John Warren, 3rd Baron de Tabley
Encyclopedia
John Byrne Leicester Warren, 3rd Baron De Tabley (26 April 1835 - 22 November 1895) was an English poet, numismatist, botanist and an authority on bookplates.
.
Hon. Mr. Warren, as he then was, was educated at Eton College
(1847-51, Rev. Edward Coleridge's house) and Christ Church, Oxford
, where he took his degree in 1856 with second classes in classics, law and modern history. In the autumn of 1858 he went to Turkey as unpaid attaché
to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe
. In 1860 he was called to the bar, Lincoln's Inn
. He became a Lieutenant in the Cheshire Yeomanry
, and unsuccessfully contested Mid-Cheshire
in 1868 as a Liberal.
After his mother died and his father's re-marriage in 1871 he removed to London, where he became a close friend of Tennyson
. Tennyson once said of him: 'He is Faunus
, he is a woodland creature'.
From 1877 till his succession to the title in 1887 De Tabley was lost to his friends, assuming the life of a recluse
. It was not till 1892 that he returned to London life, and enjoyed a sort of renaissance of reputation and friendship.
During the later years of his life Lord De Tabley made many new friends, besides reopening old associations, and he almost seemed to be gathering around him a small literary company when his health broke, and he died at Ryde
, in his sixty-first year. He was buried at Little Peover in Cheshire.
Although his reputation will live almost exclusively as that of a poet, De Tabley was a man of many studious tastes. He was at one time an authority on numismatics
(he was a first cousin of the numismatist John Francis William de Salis
) ; he wrote two novels; published A Guide to the Study of Book Plates (1880); and the fruit of his careful researches in botany was printed posthumously in his elaborate Flora of Cheshire (1899).
Poetry, however, was his first and last passion, and to that he devoted the best energies of his life. De Tabley's first impulse towards poetry came from his friend George Fortescue
, with whom he shared a close companionship during his Oxford days, and whom he lost, as Tennyson lost Hallam, within a few years of their taking their degrees. Fortescue was killed by falling from the mast of Lord Drogheda
's yacht in November 1859, and this gloomy event plunged De Tabley into deep depression. Between 1859 and 1862 he issued four little volumes of pseudonym
ous verse (by G. F. Preston), in the production of which he had been greatly stimulated by the sympathy of Fortescue. Once more he assumed a pseudonym: his Praeterita (1863) bearing the name of William Lancaster.
In the next year he published Eclogues and Monodramas, followed in 1865 by Studies in Verse. These volumes all displayed technical grace and much natural beauty; but it was not till the publication of Philoctetes in 1866 that De Tabley met with any wide recognition. Philoctetes bore the initials M.A., which, to the author's dismay, were interpreted as meaning Matthew Arnold
. He at once disclosed his identity, and received the congratulations of his friends, among whom were Tennyson, Browning
and Gladstone
.
In 1867 he published Orestes, in 1870 Rehearsals and in 1873 Searching the Net. These last two bore his own name, John Leicester Warren. He was somewhat disappointed by their lukewarm reception, and when in 1876 The Soldier of Fortune, a drama on which he had bestowed much careful labor, proved a complete failure, he retired altogether from the literary arena.
It was not until 1893, that he was persuaded to return, and the immediate success in that year of his Poems, Dramatic and Lyrical, encouraged him to publish a second series in 1895, the year of his death. The genuine interest with which these volumes were welcomed did much to lighten the last years of a somewhat sombre and solitary life. His posthumous poems were collected in 1902.
The characteristics of De Tabley's poetry are pre-eminently magnificence of style, derived from close study of Milton, sonority, dignity, weight and color. His passion for detail was both a strength and a weakness: it lent a loving fidelity to his description of natural objects, but it sometimes involved him in a loss of simple effect from over-elaboration of treatment. He was always a student of the classic poets, and drew much of his inspiration directly from them. His ambition was always for the heights, a region naturally ice-bound at periods, but always a country of clear atmosphere and bright, vivid outlines.
See an excellent sketch by E. Gosse in his Critical Kit-Kats (1896).
An extract of what Gosse wrote:
Venetian School
Arcadian spaces of great grass arise;
Studded with roe-deer and wild strawberries;
Who teases at the button of his cloak,
A squirrel eyes ther lovers from an oak,
In a fair meadow set with tulip-heads.
Of olive torrent, broken in grey threads.
And up behind in a still orchard close
In millions, russet-green and amber-rose,
Such colour as the morning brings the skies,
Infinite cadence of ethereal dyes,
Quaint pastoral Arcadia, where are set
Earth has not held thy fabled sunsets yet,
Biography
He was eldest son of George Fleming Leicester (afterwards Warren), 2nd Baron De Tabley (1811-1887), by his wife (married: 1832) Catherina Barbara (1814-1869), second daughter of Jerome, 4th Count de Salis-SoglioJerome, 4th Count de Salis-Soglio
Jerome de Salis, 4th Count de Salis-Soglio DL, JP, FRS , Illustris et Magnificus was an Anglo-Grison-Irish noble, visionary, vegetarian and landowner....
.
Hon. Mr. Warren, as he then was, 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"....
(1847-51, Rev. Edward Coleridge's house) and Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
, where he took his degree in 1856 with second classes in classics, law and modern history. In the autumn of 1858 he went to Turkey as unpaid attaché
Attaché
Attaché is a French term in diplomacy referring to a person who is assigned to the diplomatic or administrative staff of a higher placed person or another service or agency...
to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe
Stratford Canning, 1st Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe
Stratford Canning, 1st Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe KG GCB PC , was a British diplomat and politician, best known as the longtime British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire...
. In 1860 he was called to the bar, Lincoln's Inn
Lincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn. Although Lincoln's Inn is able to trace its official records beyond...
. He became a Lieutenant in the Cheshire Yeomanry
Cheshire Yeomanry
The Cheshire Yeomanry was a yeomanry regiment that can trace its history back to 1797 when Sir John Fleming Leicester of Tabley raised a county regiment of light cavalry in response to the growing fears of invasion from Napoleonic France....
, and unsuccessfully contested Mid-Cheshire
Mid Cheshire (UK Parliament constituency)
Mid Cheshire is a former United Kingdom Parliamentary constituency. It was created upon the abolition of North Cheshire and South Cheshire in 1868 and the redivision of Cheshire into Mid Cheshire, East Cheshire, West Cheshire and Stalybridge...
in 1868 as a Liberal.
After his mother died and his father's re-marriage in 1871 he removed to London, where he became a close friend of Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language....
. Tennyson once said of him: 'He is Faunus
Faunus
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Faunus was the horned god of the forest, plains and fields; when he made cattle fertile he was called Inuus. He came to be equated in literature with the Greek god Pan....
, he is a woodland creature'.
From 1877 till his succession to the title in 1887 De Tabley was lost to his friends, assuming the life of a recluse
Recluse
A recluse is a person who lives in voluntary seclusion from the public and society, often close to nature. The word is from the Latin recludere, which means "shut up" or "sequester." There are many potential reasons for becoming a recluse: a personal philosophy that rejects consumer society; a...
. It was not till 1892 that he returned to London life, and enjoyed a sort of renaissance of reputation and friendship.
During the later years of his life Lord De Tabley made many new friends, besides reopening old associations, and he almost seemed to be gathering around him a small literary company when his health broke, and he died at Ryde
Ryde
Ryde is a British seaside town, civil parish and the most populous town and urban area on the Isle of Wight, with a population of approximately 30,000. It is situated on the north-east coast. The town grew in size as a seaside resort following the joining of the villages of Upper Ryde and Lower...
, in his sixty-first year. He was buried at Little Peover in Cheshire.
Although his reputation will live almost exclusively as that of a poet, De Tabley was a man of many studious tastes. He was at one time an authority on numismatics
Numismatics
Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, and related objects. While numismatists are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, the discipline also includes the broader study of money and other payment media used to resolve debts and the...
(he was a first cousin of the numismatist John Francis William de Salis
John Francis William, 6th Count de Salis-Soglio
John Francis William de Salis, 6th Count de Salis was a British diplomat and coin connoisseur.He was the eldest son of Count Peter John de Salis by his second wife Cecile Henrietta Marguerite, daughter of David Bourgeoise of Neuchâtel.After some education in London he was an Attache in Turin . ...
) ; he wrote two novels; published A Guide to the Study of Book Plates (1880); and the fruit of his careful researches in botany was printed posthumously in his elaborate Flora of Cheshire (1899).
Poetry, however, was his first and last passion, and to that he devoted the best energies of his life. De Tabley's first impulse towards poetry came from his friend George Fortescue
George Fortescue
-Life:Fortescue, born in London in or about 1578, was the only son of John Fortescue, by Ellen, daughter of Ralph Henslow of Barrald, Kent. His father was the second son of Sir Anthony Fortescue , by Katharine, daughter of Sir Geoffrey Pole. His father resided for many years in London, but in his...
, with whom he shared a close companionship during his Oxford days, and whom he lost, as Tennyson lost Hallam, within a few years of their taking their degrees. Fortescue was killed by falling from the mast of Lord Drogheda
Henry Moore, 3rd Marquess of Drogheda
Henry Francis Seymour Moore, 3rd Marquess of Drogheda KP PC was an Irish peer, styled Viscount Moore until 1837. He became Marquess of Drogheda in 1837 on the death of Charles Moore, 2nd Marquess of Drogheda and was appointed a Knight of the Order of St Patrick on 7 February 1868....
's yacht in November 1859, and this gloomy event plunged De Tabley into deep depression. Between 1859 and 1862 he issued four little volumes of pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
ous verse (by G. F. Preston), in the production of which he had been greatly stimulated by the sympathy of Fortescue. Once more he assumed a pseudonym: his Praeterita (1863) bearing the name of William Lancaster.
In the next year he published Eclogues and Monodramas, followed in 1865 by Studies in Verse. These volumes all displayed technical grace and much natural beauty; but it was not till the publication of Philoctetes in 1866 that De Tabley met with any wide recognition. Philoctetes bore the initials M.A., which, to the author's dismay, were interpreted as meaning Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold was a British poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the famed headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, literary professor, and William Delafield Arnold, novelist and colonial administrator...
. He at once disclosed his identity, and received the congratulations of his friends, among whom were Tennyson, Browning
Browning
-Places:* Browning, Illinois, USA* Browning, Montana, USA* Browning, Wisconsin, USA* Browning, Missouri, USA* Browning Hill, in Brown County, Indiana; sometimes called Browning Mountain* Browning, Saskatchewan, Canada* Browning No...
and Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
.
In 1867 he published Orestes, in 1870 Rehearsals and in 1873 Searching the Net. These last two bore his own name, John Leicester Warren. He was somewhat disappointed by their lukewarm reception, and when in 1876 The Soldier of Fortune, a drama on which he had bestowed much careful labor, proved a complete failure, he retired altogether from the literary arena.
It was not until 1893, that he was persuaded to return, and the immediate success in that year of his Poems, Dramatic and Lyrical, encouraged him to publish a second series in 1895, the year of his death. The genuine interest with which these volumes were welcomed did much to lighten the last years of a somewhat sombre and solitary life. His posthumous poems were collected in 1902.
The characteristics of De Tabley's poetry are pre-eminently magnificence of style, derived from close study of Milton, sonority, dignity, weight and color. His passion for detail was both a strength and a weakness: it lent a loving fidelity to his description of natural objects, but it sometimes involved him in a loss of simple effect from over-elaboration of treatment. He was always a student of the classic poets, and drew much of his inspiration directly from them. His ambition was always for the heights, a region naturally ice-bound at periods, but always a country of clear atmosphere and bright, vivid outlines.
See an excellent sketch by E. Gosse in his Critical Kit-Kats (1896).
An extract of what Gosse wrote:
- 'His character was like an opal, where all the colours lie purdue, drowned in a milky mystery, and so arranged that to a couple of observers, simultaneously bending over it, the prevalent hue shall in one case seem a pale green, in the other a fiery crimson'.
A poem
A PastoralVenetian School
Arcadian spaces of great grass arise;
- Crisp lambs are merry : hoary vales are laid,
Studded with roe-deer and wild strawberries;
- In one a shepherd tabours near a maid ;
Who teases at the button of his cloak,
- Where rarely underneath them grows the herb;
A squirrel eyes ther lovers from an oak,
- And speckled horses pasture without curb.
In a fair meadow set with tulip-heads.
- A water-mill rolls little crested falls
Of olive torrent, broken in grey threads.
- A grave-yard crowds black crosses in square walls.
And up behind in a still orchard close
- The apples ripen, crushing down the trees,
In millions, russet-green and amber-rose,
- Fit for the gardens of the Hesperides.
Such colour as the morning brings the skies,
- Such mirage as our dreams in childhood gave,
Infinite cadence of ethereal dyes,
- The radiance of a rainbow-burnished wave.
Quaint pastoral Arcadia, where are set
- Thy rainy lands and reddish underwoods?
Earth has not held thy fabled sunsets yet,
- Though lovers build their palace on thy roods.
Sisters
- Catherine (1838-1881).
- Meriel (1839-72), married (1862), Allen, 6th Earl BathurstAllen Bathurst, 6th Earl BathurstAllen Alexander Bathurst, 6th Earl Bathurst , known as Allen Bathurst until 1878, was a British peer and Conservative Member of Parliament.-Background and education:...
(1832-1892), of CirencesterCirencesterCirencester is a market town in east Gloucestershire, England, 93 miles west northwest of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswold District. It is the home of the Royal Agricultural College, the oldest agricultural...
. (He succeeded in 1878, after her death). - Eleanor (1841-14 August 1914), married (1864), Sir Baldwyn LeightonLeighton BaronetsThere have been two Baronetcies created for persons with the surname Leighton, one in the Baronetage of England and one in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom...
, MP, 8th Bt (1836-2 January 1897), of LotonLoton ParkLoton Park is a country house near Alberbury, Shrewsbury in Shropshire, on the upper reaches of the River Severn, currently the home of Sir Michael Leighton, 11th Baronet . It is a Grade II* listed building....
, Salop.
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- She was (eventual) heir to her brother in 1895, and in 1900 took the name Leighton-Warren.
- Margaret (1847-1921), married (1875), Sir Arthur Cowell-Stepney, 2nd Bt, (aka Emile Algernon Arthur Keppel Cowell-Stepney) (1834-1909), of LlanelliLlanelliLlanelli , the largest town in both the county of Carmarthenshire and the preserved county of Dyfed , Wales, sits on the Loughor estuary on the West Wales coast, approximately west-north-west of Swansea and south-east of the county town, Carmarthen. The town is famous for its proud rugby...
.
- Margaret (1847-1921), married (1875), Sir Arthur Cowell-Stepney, 2nd Bt, (aka Emile Algernon Arthur Keppel Cowell-Stepney) (1834-1909), of Llanelli
- She was (eventual) heir to her brother in 1895, and in 1900 took the name Leighton-Warren.
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- Their daughter Catherine Muriel Cowell Stepney (Miss Alcyone Stepney) (1876-1952), was painted by Sir John Everett MillaisJohn Everett MillaisSir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, PRA was an English painter and illustrator and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.-Early life:...
, Royal AcademyRoyal AcademyThe Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
, 1880, no. 239. Of Cilymaenllwyd, Llanelli, she married Sir Stafford Howard, KCB, DL, JP, MP in 1911.
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- and two other children, who both died in infancy.
External links
- Barbara Sotheby's c1890 photograph of Burne-JonesEdward Burne-JonesSir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet was a British artist and designer closely associated with the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, who worked closely with William Morris on a wide range of decorative arts as a founding partner in Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, and Company...
in the V&A.
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- On 28 September 1909 she married Alfred (d. 9 October 1949), younger son of Admiral Sir Edward Southwell Sotheby, KCB.
- Tabley House, official web-site. See Tabley HouseTabley HouseTabley House is a former stately home in Tabley Inferior , some to the east of the town of Knutsford, Cheshire, England. The house has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building. It was built between 1761 and 1769 for Sir Peter Byrne Leicester, to replace an older...
(an internal link).
- Tabley House, official web-site. See Tabley House
- On 28 September 1909 she married Alfred (d. 9 October 1949), younger son of Admiral Sir Edward Southwell Sotheby, KCB.
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