Downstream

from Putney Bridge – some
reports say she rented a boat
and rowed over to Putney
after finding Battersea Bridge
too crowded. Incredibly, she
was pulled out of the water
alive and taken to a doctor.
Wollstonecraft had left Imlay
a letter, written ‘on my
knees’, imploring him to send
their daughter to Paris. ‘When
you receive this, my burning
head will be cold . . . I shall
plunge into the Thames