Chauncy Hare Townshend
Encyclopedia
Chauncy Hare Townshend, born Chauncy Hare Townsend (10 April 1798, Godalming
, Surrey – 25 February 1868) was a 19th century English poet, clergyman, mesmerist
, collector, dilettante and hypochondriac. He is mostly remembered for bequeathing his collections to the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum
) and the Wisbech & Fenland Museum
in Wisbech
, Cambridgeshire. He added an 'h' to his surname in 1835, upon inheriting.
, and whose father (and thus Chauncy's grandfather) was James Townsend M.P., Lord Mayor of London from 1772 – 1773. They were a wealthy family, with lands in Norfolk
, London and Switzerland, and the young Chauncy was educated at Eton College
and Trinity Hall
, Cambridge. He graduated with B.A. in 1821 and M.A.
in 1824, and won the Chancellor's Gold Medal
in 1817 for his poem 'Jerusalem.' He also appears to have played one game of cricket
for Kent
in 1829.
in 1815, and through him met the Wordsworth
s and Coleridge
s. Two volumes of poetry were published in 1820, and he also had a famous encounter with the poet John Clare
:
; he published two books and some articles and letters on the subject. Elliotson introduced Townshend to Charles Dickens
, who also had an interest in mesmerism, and the two became lifelong friends. Townshend's volume of poetry The Three Gates (1859) was dedicated to Dickens, who in turn dedicated Great Expectations
to Townshend; Dickens also gave Townshend the original manuscript of the novel, and his crystal ball
.
. Three further volumes of poetry emerged: Sermons in Sonnets, 1851, The Burning of the Amazon, 1856, and The Three gates, 1859. He died on 25 February 1868 at 21 Norfolk Street, Park Lane, London, and is buried in the new cemetery in Godalming.
, Rubens and Teniers
), 687 fossils, 9 cases of stuffed birds and animals, a large collection of coins, 622 specimens of gems and minerals, 267 pieces of jewellery, 5 portfolios of autographs and a collection of maps. Most of the artworks and photographs, and some of the books and jewellery were acquired by the South Kensington Museum in London, and most of the rest went to the Wisbech museum. This includes part of a Sèvres porcelain breakfast service thought to have been captured from Napoleon's baggage after the Battle of Waterloo
, and the manuscript of Great Expectations.
Under the terms of his will, his property was sold and given towards the provision of an elementary school in London. This school, the Burdett-Coutts and Townshend Foundation Church of England Primary School still exists in Rochester Street, Westminster
, and bears a plaque saying:
His will also appointed Charles Dickens as his literary executor
a task which Dickens apparently was not expecting and did not enjoy. At any rate, Religious opinions by the late Reverend Chauncy Hare Townshend duly appeared in 1869.
Godalming
Godalming is a town and civil parish in the Waverley district of the county of Surrey, England, south of Guildford. It is built on the banks of the River Wey and is a prosperous part of the London commuter belt. Godalming shares a three-way twinning arrangement with the towns of Joigny in France...
, Surrey – 25 February 1868) was a 19th century English poet, clergyman, mesmerist
Animal magnetism
Animal magnetism , in modern usage, refers to a person's sexual attractiveness or raw charisma. As postulated by Franz Mesmer in the 18th century, the term referred to a supposed magnetic fluid or ethereal medium believed to reside in the bodies of animate beings...
, collector, dilettante and hypochondriac. He is mostly remembered for bequeathing his collections to the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
) and the Wisbech & Fenland Museum
Wisbech & Fenland Museum
The Wisbech & Fenland Museum, located in the town of Wisbech in Cambridgeshire, England, is one of the oldest purpose-built museums in the United Kingdom. The Museum Society was founded in 1835 and the present building was opened in 1847....
in Wisbech
Wisbech
Wisbech is a market town, inland port and civil parish with a population of 20,200 in the Fens of Cambridgeshire. The tidal River Nene runs through the centre of the town and is spanned by two bridges...
, Cambridgeshire. He added an 'h' to his surname in 1835, upon inheriting.
Early life
Townshend was the only son of Henry Hare Townsend, whose maternal grandfather was Henry Hare, 3rd Baron ColeraineBaron Coleraine
Baron Coleraine is a title that has been created three times, twice in the Peerage of Ireland and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first creation came in the Peerage of Ireland in 1625 for Hugh Hare...
, and whose father (and thus Chauncy's grandfather) was James Townsend M.P., Lord Mayor of London from 1772 – 1773. They were a wealthy family, with lands in Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
, London and Switzerland, and the young Chauncy was educated at Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and Trinity Hall
Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the fifth-oldest college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich.- Foundation :...
, Cambridge. He graduated with B.A. in 1821 and M.A.
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
in 1824, and won the Chancellor's Gold Medal
Chancellor's Gold Medal
The Chancellor's Gold Medal is a prestigious annual award at Cambridge University for poetry, paralleling Oxford University's Newdigate prize. It was first presented by Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh during his time as Chancellor of the University of Cambridge...
in 1817 for his poem 'Jerusalem.' He also appears to have played one game of cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
for Kent
Kent County Cricket Club
Kent County Cricket Club is one of the 18 first class county county cricket clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the county of Kent...
in 1829.
Life as a poet
Townshend met the poet Robert SoutheyRobert Southey
Robert Southey was an English poet of the Romantic school, one of the so-called "Lake Poets", and Poet Laureate for 30 years from 1813 to his death in 1843...
in 1815, and through him met the Wordsworth
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
s and Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
s. Two volumes of poetry were published in 1820, and he also had a famous encounter with the poet John Clare
John Clare
John Clare was an English poet, born the son of a farm labourer who came to be known for his celebratory representations of the English countryside and his lamentation of its disruption. His poetry underwent a major re-evaluation in the late 20th century and he is often now considered to be among...
:
During the summer of 1821, Clare gave up his agricultural labours almost entirely. The greater part of the time he spent in roaming through woods and fields, planning new poems, and correcting those already made. Visits to Stamford, also, were frequent and of some duration, and he not unfrequently stayed three or four days together at the house of Mr. Gilchrist, or of Mr. Drury. The stream of visitors to Helpston had ceased, to a great extent, and the few that dropped in now and then were mostly of the better class, or at least not belonging to the vulgar-curious element. Among the number was Mr. Chauncey Hare Townsend, a dandyfied poet of some note, particularly gifted in madrigals and pastorals.
He came all the way from London to see Clare, and having taken a guide from Stamford to Helpston, was utterly amazed, on his arrival, to find that the cottage, beautifully depicted in the ' Village Minstrel,' was not visible anywhere.
His romantic scheme had been to seek Clare in his home, which he thought easy with the picture in his pocket ; and having stepped over the flower-clad porch, to rush inside, with tenderly-dignified air, and drop into the arms of the brother poet. However, the scheme threatened to be frustrated, for though the village could easily be surveyed at a glance, such a cottage as that delineated in the ' Minstrel,' with more regard to the ideal than the real, was nowhere to be seen. In his perplexity, Mr. Chauncey Hare Townsend inquired of a passer-by the way to Clare's house. The individual whom he addressed was a short, thick-set man, and, as Mr. Hare Townsend thought, decidedly ferocious-looking; he was bespattered with mud all over, and a thick knotted stick, which he carried in his hands, gave him something of the air of a highwayman. To the intense surprise of Mr. Chauncey Hare Townsend, this very vulgar person, when addressed, declared that he himself was John Clare, and offered to show the way to his house. Of course, the gentleman from London was too shrewd to be taken in by such a palpable device for being robbed ; so declining the offer with thanks, and recovering from his fright by inhaling the perfume of his pocket handkerchief, he retreated on his path, seeking refuge in the ' Blue Bell ' public house. The landlord's little girl was ready to show the way to Clare's cottage, and did so, leaving the stranger at the door. Mr. Townsend, now fairly prepared to fall into the arms of the brother poet, though not liking the look of his residence, cautiously opened the door ; but started back immediately on beholding the highwayman in the middle of the room, sipping a basin of broth. There seemed a horrible conspiracy for the destruction of a literary gentleman from London in this Northamptonshire village. Mrs. Clare, fortunately, intervened at the nick of time to keep Mr. Townsend from fainting. Patty, always neatly dressed – save and except on washing days, – approached the visitor ; and her gentle looks re-assured Mr. Chauncey Hare Townsend. He wiped his hot brow with his scented handkerchief, and, not without emotion, introduced himself to the owner of the house and the neat little wife.
The conversation which followed was short, and somewhat unsatisfactory on both sides, and the London poet, in the course of a short half an hour, quitted the Helpston minstrel, leaving a sonnet, wrapped- in a one-pound note, behind him.
Clare frowned when discovering the nature of the envelope ; but he liked the sonnet, and for the sake of it, and on Patty's petition, consented not to send it back to the giver.
Friendship with Charles Dickens
In the 1830s Townshend studied mesmerism, and was the chief British exponent of the art after Dr. John ElliotsonJohn Elliotson
John Elliotson was an English physician, born in Southwark, London.He studied medicine first at the University of Edinburgh , where he was influenced by Thomas Brown, M.D...
; he published two books and some articles and letters on the subject. Elliotson introduced Townshend to Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
, who also had an interest in mesmerism, and the two became lifelong friends. Townshend's volume of poetry The Three Gates (1859) was dedicated to Dickens, who in turn dedicated Great Expectations
Great Expectations
Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens. It was first published in serial form in the publication All the Year Round from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. It has been adapted for stage and screen over 250 times....
to Townshend; Dickens also gave Townshend the original manuscript of the novel, and his crystal ball
Crystal ball
A crystal ball is a crystal or glass ball believed by some people to aid in the performance of clairvoyance. It is sometimes known as a shew stone...
.
Later life
Townshend married Eliza Frances Norcott in 1826, but in 1843 they legally separated due to "unhappy differences", and he spent much of his life thereafter travelling abroad, collecting things as he went, and at his villa in LausanneLausanne
Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...
. Three further volumes of poetry emerged: Sermons in Sonnets, 1851, The Burning of the Amazon, 1856, and The Three gates, 1859. He died on 25 February 1868 at 21 Norfolk Street, Park Lane, London, and is buried in the new cemetery in Godalming.
Legacy
Nowadays Townshend is chiefly remembered for his bequests. Attached to his will of 1863 is an inventory of his collections, which lists 4464 books, 1411 paintings, engravings and prints (including works by CanalettoCanaletto
Giovanni Antonio Canal better known as Canaletto , was a Venetian painter famous for his landscapes, or vedute, of Venice. He was also an important printmaker in etching.- Early career :...
, Rubens and Teniers
Teniers
Teniers was a family of celebrated Flemish painters that included:*David Teniers the Elder *David Teniers the Younger *David Teniers III...
), 687 fossils, 9 cases of stuffed birds and animals, a large collection of coins, 622 specimens of gems and minerals, 267 pieces of jewellery, 5 portfolios of autographs and a collection of maps. Most of the artworks and photographs, and some of the books and jewellery were acquired by the South Kensington Museum in London, and most of the rest went to the Wisbech museum. This includes part of a Sèvres porcelain breakfast service thought to have been captured from Napoleon's baggage after the Battle of Waterloo
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
, and the manuscript of Great Expectations.
Under the terms of his will, his property was sold and given towards the provision of an elementary school in London. This school, the Burdett-Coutts and Townshend Foundation Church of England Primary School still exists in Rochester Street, Westminster
Westminster
Westminster is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross...
, and bears a plaque saying:
The Chauncy Hare Townshend Schools. The Baroness Burdett-CouttsAngela Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-CouttsAngela Georgina Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts , born Angela Georgina Burdett, was a nineteenth-century philanthropist, the daughter of Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Baronet and the former Sophia Coutts, daughter of banker Thomas Coutts...
, the Revd. Thomas HelmoreThomas HelmoreThomas Helmore was a choirmaster, writer about singing and author and editor of hymns and carols.Helmore's father was a congregationalist minister...
, executors and divisees of the Revd. Chauncy Hare Townshend, erected these schools as a memorial of friendship and furtherance of his pious wish. This corner stone was laid by their friend Hannah, widow of William Brown Esq. MD, on this 13th day of September 1876.
His will also appointed Charles Dickens as his literary executor
Literary executor
A literary executor is a person with decision-making power in respect of a literary estate. According to Wills, Administration and Taxation: a practical guide "A will may appoint different executors to deal with different parts of the estate...
I appoint my friend Charles Dickens, of Gad's Hill Place, in the
County of Kent, Esquire, my literary executor; and beg of him to
publish without alteration as much of my notes and reflections as
may make known my opinions on religious matters, they being such as
I verily believe would be conducive to the happiness of mankind.
a task which Dickens apparently was not expecting and did not enjoy. At any rate, Religious opinions by the late Reverend Chauncy Hare Townshend duly appeared in 1869.