D.W. Wilkin's Blog, page 63
April 6, 2016
Regency Personalities Series-Robert Emmet
Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.
Robert Emmet
4 March 1778 – 20 September 1803
Robert Emmet
Robert Emmet was born at 109 St. Stephen’s Green, in Dublin on 4 March 1778. He was the youngest son of Dr Robert Emmet (1729–1802), a court physician, and his wife, Elizabeth Mason (1739–1803). The Emmets were financially comfortable, with a house at St Stephen’s Green and a country residence near Milltown. One of his elder brothers was the nationalist Thomas Addis Emmet, a close friend of Theobald Wolfe Tone, who was a frequent visitor to the house when Robert was a child.
Emmet attended Oswald’s school, in Dopping’s-court, off Golden-lane. Emmet entered Trinity College, Dublin in October 1793, at the age of fifteen. In December 1797 he joined the College Historical Society, a debating society. While he was at college, his brother Thomas and some of his friends became involved in political activism. Robert became secretary of a secret United Irish Committee in college, and was expelled in April 1798 as a result. That same year he fled to France to avoid the many British arrests of nationalists that were taking place in Ireland. While in France, Emmet garnered the support of Napoleon, who had promised to lend support when the upcoming revolution started.
After the 1798 rising, Emmet was involved in reorganising the defeated United Irish Society. In April 1799 a warrant was issued for his arrest. He escaped and soon after travelled to the continent in the hope of securing French military aid. His efforts were unsuccessful, as Napoleon was concentrating his efforts on invading England. Emmet returned to Ireland in October 1802. In March the following year, he began preparations for another uprising.
After his return to Ireland, Emmet began to prepare a new rebellion, with fellow Anglo-Irish revolutionaries Thomas Russell and James Hope. He began to manufacture weapons and explosives at a number of premises in Dublin and developed a folding pike fitted with a hinge that allowed it to be concealed under a cloak. Unlike in 1798, the revolutionaries concealed their preparations, but a premature explosion at one of Emmet’s arms depots killed a man. Emmet was forced to advance the date of the rising before the authorities’ suspicions were aroused.
Emmet was unable to secure the help of Michael Dwyer’s Wicklow rebels. Many rebels from Kildare turned back due to the scarcity of firearms they had been promised, but the rising went ahead in Dublin on the evening of 23 July 1803. About 10,000 copies were printed of a proclamation in the name of the “Provisional Government”, which influenced the 1916 Proclamation; most were destroyed by the authorities.
Emmet wore a uniform of a green coat with white facings, white breeches, top-boots, and a cocked hat with feathers. Failing to seize Dublin Castle, which was lightly defended, the rising amounted to a large-scale disturbance in the Thomas Street area. Emmet saw a dragoon being pulled from his horse and piked to death, the sight of which prompted him to call off the rising to avoid further bloodshed. But, he had lost all control of his followers. In one incident, the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, Lord Kilwarden, was dragged from his carriage and stabbed by pikes. Found still alive, he was taken to a watch-house where he died shortly thereafter. He had been reviled as chief prosecutor of William Orr in 1797, but he was also the judge who granted habeas corpus to Wolfe Tone in 1798. Kilwarden’s nephew, the Rev. Mr. Wolfe, was also killed. Sporadic clashes continued into the night until finally quelled by British military forces.
Emmet fled into hiding, moving from Rathfarnam to Harold’s Cross so that he could be near his sweetheart, Sarah Curran. He likely could have escaped to France, had he not insisted upon returning with Anne Devlin in order to take leave of Sarah Curran, to whom he was engaged. She was daughter of John Philpot Curran. Emmet was captured on 25 August and taken to the Castle, then removed to Kilmainham. Vigorous but ineffectual efforts were made to procure his escape.
He was tried for treason on 19 September; the Crown repaired the weaknesses in its case by secretly buying the assistance of Emmet’s defence attorney, Leonard McNally, for £200 and a pension. But McNally’s assistant Peter Burrowes could not be bought and he pleaded the case as best he could. On 19 September, Emmet was found guilty of high treason.
Before sentencing Emmet delivered a speech, the Speech from the Dock., It is especially remembered for its closing sentences and secured his posthumous fame among executed Irish republicans. It was printed in 1835 in Manchester for the bookseller TP Carlile.
Let no man write my epitaph; for as no man who knows my motives dare now vindicate them, let not prejudice or ignorance, asperse them. Let them and me rest in obscurity and peace, and my tomb remain uninscribed, and my memory in oblivion, until other times and other men can do justice to my character. When my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then and not till then, let my epitaph be written. I have done.
An earlier and perhaps more accurate version of the speech was published in 1818, in a biography on Sarah Curran’s father John, emphasising that Emmet’s epitaph would be written on the vindication of his character, and not specifically when Ireland took its place as a nation. It closed:
I am here ready to die. I am not allowed to vindicate my character; no man shall dare to vindicate my character; and when I am prevented from vindicating myself, let no man dare to calumniate me. Let my character and my motives repose in obscurity and peace, till other times and other men can do them justice. Then shall my character be vindicated; then may my epitaph be written.
Chief Justice Lord Norbury sentenced Emmet to be hanged, drawn and quartered, as was customary for conviction of treason. The following day, 20 September, Emmet was executed in Thomas Street near St. Catherine’s. He was hanged and beheaded once dead. As family members and friends of Robert had also been arrested, including some who had nothing to do with the rebellion, no one came forward to claim his remains out of fear of arrest.
Robert Emmet is described as slight in person; his features were regular, his forehead high, his eyes bright and full of expression, his nose sharp, thin, and straight, the lower part of his face slightly pock-marked, his complexion sallow.
Emmet’s remains were first delivered to Newgate Prison and then back to Kilmainham Gaol, where the jailer was under instructions that if no one claimed them they were to be buried in a nearby hospital’s burial grounds called ‘Bully’s Acre’ in Kilmainham. A later search there found no remains; it appears that Emmet’s remains were secretly removed from Bully’s Acre and reinterred in St Michan’s, a Dublin church with strong United Irish associations, though it was never confirmed.
Speculation has continued regarding the whereabouts of Emmet’s remains. It was suspected that they were buried secretly in the vault of a Dublin Anglican church. When the vault was inspected in the 1950s a headless corpse was found, suspected of being Emmet’s, but could not be identified. Widely accepted is the theory that Emmet’s remains were transferred to St Peter’s Church in Aungier St. under cover of the burial of Robert’s sister, Mary Anne Holmes, in 1804. In the 1980s the church was deconsecrated and all the coffins were removed from the vaults. The church has since been demolished.
Space Opera Books Presents Trolling, Trolling, Trolling Fly Hides
Trolling, Trolling, Trolling Fly Hides!
Not only do I write Regency and Romance, but I also have delved into Fantasy.
The Trolling series, (the first three are in print) is the story of a man, Humphrey. We meet him as he has left youth and become a man with a man’s responsibilities.
We follow him in a series of stories that encompass the stages of life. We see him when he starts his family, when he has older sons and the father son dynamic is tested.
We see him when his children begin to marry and have children, and at the end of his life when those he has loved, and those who were his friends proceed him over the threshold into death. All this while he serves a kingdom troubled by monsters.
Troubles that he and his friends will learn to deal with and rectify.
It is now available in a variety of formats. For $2.99 you can get this fantasy adventure.
Barnes and Noble for your Nook
Old age is catching up to Humphrey and his friends. He feels it in his bones and with his son and heir having reached the prime of his life, it could very well be time to pass the baton of rule to Daniel.With the Valley Kingdom of Torahn at Peace, that would not be a terrible thing to do. Though breaking his decision to his wife Gwendolyn, the Queen, might be the hardest battle that he ever would fight.
Even as the life of retirement looks to be attractive and possible, however, the Valley Kingdom is beset again. Not Goblins, Trolls, Giants or Men, this time. No. That Humphrey knew would be far too easy.
Those obstacles had been overcome before and the problems they presented had solutions that the army of Torahn was trained to deal with. No, of all the creatures that came forth from Teantellen that they had beaten, the one they had never faced now came forth. Dragons!
Who in the realm knew how to fight these mythical beasts? Was there even away to do so?
Now Humphrey who had thought to spend the remainder of his days quietly writing his memoirs and drinking, was faced with the greatest challenge he had ever known.
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April 5, 2016
Regency Personalities Series-John Evans (Explorer)
Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.
John Evans (Explorer)
April 1770 – May 1799
John Evans was a Welsh explorer who produced an early map of the Missouri River.
John Evans was born in Waunfawr, near Caernarfon. In the early 1790s there was an upsurge of interest in Wales in the story of Madog having discovered America, and there were persistent rumours in North America of the existence of a tribe of Welsh Indians, identified with the Mandan. Iolo Morgannwg had originally intended to explore the Missouri to discover these Welsh Indians and John Evans was to have gone with him. However, Iolo withdrew from the expedition and John Evans embarked for the United States alone, arriving in Baltimore in October 1792. In the spring of 1793 he made his way to St. Louis in Spanish Louisiana, where he was imprisoned for a while on suspicion of being a British spy.
In April 1795 he set off on an expedition with Spanish backing to explore the Missouri and to try to discover a route to the Pacific Ocean from its headwaters. He found the Mandan in 1796, and spent the winter with them before returning to St. Louis in 1797, however, he found no trace of Welsh speakers among them. He had travelled 1,800 miles up the Missouri from its confluence with the Mississippi, and he produced a map showing the course of the river. This map, passed on by Thomas Jefferson was later used by the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Evans remained in the service of the Spanish authorities, but died in New Orleans in May 1799.
An Unofficial Guide to how to win the Scenarios of Wild the 2nd Expansion for Rollercoaster Tycoon 3
An Unofficial Guide to how to win the Scenarios of Wild
I have been a fan of this series of computer games since early in its release of the very first game. That game was done by one programmer, Chris Sawyer, and it was the first I recall of an internet hit. Websites were put up in dedication to this game where people showed off their creations, based on real amusement parks. These sites were funded by individuals, an expense that was not necessarily as cheap then as it is now. Nor as easy to program then as it might be to build a web page now.
Prima Books released game guides for each iteration of the game, Rollercoaster Tycoon 1, Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 and Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 (RCT3) but not for the expansion sets. And unlike the first two works, the third guide was riddle with incorrect solutions. As I played the game that frustrated me. And I took to the forums that Atari, the game publisher hosted to see if I could find a way to solve those scenarios that the Prima Guide had written up in error. Not finding any good advice, I created my own for the scenarios that the “Official” Guide had gotten wrong.
Solutions that if you followed my advice you would win the scenario and move on. But if you followed the “Official” version you would fail and not be able to complete the game. My style and format being different than the folks at Prima, I continued for all the Scenarios that they had gotten right as well, though my solutions cut to the chase and got you to the winner’s circle more quickly, more directly.
My contributions to the “Official” Forum, got me a place as a playtester for both expansions to the game, Soaked and Wild. And for each of these games, I wrote the guides during the play testing phase so all the play testers could solve the scenarios, and then once again after the official release to make changes in the formula in case our aiding to perfect the game had changed matters. For this, Atari and Frontier (the actual programmers of the game) placed me within the game itself.
And for the longest time, these have been free at the “Official” Forums, as well as my own website dedicated to the game. But a short time ago, I noticed that Atari, after one of its bankruptcies had deleted their forums. So now I am releasing the Guide for one and all. I have added new material and it is near 100 pages, just for the first of the three games. It is available for the Kindle at present for $2.99.
(Click on the picture to purchase)
Not only are all 12 Scenarios covered, but there are sections covering every Cheat Code, Custom Scenery, the famous Small Park Competition, the Advanced Fireworks Editor, the Flying Camera Route Editor which are all the techniques every amusement park designer needs to make a fantastic park in Rollercoaster Tycoon 3.
Scenarios for WILD!
1) Scrub Gardens
2) Ostrich Farms Plains
3) Egyptian Sand Dance
4) A Rollercoaster Odyssey
5) Zoo Rescue
6) Mine Mountain
7) Insect World
8) Rocky Coasters
9) Lost Land of the Dinosaurs
10) Tiger Forest
11) Raiders of the Lost Coaster
12) Saxon Farms
April 4, 2016
Regency Personalities Series-Richard Polwhele
Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.
Richard Polwhele
6 January 1760 – 12 March 1838
Richard Polwhele
Richard Polwhele’s ancestors long held the manor of Treworgan, 4 3/4 miles south-east of Truro in Cornwall, which family bore as arms: Sable, a saltire engrailed ermine. He was born at Truro, Cornwall, and met literary luminaries Catharine Macaulay and Hannah More at an early age. He was educated at Truro Grammar School, where he precociously published The Fate of Llewellyn. He went on to Christ Church, Oxford, continuing to write poetry, but left without taking a degree. In 1782 he was ordained a curate, married Loveday Warren, and moved to a curacy at Kenton, Devon. On his wife’s death in 1793, Polwhele was left with three children. Later that year he married Mary Tyrrell, briefly taking up a curacy at Exmouth before being appointed to the small living of Manaccan in Cornwall in 1794. From 1806, when he took up a curacy at Kenwyn, Truro, he was non-resident at Manaccan: Polwhele angered Manaccan parishioners with his efforts to restore the church and vicarage. He maintained epistolary exchanges with Samuel Badcock, Macaulay, William Cowper, Erasmus Darwin, and Anna Seward.
When in Devon, Polwhele had edited the two-volume work Poems Chiefly by Gentlemen of Devonshire and Cornwall (1792) for an Exeter literary society. However, Essays by a Society of Gentlemen at Exeter (1796) caused a rift between Polwhele and other society members. Polwhele had by this time begun the first of his two major county histories, the History of Devonshire. This appeared in 3 volumes, 1793-1806, but his coverage was uneven and subscribers deserted. His seven-volume History of Cornwall appeared 1803-1808, with a new edition in 1816.
Polwhele’s volumes of poetry included The Art of Eloquence, a didactic poem (1785), The Idylls, Epigrams, and Fragments of Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus, with the elegies of Tyrtaeus (1786), The English Orator (1796), Influence of Local Attachment (1796), and Poetic Trifles (1796). However, The Unsex’d Females, a Poem (1798), a defensive reaction to women’s literary self-assertion, is today perhaps Polwhele’s most notorious poetic production: in the poem Hannah More is Christ to Mary Wollstonecraft’s Satan.
Polwhele contributed to the Gentleman’s Magazine and (1799-1805) to the Anti-Jacobin Review. He published sermons, theological essays for the Church Union Society, and attacks on Methodism (although he befriended his main Methodist antagonist Samuel Drew). At the end of his life, retired to his estate in Polwhele, he worked to produce Traditions and Recollections (2 vols, 1826) and Biographical Sketches (3 vols, 1831).
He died at Truro on 12 March 1838. He was buried at St Clement, Cornwall.
Six odes presented to That justly-celebrated Historian, Mrs Catharine Macaulay, on her Birth-day, And publicly read to a polite and brilliant Audience, Assembled April the Second, at Alfred-House, Bath, To congratulate that Lady on the happy Occasion. Bath: Printed and sold by R. Cruttwell … sold also by E. and C. Dilly [etc.]. (1777)
The Fate of Lewellyn; or, the Druid’s Sacrifice. A Legendary Tale. In Two Parts. To which is added Carnbre’, a Poem. Bath: Printed by R. Cruttwell, for the Author; and sold by E. and C. Dilly … and W. Goldsmith [etc.]. (1777)
The spirit of Frazer, to General Burgoyne. An ode. To which is added, The death of Hilda; an American tale. Inscribed to Mrs. Macaulay. Bath: Printed and Sold by R. Cruttwell; sold also by W. Goldsmith [etc.]. (1778)
The Art of Eloquence, a didactic poem (1785)
The Follies of Oxford: Or, Cursory Sketches on a University Education, from an under graduate To his Friend in the Country. London: Printed for Dodsley, Dilly and Kearsley. (1785)
The Idyllia, Epigrams, and Fragments, of Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus, with the Elegies of Tyrtæus, Translated from the Greek into English Verse. To which are Added, Dissertations and Notes. Exeter: Printed and Sold by R. Thorn [etc.]. (1786)
Poems. Namely, The English Orator; An Address to Thomas Pennant … An Ode on the Susceptibility of the Poetical Character; Twenty Sonnets; An Epistle to a College Friend; and The Lock Transformed. With notes on The English Orator. London: Printed for T. Cadell … and C. Dilly [etc.]. (1791)
Poems, Chiefly by Gentlemen of Devonshire and Cornwall (1792)
Historical Views of Devonshire (1793)
The History of Devonshire (1793-1806)
Influence of Local Attachment (1796)
Poetic Trifles (1796)
Essays by a Society of Gentlemen at Exeter (1796), edited by Polwhele
The Old English Gentleman (1797)
The Unsex’d Females (1798)
Grecian Prospects: A Poem, In Two Cantos. Helston: Printed by T. Flindell; For Cadell and Davis … and Chapple [etc.]. (1799)
A Sketch of Peter Pindar (1800)
Anecdotes of Methodism (1800)
Sir Aaron, or The Flights of Fanaticism (1800)
History of Cornwall (3 vols., 1803)
Polwhele, Richard (1810). Poems. London: Rivington’s. Retrieved 9 March 2015.
The fair Isabel of Cotehele, a Cornish romance, in six cantos. London: Printed for J. Cawthorn. (1815)
Traditions and Recollections (2 vols, 1826)
Biographical Sketches in Cornwall (3 vols, 1831)
Reminiscences, in Prose and Verse; Consisting of the Epistolary Correspondence of Many Distinguished Characters. With Notes and Illustrations. London: J. B. Nichols and Son … Sold also by Messrs. Rivington. (3 vols., 1836)
Fantasy from Space Opera Books, Trolling’s Pass and Present
Trolling’s Pass and Present
Not only do I write Regency and Romance, but I also have delved into Fantasy. The Trolling series, (the first three are in print) is the story of a man, Humphrey.
We meet him as he has left youth and become a man with a man’s responsibilities. We follow him in a series of stories that encompass the stages of life.
We see him when he starts his family, when he has older sons and the father son dynamic is tested. We see him when his children begin to marry and have children, and at the end of his life when those he has loved, and those who were his friends proceed him over the threshold into death.
All this while he serves a kingdom troubled by monsters. Troubles that he and his friends will learn to deal with and rectify.
It is now available in a variety of formats. For $2.99 you can get this fantasy adventure.
Barnes and Noble for your Nook
Years since their battles with the Trolls, even on foreign soil, the warriors of the Valley Kingdom of Torahn need something to keep their edge honed.
The economy too is beginning to fray a little without the great wars to support. The Leaders hit upon the idea of searching for a path to reach the east side of the continent.
The Elves swear that at one time their writings tell of such, the Dwarves swear such a pass across Teantellen is legendary. Teantellen though is filled with races man has never gotten along with well. Goblins, Dark Elves, Trolls, Giants and Dragons.
It has been years since the mountain tops exploded, and perhaps that has changed things enough that a way can be found to link the western lands with the eastern lands and increase trade, and prosperity for all. Even should they fail in their quest, as the history of man has shown to this point in time, the attempt will do much to spur the economy.
Tens of thousands of gold will be spent by the Council of Twenty-One to pay for such an expedition. Gold that those who are not so scrupulous might choose to pocket as they tried in the Troll Wars.
With such shenanigans taking place again, are the hopes of the previous generation, the leaders from the Troll Wars now in retirement, ready to be achieved? Is it time for Torahn, called the Valley Kingdom, but the only Kingdom without a King, to have a King once more?
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April 3, 2016
Regency Personalities Series-John Gibson (Sculptor)
Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.
John Gibson (Sculptor)
19 June 1790 – 27 January 1866
John Gibson
John Gibson was born near Conwy, Wales, where his father was a market gardener. When he was nine years old the family were on the point of emigrating to America, but his mother put a stop to this plan on their arrival at Liverpool, where they settled, and where Gibson was sent to school. He became fascinated by the displays in the windows of the city’s print shops. The painter and printseller John Turmeau lent him some drawings and plaster casts to copy.
At the age of fourteen, Gibson was apprenticed to a firm of cabinet-makers. He soon took a violent dislike to this work, however, and eventually managed to have his articles bought out by the monumental masons Samuel and Thomas Franceys. It was while apprenticed to the Franceys brothers that Gibson came to the attention of the historian William Roscoe, for whom he executed a terracotta bas-relief now in the Liverpool museum. Roscoe gave Gibson access to his library at Allerton, by which means he became acquainted with the designs of the great Italian masters.
A cartoon (now also in the Liverpool museum) of The Fall of the Angels marked this period. He studied anatomy, his lessons provided gratuitously by a medical man, and gained introductions to families of refinement and culture in Liverpool. Roscoe was an excellent guide to the his protegée, pointing to the Greeks as the only examples for a sculptor. Gibson here found his true vocation. A basso rilievo of Psyche carried by the Zephyrs was the result. He sent it to the Royal Academy, where John Flaxman, recognizing its merits, gave it an excellent place. Again he became unsettled. He conceived a wish to further his artistic education in Rome, and the first step to this goal went to go to London; there he received conflicting advice from Flaxman and from Francis Legatt Chantrey, the former urging him go to Rome as the highest school of sculpture in the world, the latter maintaining that London could do as much for him.
He arrived in Rome in October 1817, at a comparatively late age for a first visit. There he was generously received by Antonio Canova, to whom he had introductions,the Venetian sculptor putting not only his experience in art but his purse at the English student’s service. Up to this time, though his designs show a fire and power of imagination in which no teaching is missed, Gibson had had no instruction, and had studied at no Academy. In Rome he first became acquainted with the rules and technicalities of art. Canova introduced him into the Academy supported by Austria, and the first sense of his deficiencies in common matters of practice was depressing to him. He saw Italian youths already excelling in the drawing of the figure. But the tables were soon turned. His first work in marble, Sleeping Shepherd Boy, was completed in 1824.
Gibson was soon launched, and distinguished patrons, initially sent by Canova, made their way to his studio in the Via Fontanella. His aim was always purity of character and beauty of form. He rarely declined into the prettiness of Canova, and if he did not often approach the masculine strength of Bertel Thorvaldsen, he more than once surpassed him even in that quality. He was essentially classic in feeling and aim, but here his habit of observation enabled him to achieve a grace beyond the reach of a mere imitator. His subjects were gleaned from the free actions of the Italian people noticed on his walks, and afterwards given such mythological names as best fitted them. Thus a girl kissing a child over her shoulder became a Nymph and Cupid; a woman helping her child with his foot on her hand on to her lap, a Bacchante and Faun; his Amazon Thrown from her Horse, one of his most original productions, was taken from an accident he witnessed to a female rider in a circus; and Hunter and Dog was also the result of a street scene.
Gibson was elected R.A. in 1836, and bequeathed all his property and the contents of his studio to the Royal Academy, where his marbles and casts are open to the public as of 2005. He died at Rome on 7 January 1866 and was buried in the Protestant Cemetery there.
In monumental and portrait statues for public places, necessarily represented in postures of dignity and repose, Gibson was very happy. His largest effort of this class was the group showing Queen Victoria Supported by Justice and Clemency, in the Houses of Parliament, his finest work in the round. Of noble character also in execution and expression of thought is the statue of William Huskisson with the bared arm; and no less, in effect of aristocratic ease and refinement, the seated figure of Dudley North.
Gibson’s chief excellence however lay in basso rilievo. His thorough knowledge of the horse, and his constant study of the Elgin Marbles, casts of which are in Rome, resulted in the two bassi rilievi, the size of life, which belonged to Lord Fitzwilliam: The Hours Leading the Horses of the Sun, and Phaethon driving the Chariot of the Sun. Most of his memorial works are also in basso rilievo. Some of these are of a truly refined and pathetic character, such as the monument to the Countess of Leicester, or that to his friend Mrs Huskisson in Chichester Cathedral, and that of the Bonomi children. Passion, either indulged or repressed, was the natural impulse of his art: repressed as in the Hours Leading the Horses of the Sun, and as in the Hunter and Dog; indulged as in the meeting of Hero and Leander, a drawing executed before he left England. Gibson was the first to introduce colour on his statues, first as a mere border to the drapery of a portrait statue of the queen, and by degrees extended to the entire flesh, as in his so-called Tinted Venus and in Love tormenting the Soul, both now in the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.
In all worldly affairs and the business of daily life he was simple and guileless in the extreme; but was resolute in matters of principle. He was visited by William Dean Howells in Naples who described him as “dressed with extraordinary slovenliness and indifference to clothes, had no collar, I think, and evidently did not know what he had one Everything about him bespoke the utmost unconsciousness and democratic plainness of life.”
Imitations Of Drawings By Iohn Gibson R.A. Sculptor. Engraved By G. Wenzel And L. Prosseda Rome 1852 [London]: J. Hogarth 1852
Gibson provided almost all the illustrations for:
Elizabeth Strutt The story of Psyche: with a classical enquiry into the significance and origin of the fable; by Elizabeth Strutt With Designs In Outline By John Gibson Esq. R.A. [London: s.n. 1852].
Material by him is incorporated in:
Joseph Bonomi The proportions of the human figure, as handed down to us by Vitruvius, from the writings of the famous sculptors and painters of antiquity: to be which is added, the admirable method of measuring the figure, invented by John Gibson, sculptor; with description and illustrative outlines Third edition. London: Charles Robertson 1872; Gibson is not credited in the 1st and 2nd editions, London: Henry Renshaw 1856 [1855] and London: Chapman & Hall; H. G. Bohn 1857
RAP has The Shattered Mirror, A Regency Romance
The Shattered Mirror
For your enjoyment, one of the Regency Romances I published. It is available for sale and now at a reduced price of $3.99, and I hope that you will take the opportunity to order your copy.
Order for yourself or as a gift. It is now available in a variety of formats. For just a few dollars this Regency Romance can be yours for your eReaders or physically in Trade Paperback.
Barnes and Noble for your Nook
and in Trade Paperback
Bridget Halifax-Stokes was giddy with the excitement of her Season in London. Town had beckoned and her Season came on the heels of the end of the war against the tyrant. All the handsome men were returning heroes. What better year to come out?
Her father thought it all nonsense. Her mother believed that it would be the best showing of any of her daughters. More lords now available and the family’s luck that Bridget was just the perfect age.
All is fun and frivolity for Bridget until she literally crashes into Sir Patrick Hampton as he limps along the High Street. A man she knew once well from her childhood, now a stranger with dark and foreboding eyes. Eyes that had seen more than any man’s share of the war.
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RAP (Regency Assembly Press) in need of Beta-Readers
Regency Assembly
Press
is looking for
Beta Readers
Two novels are ready for Beta Reading
The first is a continuation of Pride and Prejudice with Ms Caroline Bingley and her fortune at stake:
Do we think that Mr Hurst married his Bingley Bride without incentive? It is highly probable that Caroline Bingley, even though she has a sharp, acerbic tongue, still is in possession of a fortune and an astute fortune hunter who deciphers this may soon be on the road to, if not a happy marriage, one with financial security.
The second a more traditional Regency romance, entitled You Ought to Trust Your Mother:
A young girl/woman of great beauty realizing that men do not see her other qualities until she meets a lord who she really thinks misses her essence. The truth is he sees her better than any other and our heroine’s mother believes him to be an excellent match. What young girl wants to trust her mother in such things.
Please respond or send an email if you are interested
April 2, 2016
Regency Personalities Series-George Thomson
Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.
George Thomson
1757 – 1851
George Thomson
George Thomson’s father was the schoolmaster at Limekilns, Dunfermline, and he had some legal training. In 1780 he gained a clerical appointment with the Board of Trustees for the Encouragement of Art and Manufacture in Scotland on the recommendation of John Home, and spent the rest of his career with this body set up under the Treaty of Union to promote Scottish trade with money given by Parliament in compensation for losses in the Darien Scheme and for taking on a share of England’s national debt, eventually becoming Chief Clerk. He joined the Edinburgh Musical Society, playing the violin in the orchestra and singing in the choir. For 59 years he worked for the Board of Trustees for the Encouragement of Art and Manufactures in Scotland. His daughter was the wife of editor and music publisher George Hogarth, and his granddaughter married the novelist Charles Dickens.
The collection of scottish airs in 1793
Thomson played in the orchestra of the St Cecilia Concerts, enjoying performances of Scots songs by Italian castrati visiting Scotland. This gave him the idea of bringing out a collection of Scots songs with new accompaniments and respectable words. In the summer of 1792 he got Andrew Erskine, younger brother of the composer the Earl of Kellie, to take part in the project, but about fifteen months later Erskine, with gambling debts, ended his life by jumping into the Firth of Forth.
To continue the project Thomson asked Alexander Cunningham for a letter of introduction to Robert Burns and in September 1792 sent it with his letter stating that
“For some years past, I have, with a friend or two. employed many leisure hours in collating and collecting the most favourite of our national melodies, for publication…. we are desirous to have the poetry improved wherever it seems unworthy of the music…. Some charming melodies are united to mere nonsense and doggerel, while others are accommodated with rhymes so loose and indelicate as cannot be sung in decent company. To remove this reproach would be an easy task to the author of The Cotter’s Saturday Night… We shall esteem your poetical assistance a particular favour, besides paying any reasonable price you shall please to demand for it”.
Burns was already a contributor to James Johnson’s The Scots Musical Museum and agreed to do the work, but indignantly added that “In the honest enthusiasm with which I embark in your undertaking, to talk of money, wages, fee, hire, etc. could be downright Sodomy of Soul! A proof of each of the Songs that I compose or amend, I shall receive as a favour.”
The first part of Thomson’s Select Scottish Airs, brought out in June 1793, contained 25 songs by Burns. Thomson sent him a copy and, with the note that “you must suffer me to enclose a small mark of my gratitude, and to repeat it–afterwards when I find it convenient” a five-pound note. Burns responded indignantly
“that you truly hurt me with your pecuniary parcel. It degrades me in my own eyes. However, to return it would savour of bombast affectation; But, as to any more traffic of that Dr and Cr kind, I swear, by that HONOUR which crowns the upright Statue of ROBt BURNS’S INTEGRITY! On the least notion of it, I will indignantly spurn the by-past transaction, and from that moment commence entire Stranger to you!”
Thomson did not attempt again to make payments until, close to the end of his life, the dying poet desperately begged him for a further five pounds.
Burns gave his congratulations on the elegant appearance of the book, and Thomson soon decided, with the aid of his willing collaborator, to include “every Scottish air and song worth singing”.
Burns kept on providing songs until a few days before his death, and became involved in a lot of correspondence with Thomson, responding to editorial suggestions and justifying reasons for altering an old song or writing a new song to a particular tune. This gives a valuable insight into his approach to Scots song. Once Burns had stated his wishes Thomson rarely argued back, but sometimes made alterations without consulting the poet and ignored the request of Burns to return unsuitable songs for Johnson to put into print. Burns made it clear that in giving one edition of his songs he was not giving away his copyright. Alternative English language versions of the songs were provided by John Wolcot under the pen name of “Peter Pindar”, but after he withdrew in August 1793 Thomson persuaded Burns to produce the English verses as well as his Scots language lyrics.
Thomson frequently suggested “improvements” which Burns rejected. A particular instance was Scots Wha Hae where Thomson insisted on an alternative to the familiar tune, and had Burns alter his stanzas to suit, but was later forced by public pressure to restore the original version.
Burns wrote:
“You cannot imagine how much this business of composing for your publication had added to my enjoyments. What with my early attachments to ballads, Johnson’s Museum, with your book, etc. Balladmaking is now as completely my hobbyhorse, as ever Fortifications was Uncle Toby’s ; so I’ll e’en canter it away till I come to the limit of my race (God grant that I may take the right side of the winning post!) and then chearfully looking back on the honest folks with whom I have been happy, I shall say, or sing, ‘Sac merry as we a’ hae been’.”
