Edward Lear (1812 - 1888)
Although Lear and Carroll are never known to have met there is no doubt that when it comes to nonsense they are said to be writers with a lot in common! Lear was born in Holloway London in 1812, the same year that Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth. He was the twentieth of twenty one children. Many died in infancy. At the age of four Edward went to live with his sister Ann who was 21 years his senior and it was her that brought him up supporting them with a legacy she had inherited. His schooling is not documented and is thought to have been sparse his sisters being his teacher.
In 1832, the year Lewis Carroll was born, Lear was seen, by the heir to the earldom of Derby, drawing specimens for the zoological society. Derby was a member of the Stanley family at Knowsley Park and he invited Lear to come to Knowsley in 1832 and draw the specimens in the private menagerie there.
This was a golden opportunity for the 20 year old Lear as it not only gave him an income but it was shortly to introduce him to society as Derby socialised extensively with his upper class friends. This came about, in one version of events, because Derby noticed that the children of the family disappeared after meals and he wondered where they were going. To his surprise he found that they were visiting Lear because of his ability to tell tales and generally amuse them in a way that other adults were unable to do. From then on Derby is said to have taken Lear upstairs from the servants quarters at Knowsley to be among the family. Lear was at Knowsley from 1832 to 1836 but he remained in touch with the Stanleys throughout his life and with the friends he made at Knowsley.
Lear published books, his first being in 1830 when he was 19, and he also painted. If he was travelling, which he did extensively throughout his life, he would work in water colours while on the road and transfer the images into oil paintings when he was back in his studio. He showed Holman Hunt his technique in the early 1850’s but unlike Hunt he never managed to make a living from his painting. Lear was always on the edge of financial collapse! His entertaining of children and adults did however make him many friends one of whom was the Rev. Hornby who had married into the Stanley family and was incumbent at Winwick near Warrington, living in Winwick Hall. He supported Lear in the early 1850’s when he went abroad for health reasons. Lear had always been delicate in health and he spent much if his time abroad in his later years. The image below of Jerusalem was painted on one such journey.
In the 1840’s Lear went on a trip to Ireland with Arthur Penrhyn Stanley who was born in Alderley Edge in Cheshire where his father held the vicarage. Arthur wrote a biography of Thomas Arnold as he was a pupil at Rugby school during Arnold’s headship there. He was later on, as Dean of Westminster, to officiate at Alice Liddell’s wedding to Reginald Hargreaves in Westminster Abbey. Lear was friendly with many people that Lewis Carroll knew including the pre-Raphaelite painters. Franklin Lushington, a member of the family that Lewis Carroll met and photographed in 1857 when he was lionising Tennyson in the lake district, was a great friend of Lear’s. Lear accompanied Franklin when he went to Corfu as a judge.
Lear as well as an illustrator was an artist. Holman Hunt although younger than Lear became his mentor. Lear never achieved high recognition as an artist during his lifetime. Many people bought his paintings but they did not regard them as an investment as they did with Hunt’s or Millais’s work.
Lear’s work in art is being recognised now but he is mainly remembered for his popularising of the limerick as a nonsense poem and for his ‘Owl and The Pussy Cat’ poem which most people know of. This lack of artistic recognition may be because his health forced him to go abroad and he became a ‘rolling stone’ in his later years. He returned to England on many occasions but rarely stayed for long periods. During these visits he made many visits to Knowsley and Winwick where he was a welcome guest. He also visited Tennyson and his wife Emily at their home in Farringford on the Isle of Wight. He was a very personable man who was welcomed for his attractive but quirky personality. He died in San Remo in 1888 and is buried there.
Keith Wright
The Owl and The Pussycat
The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
'O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love
,What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!'
Pussy said to the Owl,
'You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?'
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.
'Dear pig, are you willing to sell for one shillingYour ring?'
Said the Piggy, 'I will.'
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.