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| The Noble Household of Lord Gregory Kemp |
| Lord Gregory Kemp was born in 1802 in Cheltenham, as the youngest son of the Earl of Gloucester. His childhood was noted as being particularly uneventful, which many state is the reason for the excessive lifestyle he developed in later years.
The Earl of Gloucester was renowned for being a man of dull wit, both in conversation and in business affairs, and much of the family affairs were looked after Henry, another of the Earl�s three sons. Henry was a man of much sterner disposition and devoutly religious At the age of 16, Gregory moved to London to continue his education, where he quickly found himself moving in more interesting circles and the education he was gaining was not that expected by his father. Life at the time was easy for the young Lord Kemp, and revolved around drinking , gambling and copious smoking of opiates. He found himself mixing in the strangest of company, one minute with a Duke, the next a cheap courtesan and, on more than one occasion, the Prince Regent himself. Each night there would be trouble. Fights, murders and robbery were commonplace, but Gregory saw this as the excitement he had been looking for. Despite having spent many an evening in drunk tank, he seemed completely unwilling to give up this new hedonistic and self destructive lifestyle Though his allowance was meant to pay for his studies, Gregory soon found he spent more of his time in the tavern than the schoolroom. He told his father and family that he was studying hard and that was leading the life of a respected and upstanding young gentleman. At the age of 24, Lord Kemps father passed away, and the entire inheritance passed to Henry, as he was the eldest of the sons. Henry knew of the lifestyle which Gregory had chosen to adopt and vigorously disapproved. He was ashamed of the �path of immorality and damnation� that his sibling had followed and immediately ceased his allowance Gregory relying upon the money to sustain his lifestyle (and addictions) resorted to every tactic to get his brother to change his mind and re-instate his income, but Henry refused. By this time Gregory had run up significant debts, though his income had ceased, he failed to control his outgoings, and when friends stopped loaning him money, he resorted to using the services of the money lenders. When Gregory stooped to the low-tactic of staging a beating in order to illicit sympathy, Henry decided that he had hay enough of his wayward brother, and disowned him. Gregory was told that he was no longer considered to be a member of the family, and that he would not be welcome at the estate Sadly though Gregory�s failure to change his ways only meant that he sank further and further into debt. He moved to Brighton in order to avoid their constant watch and in a somewhat vain attempt to gain the confidences of the former Prince Regent (now George IV). However it was not long before the money enders caught up with him. The next beating he received was not faked, and earned him injuries that left him near death It is said that Lord Kemp found Brighton Below when he awoke to find someone chewing on his fingers. Though he was not in any state to fight the carrion-eater off, the sight of �lunch� appearing to be still alive was enough to scare the creature away. From there on Gregory Kemp has known only the Underside Partying in the Underside It seems that the near death experience did nothing to hamper Lord Kemps appetite for hedonism. If anything he saw his fall into the World Below as the blessing he had been praying for. He had escaped his debtors, who now believed him dead and was alive and well to continue his lifestyle in the Underside Certainly the home brewed ale may not be as tasty (or even palatable), but when you can sneak into the finest wine cellars in the World Above with no-one batting an eyelid, who needs to brew their own. Lord Kemp essentially had his ideal presented to him on a plate. For some time his personal grooming had been left by the wayside, so his new standards of living were not something which bothered him too much, and his outrageous but amendable manner meant that he soon secured many friends, primarily amongst the other drunks of Brighton Below. After several years of within the Underside, he decided he was going to �reclaim� his inheritance and declared himself to be Lord Gregory Kemp of Brighton Below, and set up his own estate in an abandoned brewery. Others were keen to support his claim, probably swayed somewhat by the copious amounts of alcohol which Kemp was able to supply. Hence the Household was formed Lady Petunia Kemp His wife, Lady Petunia was the �Gin-house� landlady, and though able to drink the majority of her punters under the table was impressed with Lord Kemp�s abilities to remain upright after 7 cups of her strongest rum. Not only that her business was losing money with Kemps �free bar�, and whilst once he was her best customer, he was now her biggest rival. She settled the matter with a simple proposition of marriage. Lord Kemp agreed shortly afterwards, she became Lady Petunia Kemp. The gin-house was now run for the profit of the Kemp household, and became the hub of the Kemp domain. Lady Petunia can often be found at the Floating Market selling her wares, running the Kemps gaming stalls or searching for her errant husband The friendship with the Palmeiras One of Lord Kemps his closest friends and supporters when he first arrived in the underside was Lord Clarence Palmeira. When Clarence came to the World Below, he too was struggling with the ravages of alcohol and prior to his meeting with Lady Madeleine was ready to join Kemp as one of his Household The influence of Lady Palmeira drew Clarence away from Kemp, and though some say that he has never forgiven her to taking his best friend, they are cordial whenever they are present. It is known that Lord Kemp was �responsible� for Lord Palmeiras return to the demon drink, and some say his untimely death. Though Kemp states that he did not force a drink upon Lord Palmeira and that it is not his responsibility to monitor the alcohol consumption of anyone else, some feel that had Lord Palmeira not re-established his friendship with Kemp that he would still be alive today It is said that the night he was killed, Palmeira had been drinking for nearly 4 days solid, with Lord Kemp, and that he stood no chance against the Bravo he challenged. The matter of children It is a long standing rumour that Lord Kemp has at least a dozen mistresses and over thirty illegitimate children. Whilst he thanks people for their graciousness in assuming his prowess is such he vigorously denies these rumours and states that his Petunia is the only one for him. He refutes any allegations that he has illegitimate children, and says that the only �spawn� he has are those of his family |
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