright. (laughter).

Lord Salveson:

Personally, I never have been able to get up any admiration for the MacGregor tartan from an artistic point of view (laughter). Its associations, or course, are very romantic.

Gerald Kelly:

Continuing, the witness said the defender had all his possessions at Boleskine. He bought a lot of things when he was going round the world, and they were all at Boleskine. In reply to his Lordship, the witness said he knew very little about the defender’s people. He was very secretive. The witness believed that his father was an eminent Plymouth Brother. The defender had a lot of money, which the witness thought came to him from his father. The witness did not know what Boleskine cost. He understood it was about £4000, and from a friend he learned that the defender had paid for it about twice what it was worth. He was a very stupid man about money affairs.

The defender was a great traveller and great climber and wrote poetry.

Lord Salveson:

You say he is a writer—does he make anything by it?

Gerald Kelly:

Certainly not.

Rose Kelly:

Replying to Lord Salveson, Mrs. Crowley said Boleskine still belonged to the respondent, but it was let for five years. Later she stated that it was bonded.

Lord Salveson:

What is your nationality?

Rose Kelly:

My father says he is Irish. I was born in England.

Lord Salveson:

Lord Salveson said he thought he might assume that the defender’s domicile had become Scottish, and the marriage took place in Scotland. He would grant decree of divorce, with the custody of the child to the pursuer, with aliment at the rate of £1 weekly.