ABSTRACT
“Sensualist” portrays the steps taken by Bottomley to spend his vast wwealth, chiefly on promoting boxing and the theatre, as well as gambling on horses, and expenditure on mistresses and champagne. High-profile punts on races such as the Derby were one way Bottomley sought to keep his name in the public eye, easing the way for his intended career as an MP. The chapter traces Bottomley’s impact on other members of this milieu – the disgraced playwright, MP and then bankrupt, Fred Horner. It describes the way Bottomley fascinated other Edwardians, including Kenneth Grahame, the former Secretary of the Bank of England, who used Bottomley as one of the models for the character of Toad in The Wind in the Willows. And the similarity between Bottomley and Alfred Doolittle, the father of the flower girl Eliza in Shaw’s Pygmalion.
