In her early twenties Bella was kicked by a horse and a tendon in her leg was
severed. For ever afterwards she found she needed to lie down every afternoon
but in spite of this, and the obesity which resulted partly from lack of
exercise, she achieved lasting fame as being responsible for enabling a valuable
source of income for the local peasant women. Embroidery had been practised in
Madeira before her involvement but she persuaded friends in England to sell the
work of the islanders. She also imported fabrics and thread and drew designs for
them and eventually established a flourishing trade which survives in Madeira to
this day. During her mother's absences, Bella was responsible for running the
household. Bella and her sister Mary, lived at the Carmo, Clapham, London after their
parents' death and she died there aged 72.