THE HOWITT FAMILY
"I once asked a gentleman," says Thomas Rossell POTTER, "what he thought of that remarkable trio of brothers of whom it was said, that, having made all Europe ring with their fame, they were gone to Australia to listen to the echo? His reply was striking - 'I don't know them; they are poets, or said to be poets, and one naturally avoids such people"'" The observation of a short sighted man, who dreamt not that when his importance has been engulped in the grave the fame of the HOWITT family would make Nottingham a classic place in the eye of the world.
"The HOWITTS," says Spencer HALL, "have always been what is called a substantial family; and I have heard them speak of a maternal relative who could ride on his own land for the unbroken space of a mile - yet the present generation has never been without a spice of speculativeness and notoriety rather rare among country quakers."
In the reign of Elizabeth (I), Thomas HOWITT, esquire, married Miss MIDDLETON, heiress of the manors of Wansley and Eastwood, in Nottinghamshire, whither she came to reside with her husband at Wansley Hall. The HOWITTS belonged to that now quickly-departing, if not already defunct, class, the jolly country squires of the old school, luxuriating in sports of the past, laughing with contempt at all modern innovations, and allowing their estates to go headlong to ruin. The broad acres of Wansley and Eastwood slipped piecemeal from the improvident, light-hearted squires; at length Wansley Hall and the demesne went the same way; and the rectory of Eastwood, formerly a good berth for a younger son, was the last portion of Miss MIDDLETON's dowry which remained in the family, and that was eventually sold to the PLUMPTRE family, in which it remains to this day. The rectors of Eastwood merrily maintained the family characteristic, in spite of their sacred office. The field usurped the place of the pulpit, and a good day's fishing was much more heartily relished than the work of parochial visitation. Many a drinking bout was graced with the presence of the parsons of Eastwood in those days, and the exploits of the last rector of the name of HOWITT and old Squire ROLLESTON of Watnall have not yet passed into forgetfulness.
The great-grandfather of William HOWITT married the daughter and sole heiress of a Nottinghamshire gentleman, with whom he received a large sum of money. The speedy way in which the gold went exasperated the lady's father so much that he cut off his daughter with a shilling, and left the estate to an adopted son. Warnings were lost upon the squire of Heanor, however; he was proof against all outward influences, and, as he still persisted in recklessly squandering the remnants of his fortune, a wealthy old aunt at Derby struck him out of her will, where he was down "for a pretty good thing." This venerable old lady, who was somewhat doubtful of her nephew's attachment, artfully resorted to the plan of sending a messenger to him with the intelligence that she was dead. The jolly squire at once set the church bells a-ringing, and ordered meat and ale to be administered freely to the villagers in celebration of the mournful event. He then proceeded straightway to Derby, in a very happy frame of mind, to take possession; but, on reaching the old lady's house in the evening, intelligence of his proceedings having gone before, he was considerably astonished at the warmth of his reception. The only legacy she left the jovial spendthrift was a great two-handled breakfast pot, from whose capacious interior he was afterwards accustomed to drink as much toast and ale as would have burst a baron of the fourteenth century.
The closing years of his life were spent in company with another dilapidated old gentleman named JOHNSON, the couple proceeding from house to house among their friends, enjoying the best of everything. They frequently bivouacked at the magnificent seat of the MIDDLETONs, Wollaton Hall; and, by their ingenious representations, they succeeded in bringing about a marriage between Lord MIDDLETON and a wealthy young Lincolnshire heiress, an event which was especially requisite of their noble host, who had impoverished himself by the building of Wollaton Hall. This match was the means of making the old gentlemen free both of the cellar and the greyhounds for the remainder of their lives. The son of the old spendthrift married Miss TANTUM, a member of the Society of Friends, as her ancestors had been from the commencement of the society; and Mr. Thomas HOWITT, as was required by the rules of the Friends, became a Quaker previous to his marriage. He was a man of an entirely different stamp from his father; and, although he occupied the comparatively humble position of manager on what had been a part of the family estate, he was enabled, in a certain degree, to build up the broken fortunes of the house.
William HOWITT is one of six brothers, and was born in 1795, at Heanor, in Derbyshire. He spent the early portion of his life chiefly in the country. He received his education partly at different schools of the Friends, but was much more indebted to self-instruction than to teachers. The early predilection which he showed for poetry is attested by some lines on spring, which he published in a periodical called "Literary Recreations," in which the author subscribes himself "William HOWITT, a boy thirteen years of age." During the vacations, and after he had left school, he was accustomed to stroll over the country with his eldest brother - shooting, coursing, and fishing with a zeal worthy a descendant of his forefathers. It was on these occasions that he turned the attention of GODFREY, afterwards Dr. HOWITT to the study of British botany. In 1821, when he was twenty-eight years of age, he married Mary BOTHAM of Uttoxeter, in Staffordshire, also a member of the Society of Friends, and a woman of kindred tastes and aspirations with himself. Mary HOWITT is descended from William WOOD, the Irish patentee, about whose halfpence Dean SWIFT raised such a disturbance.
On their marriage the youthful poets went to reside in Staffordshire, and continued there about a year. In 1822 they "took a walk" of upwards of five hundred miles through the north of England and Scotland. Soon after their return they settled in Nottingham, where, in 1823, they published "The Forest Minstrel, and other Poems" - their first adventure. It was issued from the old house at the corner of Newcastle street and Lower Parliament street, now occupied by Mr. Charles BASS. Their other Nottingham works, "The Desolation of Eyam" and "The Seven Temptations," were produced whilst they resided on Timber hill, now South parade, in the tenement called "Leeds house." "The Childhood of Mary LEESON" is a little book founded on the life of a daughter, who died young; and an inhabitant of Nottingham, on reading the tale, cannot fail at once to recognise "Sedley Grove" and other localities.
In the preface to their first publication the authors observe that "the history of our poetical lives is simply what we believe, in reality, to be that of many others. Poetry has been our youthful amusement and our increasing daily enjoyment in happy, and our solace in sorrowful, hours."
While they published works in rapid succession, and contributed much to the periodical literature of the day, Mr. HOWITT was conducting the business of an apothecary, which kept him pretty actively engaged. In 1832 he produced "The Book of the Seasons;" in 1834 "The History of Priestcraft;" and in 1835 "Pantika, or Traditions of Ancient Times." The publication of the work on priestcraft may be said to have driven our author from Nottingham. Till that period he lived in great privacy; but this volume discovered to his townsmen that he possessed political opinions. He appeared in this book as the advocate of popular rights, and the liberal party at once seized on Mr. HOWITT as a champion unexpectedly found.
He was in a manner forced, contrary to his habits and inclinations, into public life. He was made an alderman of the borough, and looked to by the great bulk of the people as the advocate of all popular measures. It was found that, although unused to public speaking, he possessed a vehement and fiery eloquence which excited his hearers to enthusiasm, and carried them according to his will. A speech of his in the Town Hall on some Irish question, into which he introduced eulogistic remarks on O'CONNELL, so agitated his hearers that they simultaneously announced their determination to invite the great Irish agitator to a public dinner, which they forthwith did. It was hoped by the people of Nottingham that they had found a man amply able and willing to advocate their interests; but this was not exactly the kind of life which Mr. HOWITT had marked our for himself. No sphere, perhaps, could have afforded greater opportunity of doing good to his fellow-men than the one he then occupied; but to do that it required an independent fortune. Mr. HOWITT, finding his time and energies absorbed by extraneous circumstances, deemed it his duty to his children to withdraw to a more secluded place of residence.
He had resided altogether twelve years in Nottingham when he removed to Esher, in Surrey, a place which gave him the fullest retirement in a beautiful country, while it afforded him a ready communication with the metropolis. There he resided three years. Before leaving Nottingham his fellow-townsmen, at a very numerous public meeting, voted him a silver inkstand as an appropriate testimony of their esteem. After leaving Esher he lived nine years in Germany, and on returning he fixed his abode in the neighbourhood of London. He is now in Australia, whither he went in 1852 for literary purposes.
Mr. HOWITT was for a series of years editor of the "Nottingham Review." In 1838 the publication of his "Colonization and Christianity" led to the formation of the British Indian Society; and Mr. HOWITT had been long and arduously, as well as effectively, engaged in promoting education and co-operation among the working classes. All his labors were shared by Mrs. HOWITT, and deservedly large has been the popularity of her name, which is endeared to every true English heart. It was while she resided at Esher that her thoughtful brother, Richard HOWITT, wrote these lines:
Richard HOWITT cam to Nottingham in the summer of 1822 to reside with his brother and sister-in-law, William and Mary. Their house was a good school for the young poet, and he there learnt much - yet unforgotten by his own grateful heart. In this town he spent many of the best years of his manhood, and he was on friendly terns with, besides those of his brother's house, Thomas BAILEY and Samuel PLUMBE; while under his fostering guidance dawned the genius of Spencer Hall, then a quaint quaker boy.
Richard HOWITT, in his rural retreat at Edingly, seldom touches a pen save from necessity - a great change this from the time when he contributed to about a score of publications, the two Edinburgh ones included. He did not write politically of course, blowing hot and cold with the same month; indeed, he never had any strong political bias, but ever, like GOLDSMITH, would "fly from petty tyrants to the throne." The proprietor of "Fraser's Magazine," Mr. James FRASER, once said of the poet, "You contribute to Tait's." The publisher's meaning was apparent, and Mr. HOWITT saw at once why his name had not been given in "Regina" along with several poems. The prudent bibliopole did not like to assimilate the appearance of the two politically distinguished periodicals by a familiar parade of the same contributors.
Spencer HALL thus speaks of his friend: "For several years, when living in Nottingham, I saw him two or three times a week; and for several years afterwards, once or twice a month, when fourteen miles of the forest stretched between my residence and his. One of the pleasantest days of which I have any recollection was spent in a ramble with him in Heanor in Derbyshire, his native place, where right heartily were we welcomed by his good, kind, quakerly old mother, and his quaint-mannered, venerable dignified father." Like others of his family Richard determined to leave his native land, and he accordingly sailed from Portsmouth harbour on the 2nd of October,1839, for Australia. His departure was the cause of the sincerest sorrow to his friends.
The first letter home, addressed to his brother and sister, who were then staying at West End Cottage, Esher, was published in "Dearden's Miscellany" in the course of 1840 - so great was the interest felt in the gentle bard. After a long sojourn at the Antipodes, which only tended to strengthen his warm attachment to Old England, he returned home and published a book on Australia, by no means favorable to that colony. He is now engaged in the calm enjoyment of rustic retirement at Edingly, near the market town of Southwell, where he cultivates a small farm. Occasionally a poem from his pen appears in the columns of the local newspapers.
In 1840 he published at Nottingham a beautiful volume containing "The Gipsy King, and other Poems," inscribed to his brother and sister, William and Mary. In one of the pieces we find a family reminiscence excited by the sight of the old parish church:
Dr. HOWITT, before his departure for Australia, was for some time resident in Nottingham, where he was universally esteemed. He was one of the most enthusiastic members of the Literary Society meeting in Bromley House, and took a sincere interest in the local, as well as general, progress of literature and science. Anna Mary HOWITT, the accomplished daughter of William and Mary HOWITT, published in 1853 a tale of Nottingham, the illustrations of which proved that she was not less an artist than an author of great power and promise, worthy of her gifted parents.
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