Poet and master of the battlefield
What do you do when you are away from Northamptonshire, gently unwinding on holiday in blistering hot sunshine?
You read all the books you have piled up over the year, that's what.
And that's precisely what I have been doing for the past three weeks.
One treasure I took was my father's much-thumbed, kid-leather-bound, tiny copy of the Rubiyt of Omar Khayym, translated by Edward FitzGerald, a beautiful poem in 75 short verses. So beautiful and delicate that it influenced the anti-Victorian Pre-Raphaelite movement. A classic, well worth reading.
Edward FitzGerald was born in Suffolk in 1809 of a wealthy family, but he spent much of his life here in Northamptonshire.
His father's surname was Purcell . . . it was his mother who was a FitzGerald, part of the Irish family, the Earls of Kildare, who owned lands in Ireland, Suffolk, Sussex, Manchester, Paris and Northamptonshire.
When Edward's mother inherited the estates his father took the name FitzGerald.
Young Edward led a charmed life; the family's time was spent between their country estate in Suffolk, their grand London house in Portland Place and their Northamptonshire estate, Naseby Woolleys, where even the village pub is named after them.
At 17, Edward went to Trinity College in Cambridge.
He became part of a literary circle and his friends then and later included Carlyle, Wordsworth, Tennyson and other celebrated writers and poets.
But Edward had no idea what he wanted to do with his life.
He was something of a dilettante and floated around from Paris to London, country house to country house, visiting friends and relations until finally, at 22, he settled in Naseby.
It was there that he started writing in earnest.
One of his earliest poems opens with a perfect reflection of today: " 'Tis a dull sight to see the year dying, when winter winds set the yellow woods sighing."
In 1842, Thomas Carlyle and the great Dr Arnold visited Edward at Naseby.
Carlyle was writing a life of Cromwell and wanted to "feel the place".
The visitors were misled by the obelisk in the village and thought it to be the site of the battle.
Since most of the battlefield site belonged to the FitzGeralds, Edward was able to put them straight.
The obelisk had been erected by Edward's father, not to mark the battle site, but the highest point in the village.
He undertook some excavations on the battlefield and unearthed skeletons packed closely together.
Carlyle was terribly excited and wrote: "There are the very jaw bones that were clenched together in deadly rage."
He was all for placing a commemorative stone on the site: "Siste Viator.
(Stay traveller) Here lie the slain of the Battle of Naseby".
Much later, he sent Edward an additional line to be added: "Peace henceforth to these old dead." But no monument appeared in their lifetime.
Carlyle called Edward "The Master of Naseby Battlefield" and wrote copious letters asking for information on the field and surrounding villages in order to colour his book on Cromwell.
But Edward's thoughts were in far-off Persia as he immersed himself in the world of Omar Khayym, engaged in one of the most celebrated works in the English language.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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