Frederic Harrison (1829 – 1921) , 10 Royal Crescent

By Mike Daw

Freedom and the Crescent –Revisited

Professor Vogeler and her husband in the vaults of the Victoria Art Gallery, viewing the portrait of Harrison painted by Margaret Cooksley, 1844-1902

In November 1921 an illustrious resident of the Crescent, Frederic Harrison, who lived at No. 10, was presented with the Freedom of the City of Bath at the Guildhall. Shortly afterwards the usual bronze plaque was fixed to the house recording his time there, from 1912 until his death in 1923.

Harrison was a true 'man of letters' of his day and indeed an intellectual giant. He published several of his most important works while he lived here. The titles give a flavour of some of his specialisations Positivism, its Aims and Ideals and The Philosophy of Common Sense and The Positive Evolution of Religion. As a barrister he was a member of two Royal Commissions and for a time was Professor of jurisprudence and International Law at Lincoln's Inn Hall. He was an admirer of Comte's positivist philosophy and was a contemporary and friend of George Saintsbury, who lived at No. 1.

On his ninetieth birthday in 1919 he was paid a remarkable tribute. An appreciative address was presented to him in his library, on the first floor of No. 10, signed by the Prime Minister Lloyd George, by the leaders of both the Liberal and Labour Parties and by many prominent figures in the Church, the professions and the arts.

In this country his name and contribution fell into semi obscurity, despite a lengthy entry in the National Dictionary of Biography. However in far off California, in the State University at Fullerton, Professor Martha Vogeler and her husband were in the latter part of the twentieth century developing a deep interest in Harrison. This culminated in her definitive biography Frederic Harrison, The Vocations of a Positivist which shone new light on the man as 'one of the most vital and engaging of his age'.

Coming right up to date, in September 2001 Professor Vogeler brought Harrison's surviving descendants (above) to Bath and revisited the room that had been the setting for the presentation of the Address.

They kindly presented the present owner, Michael Daw, with specially printed copies of Harrison's response to being made a Freeman of the City and a wonderfully detailed description of the way his library had been furnished. Michael had arranged for a private showing of Harrison's portrait, now in the vaults of the Victoria Art Gallery, and presented the descendants with a digital reproduction of the painting. John and Barbara Walker from the upper floors of

No. 10 joined in what became quite an event: John has the distinction of having actually read some of the great man's works. Harrison's great granddaughter Christian and his great great grandson Matthew were thrilled by the visit and a jolly time was had by all.

HAYGRATH, Dr John (1740 – 1827)

15 Royal Crescent

In 1798 a distinguished physician took up residence at No. 15 Royal Crescent, next door to the centre house. He was Dr. John Haygarth, and he occupied the house for two years. For more than thirty years before that he had served as physician to Chester Infirmary, and he was in his late fifties when he came to Bath.

In those days the attention paid in hospital to such elementary precautions as isolation, ventilation and scrupulous cleanliness was negligible. John Haygarth was the first English doctor to appreciate their crucial importance, and to apply them rigorously. He conceived the idea, which is now universal, of separately treating fever patients in isolated wards, and Chester Infirmary adopted the principle in 1783. It seems incredible to us now, when we take hygiene in hospitals for granted, that these basic health requirements were hardly recognised two hundred years ago. Dr. Haygarth was a pioneer in their implementation, and he is remembered in medical history for the vital contribution he made to the advancement of public health.

GEORGE DURANT KERSLEY OBE, TD, DL, FRCP, Hon DSc

20 Royal Crescent

George Kersley was a pioneer in rheumatology when it was still a 'Cinderella' subject in modern medicine. The eldest son of an eminent Bath family at an early age he saw the sufferings of the visitors to Bath who came to 'take the waters'. When he completed his training at St Bartholomew's he resolved to take a research post at the Mineral Water Hospital (later the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases), this was a brave decision since with his ability, good looks and charm he could have found a post in a fashionable consultancy in London.

During the war Kersley set up the Army School of Occupational Therapy at Taunton and worked as an adviser to the Army on the training of recruits and the rehabilitation of the wounded from the Middle East. Meanwhile, the Royal National Hospital had been badly damaged in the 'Baedeker' raids and the patients were dispersed in temporary huts, which is how I first knew this hospital and George Kersley. With the coming of the National Health Service there was an attempt to close the hospital which George Kersley fought off. There then started a long battle the 'Save the Min' particularly during the time of the Hospital Plan under Enoch Powell. George Kersley was indefatigable and fought off five successive Ministers of Health and against all odds the 'Min' survived and is now a refurbished Trust Hospital.

As a consultant George Kersley interested himself in research and was a founder member of both the Empire Rheumatism Council (Now the Arthritis and Rheumatism Council for Research) and the British Association for Physical Medicine. It was largely due to George Kersley's efforts that this speciality gained recognition from the Royal College of Physicians. George was always a fighter.

In 1979 he was elected Mayor of Bath and was also a founder member and chairman of the Bath Tattoo for which he was appointed an OBE, he was active on the Bath City Council, chairing its committees for the Arts, Libraries, Youth and the Spa, and he was still fighting for the restoration of Bath as a Spa City at the time of his death.

Since living in the Crescent George Kersley has been an active supporter of the Royal Crescent Society and a doughty campaigner in times of trouble.

There was a well attended service of thanksgiving for the life of George Kersley in Bath Abbey on October 4th followed by a reception in the Guildhall which was a happy occasion of which George would, have approved.

LAMBALLE, Marie Therese Princesse de (1749 1792)

1 Royal Crescent

In 1786 an important visitor from France lodged at No. 1 Royal Crescent. She was Marie Therese Louise de Savoie Carignon, Princesse de Lamballe, friend and lady in waiting to Queen Marie Antoinette. According to the Bath Chronicle of 27th September 1786, she arrived with a large retinue of servants, and her personal physician. She was a pale, slim lady with curly, fair hair and a prominent nose. She was abnormally sensitive; if she suffered the slightest shock, she would collapse into a faint that often lasted for two hours. The smell of violets made her disastrously ill, and the sight of shellfish, even in a painting, sent her into a nervous fit.

She came back to England in 1791, when the French Revolution was at its height, hoping to persuade the British royal family to help Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette to escape from France. But when she returned to Paris she died horribly, as the Revolution reached its bloody climax in the September Massacres of 1782.

LINLEY, Elizabeth (later Mrs. Sheridan) (1754 1792)

11 Royal Crescent

She was beautiful, and she sang like an angel. Gainsborough and Reynolds painted her portrait; two men fought duels over her; and George Ill, if we are to believe Horace Walpole, 'ogled her at an oratorio'.

Elizabeth Linley was a member of a very talented musical family. Her father, Thomas Linley, arranged concerts in Bath, gave music lessons, and played the harpsichord expertly. Thomas, her brother, was an accomplished violinist who visited Italy as a child prodigy, and won the friendship and approbation of Mozart: he died tragically in a boating accident when he was twenty two. And Mary, her sister, was also a talented singer. The family had lived in Bath for many years first at Abbey Green, then at Pierrepont Place, close to the Doric archway that links Orchard Street and Pierrepont Street (there is a bronze tablet here), and finally at No. 11 Royal Crescent.

Elizabeth's beauty naturally attracted several suitors. But eventually two men emerged as chief contenders in the inevitable race for her favours. One was Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the future playwright, whose father taught elocution in Bath; the other was a married man, Captain Thomas Mathews. Sheridan showed his resourcefulness by persuading the lady to elope with him to France from No. 11 the Crescent; but when they returned to England, Captain Mathews was simmering with hostility, and lost no time in publishing a strongly worded attack on Sheridan in the Bath Chronicle. The two men fought twice with swords, in London and at Kingsdown near Bath, and in the second encounter Sheridan was seriously wounded.

The passionate scenario appeared to have a happy ending when Elizabeth ultimately married Sheridan at Marylebone Church in 1773. But two or three years later, the embryo playwright emerged into the limelight; his two great comedies, The Rivals and The School for Scandal, were staged successfully, and he became the proprietor of the Drury Lane theatre. Later, he was elected MP for Stafford, and achieved some notoriety as a politician and a close friend of the Prince of Wales. Poor Elizabeth found it difficult to cope with her changed circumstances, and with Sheridan's infidelity. She contracted tuberculosis and died in 1792, at the tragically early age of thirty eight.

The bronze tablet on the facade of No. 11 Royal Crescent commemorates her famous elopement in 1772.

MONTAGU, Elizabeth (1720 1800)

16 Royal Crescent

Because of her penchant for literary causeries, and for her dedicated efforts to replace cards with conversation, Mrs. Montagu became known as 'Queen of the Bluestockings'. She was a celebrated hostess in the eighteenth century who gave genteel parties at her London home and at Bath, where the emphasis was on intellectual talk. Conversation, in Mrs. Montagu's view, was infinitely preferable to gambling with cards or dice, which she heartily disliked.

Her husband was Edward Montagu, a wealthy man who +s a grandson of the first Earl of Sandwich; they were devoted to each other, but they led individual lives, and Mrs. Montagu found a great deal of fulfilment in Bath, where she lived in several houses in Orange Court, Edgar Buildings, Gay Street, Queen's Parade, the Circus and Royal Crescent. She entertained frequently, and Fanny Burney, Mrs. Thrale, Lady Huntingdon, Christopher Anstey and Lord Lyttleton, among others, enjoyed her hospitality, and the conversation that she so assiduously engendered.

The house she occupied in Royal Crescent appears to have been No. 16. She refers to it in one of her letters as 'the centre house', and goes on to say 'the beautiful situation of the Crescent cannot be understood by any comparison with anything in any town whatsoever'.

NOBLE, Lady Celia (1870 1962)

22 Royal Crescent

Lady Celia Noble lived at No. 22 Royal Crescent for many years, and died there in 1962 at the age of ninety two. She was a grand daughter of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the celebrated engineer who built the Great Western Railway and designed the revolutionary steamship Great Eastern.Her father, Arthur James, was an assistant master at Eton, and her mother was Brunel's daughter, Florence. After her marriage to Saxton Noble, who later succeeded to a baronetcy, she became well known as a hostess in musical and artistic circles in London, and after she came to Bath she continued, for many years, to arrange concerts of chamber music at her home in the Crescent. Princess Marie Louise, a grand daughter of Queen Victoria, stayed with her whenever she came to Bath, and Queen Mary, consort of George V, visited her frequently during the last war. Her salon was the last of a line that stretched back to Mrs. Montagu in the eighteenth century.

PITMAN, Sir Isaac (1813 1897)

17 Royal Crescent

The invention of shorthand is usually credited to Sir Isaac Pitman, although Samuel Taylor had published An Essay intended to establish . . . a universal system of Stenography as early as 1786. Pitman adapted Taylor's principle, and produced a much more practical and sophisticated method. He invented a system of phonography, or writing by sound, in 1837, and finally produced the famous shorthand system that is always linked with his name.

As a young man, he was dismissed from his job as a schoolmaster at Wotton under Edge in Gloucestershire, because he joined the 'New Church' founded by Emmanuel. Swedenborg. Soon afterwards, in 1839, he came to Bath, and lived at No. 5 Nelson Place for four years. He loved the city, and at that time he wrote: 'Of the many beautiful cities in this fair country, Bath is unquestionably the most beautiful'. Much later in his life he took a house in the Royal Crescent (No. 12), and seven years later, in 1896, he moved to No. 17, where a bronze tablet commemorates his tenancy. He died there, at the age of eighty four, on 22nd January, 1897.

Throughout his long life he was a man of regular habits and unshakeable convictions. A London newspaper described him as 'teetotaller, vegetarian, Swedenborgian, anti vaccinationist, non smoker, spelling reformer, and inventor of phonography. At 84 he was still working hard at his desk at 6.30 every morning, summer and winter'. And there can be no doubt that his rigorous self discipline brought him happiness and fulfilment; the day before he died, he wrote a brief note to the Rev. Gordon Drummond, Minister of the New Church at Bath, in which he said 'To those who ask how Isaac Pitman died, say, Peacefully, and with no more concern than in passing from one room to another, to take up some further employment.'

Portrait by Sir A.S. Cope, National Portrait Gallery, London

SAGE, Fanny (c.1762 1835)

20 Royal Crescent

In 1778 a young woman called Fanny Sage came to stay in Bath with her uncle, the Rev. Thomas Sedgwick Whalley, DD. Dr. Whalley lived at No. 20 Royal Crescent; and when he heard that his sister, Mrs. Sage, had died, he immediately offered her daughter the hospitality of his comfortable home.

Fanny stayed at No. 20 for something like ten years. She was an attractive young woman who sang well and played the harpsichord expertly. Romney painted a full length portrait of her. She became well known in the city, and her charm and personality, allied to her beauty, earned her the unofficial title of 'Queen of Bath'.

Later Fanny married, and spent most of her time abroad. In 1828 she was widowed, and living in France at La Fleche on the Loire. Her remaining years were spent in complete obscurity recollecting, perhaps, those halcyon days in Bath when she was the toast of the city.

Bath's No. 1 Sage

George Saintsbury (1846 - 1933), 1A Royal Crescent

John Walker celebrates the critic who retired to write of a life devoted to books and wine

During the 1920s and early '30s many tourists visited the Crescent not only to see its renowned architecture but in the hope of glimpsing another attraction with an 18th century appeal the bent, somewhat shuffling figure of George Saintsbury who, with his white beard and black skull cup, looked more worn and venerable than the surrounding buildings.

His home in what was then part of 1, Royal Crescent, and is now la, was a familiar address not only to gawking passers by but to the many writers, including Rudyard Kipling, who came to pay court and seek his advice. Saintsbury was the most influential literary critic of his time, perhaps of any time, and the best read man of his age and, perhaps, of any age.

His influence is still apparent, although not so much in literature. He was the godfather of today's colour supplement and Sunday newspaper wine writers, thanks to his much read and copied Notes on a Cellar Book, which was written at No la, and is 'a little, genial perfect work of art', according to The Observer. His love of good food and splendid wines led to the formation of the Saintsbury Club to honour him and to indulge in both.

Saintsbury's life was long enough for him, when young, to have been excited by Swinburne's first poems and, when old, to have been asked to review T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, which he sensibly declined to do. He came to the Crescent after his retirement from Edinburgh University, where he had been

Professor of English Literature, notable for his vast and erudite works on prosody and English criticism, and reverted to what he had done before he entered academic life, which was literary and political journalism.

While living at No. 1 he wrote his three Scrap Books, published between 1922 and 1924, which are autobiographical jottings on whatever took his fancy. They are an acquired taste.

My copy of his first volume has a scribbled note from an admirer, saying that Saintsbury was 'a man to honour'. George Orwell, who called Saintsbury 1 probably the most widely read man in Europe', wrote of it in The Road to Wigan Pier 'it takes a lot of guts to be openly such a skunk as that'. Orwell was no doubt thinking of such asides in the Scrap Books as: 'I know something of history, and I have never heard or read of any class tyrant, aristocrat, capitalist, slave holder, buccaneer, middle class shopkeeper so absolutely and exclusively governed by selfishness as Trades Union "Labour".' And: 'The two commandments of "Labour" are: Nobody else shall have anything that I have not. Somebody else shall pay for everything I have.' Saintsbury's written and conversational style was convoluted. A student once noted a typical sentence in a lecture: '...but while none, save these, of men living, had done, or could have done, such things, there was much here which whether either could have done it or not neither had done.'

Who could guess what he is writing about in this typical passage from A Scrap Book? 'But personally I do not know anything which has, during my own lifetime, experienced so severe and so prolonged a decadence as the article which was sold by that admirable person who out Cleoned Cleon (0 for him to be in England now!); which, becoming alive, supplied the loyal subjects of Queen Niphleseth; which formed, in another sense, the subject of one of the pleasantest essays of Charles Lamb; and which was judiciously selected by King Valoroso as the solid of his breakfast to the Prince of Crim Tartary.' His subject is pork sausages! (He regarded beef sausages as always an abomination.)

He died at the age of 87 in 1933, having lived an immensely productive life until the very end. He had retired to Bath because of its associations with the 18th century. He was seeking, he said, 'rest and refreshment'. He found them both in the Royal Crescent.

THICKNESSE, Philip (1719 1792)

9 Royal Crescent

He was a soldier of fortune, an irascible eccentric and, if he himself is to be believed, the man who persuaded Gainsborough to come to Bath. Ill tempered and aggressive, with an inordinate capacity for making enemies, he longed for wealth and recognition, and was prepared to follow almost any path that would lead him to either.

Thicknesse settled in Bath in 1749. During his second marriage he lived in East Anglia, where he had purchased the governorship of the Landguard Fort at Harwich. He met Gainsborough in Ipswich, and claims to have convinced the struggling young painter that he could improve his prospects considerably by going to Bath. The advice was sound, and Gainsborough took it; he arrived in the city in 1759, and soon achieved great success as a portrait painter.

Accompanied by his third wife, Thicknesse returned to Bath in 1768, and bought a house at No. 9 Royal Crescent. Six years later, he quarrelled with Gainsborough, and after the artist had left Bath for London, he moved to a cottage behind Lansdown Place called St. Catherine's Hermitage. He wrote extensively at this time, still quarrelled regularly, and travelled in Europe whenever he could. Among his literary effusions were three volumes of revealing memoirs, and The New Prose Bath Guide, a factual description of the city which he hoped might rival Anstey's best seller in popularity. It was not a great success; but it bears the unmistakable stamp of his eccentricity, and can still be read with enjoyment today.

WEST, General Charles

General West moved to the Crescent in the mid 80s having retired in the late70s after some 40 distinguished years in the US Army and US Department of Defence. In 1939 he was awarded the prestigious cadet medal of the Star of the West before he saw active service in World War II against the Japanese , where he was ADC to General MacArthur, in the Korean war and finally in the Vietnam war as Lt Colonel. He then became President Nixon's Chief of the Safeguard Missile Support Group. He also was awarded the French Croix de Guerre and the Philippine Legion of Honour. 

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