Some of Mabel Bent’s ‘Chronicles’ in the archive of the Hellenic Society, London (photo: the Bent Archive).
[Unless otherwise referenced, original Mabel Bent material courtesy of The Hellenic Society/School of Advanced Study, University of London (reproduced under Creative Commons: Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0)]
The Hellenic Society’s holdings of the notebooks and Chronicles of celebrity explorers Theodore and Mabel Bent have now been digitised and are available here via the School of Advanced Study, University of London.
The Bents had almost twenty years of travel adventures together (1877-1897), being interested in many fields of ethnology, archaeology, and geography in the Levant, Africa, and Arabia.
What follows is a quick glance at the subfusc covers of Mabel’s diaries (or ‘Chronicles’ as she called them) 1883-1897. Not all of them, however, i.e. her (alas lost?) diary of the pair’s trip to Ethiopia in 1893, and Mabel’s solo journey to Egypt in 1898, as a widow, depressively labelled by her: ‘A lonely useless journey’. (Click for the full itineraries and details of all the couple’s travels together.)
Mabel Bent’s travel notebooks:
Plate 1: Mabel Bent’s ‘Chronicle’ covers: 1883/4 to 1897 (upper: 1, 2; lower: 3, 4) (The Hellenic Society).
1) The Cyclades: beginning “Mabel Bent, her Chronicle in The Kyklades 1883-4. Dedicated to my Sisters and my Aunts”, the first of Mabel’s Chronicles (and the only one not to have a pasted front label) is written in a dark-red leather, lined and columned, accounts book (£.s.d.); it has marbled endpapers and edges and measures 175 x 110 mm. Mabel completes 94 of its 130 leaves. note 1
2) The Dodecanese: beginning “Mabel V.A. Bent her Chronicle in the Sporades, etc. 1885”, the second of Mabel’s Chronicles is written in a blue marbled, board covered notebook (185 x 120 mm) with marbled endpapers and edges. Mabel’s initials are inked on the front. There are 170 lined pages and Mabel fills 115 of them. The pasted cover label reads: ‘Egypt Greece 1885 –’.
3) The Eastern Aegean: inexplicably beginning “My Fourth Chronicle 1886”, the third of Mabel’s travel diaries is written in a dark-red leather notebook (180 x 115 mm) with marbled endpapers and edges. near the edges of the covers there are two parallel and scored lines. There are 192 lined pages and Mabel uses all but 10 of them. The pasted cover label reads: ‘Istambul [sic] Greek Islands 1886 –’. note 2
4) The Northern Aegean: beginning simply “1887”, Mabel’s fourth Chronicle is written in a dark-red leather notebook (180 x 115 mm) with marbled endpapers and edges. near the edges of the covers there are two parallel and scored lines, the corners including a stylized clover design. There are 85 lined pages and Mabel has covered 75 of them. The pasted cover label reads: ‘Greece 1887’. note 3 Plate 2: Mabel Bent’s ‘Chronicle’ covers: 1888 and 1889 (upper: 5, 6; lower: 7, 8) (The Hellenic Society).
5) The Turkish coast: beginning “My fifth Chronicle” (the correct numbering is restored), Mabel’s 1888 diary is written in a dark-red leather book (180 x 115 mm), with gold lines on the spine and covers; the endpapers and edges are marbled. Near the edges of the covers there are two parallel and scored lines. There are 192 pages of lined paper, of which Mabel has used 182. This expedition involved a happy cruise along Turkey’s south-western shores – “…a paradise for archaeologists and tortoises…” The pasted cover label reads: ‘Turkey Russia 1888’.
6, 7, 8) Bahrain and Iran (in 3 vols): beginning “Persia 1889”, this adventure, including a marathon ride, south-north, through present-day Iran, and well deserving of a documentary on its own, necessitated three notebooks. Mabel adds in the third volume (8) that it is her 6th Chronicle. Notebook 6 is plain and bound in dark-red leather (180 x 115 mm). The endpapers and edges are marbled; near the edges of the covers there are two parallel and scored lines. There are 148 lined pages, of which Mabel has used all, including the endpapers. Notebook 7, perhaps from the same retailer, is also a plain, dark-red leather volume (180 x 115 mm); the endpapers and edges are marbled; there are 148 pages, of which Mabel has used all, including the endpapers. Notebook 8 is from a different source; it is a plain, dark-red, leathered-covered book (170 x 110 mm); there are 184 pages, plus endpapers, of which Mabel has used 50; the edges are speckled with blue wavy lines. The three pasted cover labels read: ‘1889 no 1 –’; ‘Persia 1889 (2)’; ‘1889 No. 3’. note 4 Plate 3: Mabel Bent’s ‘Chronicle’ covers: 1890 and 1891 (upper: 9, 10; lower: 11, 12) (The Hellenic Society).
9) Turkey: beginning “My Seventh Chronicle ‘Rugged Cilicia’ 1890”, this Chronicle is written in a dark-red leather book (185 x 120 mm). The endpapers and edges are marbled. The paper is lined; there are 90 pages and Mabel has filled 89 of them. Near the edges of the covers there are two parallel and scored lines. The pasted cover label reads: ‘Cilicia 1890’. note 5
10, 11) South Africa: beginning “1891. My Eigth [sic] Chronicle To Zimbabye in Mashonaland”, Mabel uses two notebooks for the couple’s notorious 1891 travels to and from South Africa, occupying the energetic duo for most of 1891. Notebook 1 (10) is a plain, dark-red leather volume (180 x 120 mm). The endpapers and edges are marbled. The paper is lined; there are 180 pages, plus endpapers, of which Mabel has used all. The volume ends in early August 1891 as the party approaches the year-old Fort Salisbury (modern Harare, where Theodore’s watercolours of the trip are now seemingly inaccessible in the Archives). The second notebook narrates the homeward journey, via Umtali (Mutare) and the Pungwe River to Beira in Mozambique. The second volume (11) does not quite match its predecessor; it is plain and in dark-red leather (175 x 115 mm). The endpapers and edges are marbled. The paper is lined; near the edges of the covers of both books are two parallel and scored lines. There are 164 pages, of which Mabel has used all but six. The pasted cover labels read, respectively: ‘Central Africa No 1’ and ‘1891 No 2 Africa Central’. note 6
[Mabel’s notebooks, for what would have been her ‘9th Chronicle’, relating their subsequent expedition in 1893 to Ethiopia, are, alas, lost]
12) Wadi Hadramaut (Yemen): beginning, defiantly, ‘Hadramout’, with no Chronicle number (it would be No. 10), Mabel uses two notebooks to narrate their famous 1893-4 travels to the Wadi Hadramaut in Yemen, Southern Arabia (the start of a trio of ill-fated expeditions). The first volume includes the party’s preparations in Aden (December 1893). It is a plain, dark-red leather volume (180 x 115 mm); near the edges of the covers of both books are two parallel and scored lines. The endpapers and edges are marbled. The paper is lined; there are 146 pages, plus endpapers, of which Mabel has used all. The pasted cover label reads: ‘Hadramaut 1893 to 94 No 1 A’.
Plate 4: Mabel Bent’s ‘Chronicle’ covers: 1894 to 1897 (upper: 13, 14; lower: 15, 16) (The Hellenic Society).
13) Wadi Hadramaut (Yemen): beginning “Continuation of My Chronicle in the only very moderately Blest Arabia 1894”, Mabel’s second notebook here concludes their curtailed trek into the Wadi Hadramaut, and sees the pair reach London again in April 1894. It is a plain, dark-red leather volume (180 x 115 mm). The endpapers and edges are marbled. Near the edges of the covers there are two parallel and scored lines. The paper is lined; there are 146 pages, of which Mabel has used just 34. The cover label reads: ‘Hadramaut – no 2. A 1894 -’. (It appears that the year has been altered from ‘1884’.)
14) Muscat and Dhofar: beginning just “Saturday 15th December, 1894. The Residency, Muscat”, Mabel again gives no Chronicle number (it would be No. 11) to this notebook covering the couple’s aborted and dispiriting expedition into the Wadi Hadramaut, this time from the east. It is a dark-red leather volume with gilt bordering (180 x 115 mm). The endpapers and edges are marbled. The paper is lined; there are 172 pages, plus endpapers, of which Mabel has used just 68, indicating a frustrated expedition. The pasted cover label reads (confusingly): ‘1894-5 Hadramaut’.
15) Red Sea (west coast): beginning “1895 The Chronicle of my Thirteenth Journey”, although in fact, and ominously, it should be referenced her as her twelfth, this penultimate adventure has the couple travelling from Suez, south to Massowa (Mitsiwa) and back, by dhow. On the way home, via Athens, they attend the first modern Olympic Games. Mabel keeps her diary in a lined, dark-red leather book (175 x 115 mm), near the edges of the covers there are two parallel and scored lines. The endpapers are marbled; there are 152 pages in the notebook but Mabel only completes 62. The cover label reads: ‘1895-6 Suez Kourbat Athens’. note 7
16) Sokotra, Aden: Beginning (with the ‘c’ altered to a ‘k’) “The Island of Sokotra 1896-7”, Mabel’s unnumbered diary (it is, in fact, the unlucky 13th Chronicle) details the couple’s final journey together, and is to witness them at the end both desperately ill with malaria (Theodore dies in London a few days after their return in May 1897, ending nearly twenty years of hitherto inseparable travel). The notebook is a dark-red leather volume (180 x 115 mm), with gold edging to the spine and covers. The endpapers and edges are marbled. The paper is lined; there are 178 pages, plus endpapers, of which Mabel has used 146. The pasted cover label reads: ‘Isle [of] Socotra 1896-7’. note 8
Notes
Four of Mabel’s opening flourishes to her ‘Chronicles’. The 1895 notebook was actually the account her 12th journey, making the ‘Sokotra’ journal her unlucky 13th – Theodore died of malarial complications a few days after returning to London, 5th May 1897. (The Hellenic Society).
Note 1: The Bents had first toured the Eastern Mediterranean, and some of the Greek and Turkish islands, including the Cyclades, in early 1883, but it seems Mabel did not keep a travel diary at that time, more’s the pity, although her later diaries make reference to it (i.e. see The Travel Chronicles of Mabel Bent, Vol.1, 2006, Oxford, p.52). Mabel’s first diary notebook was, in fact, one of Theodore’s, he has written in the back ‘J.T. Bent. Acct. Book. Oct. 13th 1871’: he would have been nineteen and about to go up Wadham College, Oxford, to read history. Perhaps, just before setting out for their second trip to Greece in November 1883, one of the couple hit upon the idea that Mabel should keep a record of the trip, and a simple, dark-red leather notebook that has been lying around for twelve summers is the first thing that comes to hand. But from this inconsequential idea flows a nearly twenty-year stream of travel diaries, unparalleled in their scope, and addictive in their appeal. Return from Note 1
Note 2: Still inside this volume is a letter from Mabel’s friend, Mrs H.R. Graham, who writes: “Why oh why don’t you publish it? It simply bristles with epigrams and I am certain would be a great success! You ought to blend the Chronicles into one and I am sure everyone would buy it.’ (This is now possible of course.). The H.R. Grahams were old friends, Graham seconding Theodore’s application for election as a Royal Geographical Society Fellow on 16 June 1890. Return from Note 2
Note 3: Included in the little volume remains a melancholy letter from the unhappy wife of a minor functionary in Skopje. She implores Mabel to visit: ‘Monday morning. My dear Madam, You would really do me a great favour if you would spend an hour or two with me today. Ours is rather a rough kind of home, but I can offer you a cup of tea. I think if you only knew how hard it is for an educated woman to be in exile at such a place as Uskub [Skopje], without either congenial society or habitual surroundings, you would come out of charity. May I fetch you about 4? With compliments to your husband, Faithfully yours, Florence K. Berger’”. Presumably by the end of tea Mabel would have learned that Mrs Berger was herself, in fact, a published author, having written about an earlier stay in Bucharest – A Winter in the City of Pleasure(London, 1877). Return from Note 3
Note 4: The first in the trilogy of notebooks elucidating the Bents’ journey from London, via Karachi and Bushire, to Bahrain; then their extraordinary overland ride, zigzagging north-south, through Persia (Iran). The second volume is a record from just north of Persepolis as far as modern Tabriz. Inside the cover Mabel has written her name and address (as she does for most of her notebooks): “Mabel V.A. Bent, 13 Great Cumberland Place, W., 1889”, and has the following note: “The state of the edge of this book is caused by a mule’s rolling in the saddlebags, which broke the butter tin so that the melted butter got into everything.” It seems that Mabel only set out with these two notebooks; aware of space problems, she contracted her usually neat handwriting, making the transcription of these volumes difficult in places. The third volume tells of the journey home – from Tabriz to London. This third book was bought locally (in Tabriz) and is of poorer quality than the other two that came from London. The binding is poor and some sheets are loose. Tucked into this book is a miscellaneous bill from the ‘Hôtel de l’Europe’, Vladikavkas (capital of North Ossetia-Alania, Russia). Return from Note 4
The ‘Mandragora’ leaf (M. officinarum) Mabel pins to a page within her 1890 notebook (her 5th Chronicle) during the couple’s travels along the Turkish littoral. (The Hellenic Society)
Note 5: This was another of the Bents’ enjoyable, carefree even, expeditions (1890, in which they famously discover the ancient site of Olbaalong the way). On several occasions in this Chronicle (but in no other within the 15-year series) Mabel has leaves occasional spreads of blank pages “for meditations”, suggesting rare hints of intimacy, girlishness too – “Theodore says I can keep the pages I have left out for meditations!” As an example, a ‘mandragora’ leaf remains pinned to one of her pages: “This is said to be a leaf of mandragora or mandrake. I have been given some roots and seen a good many, which are certainly most extraordinary, but I cannot help thinking they are helped into their human form with a knife and then earthed over. Some say after being cut they are planted again to grow a little but as they grow very deep I do not think that likely. I shall believe in them better when I have seen one dug up.” Importantly, this notebook also has tucked within it an extremely rare paper print from one of Mabel’s photographs in the field; no others have appeared to date. Return from Note 5
An extremely rare paper print of a photograph taken in 1890 by Mabel Bent at the site of an inaccessible inscription near Olba in Cilicia; it was tucked into her notebook of that year: “A ladder was needed to read this [inscription], so one had to be built and very cleverly it was managed… a couple of trees were cut and notches cut in the back of them and then some large sticks just laced on with one loop which hitched into the notches. As one side was about a foot and a half longer than the other it had a queer and dangerous twist.” (‘Travel Chronicles of Mabel Bent’, Vol. 1. Oxford, 2006, p.281) (photo: The Hellenic Society).
Note 6: This notebook records the couple’s homeward journey from Great Zimbabwe, via Fort Salisbury (modern Harare) and the Pungwe River to Beira in Mozambique. The volume differs from its predecessor; it was perhaps obtained from a stationer’s en route. The top of page two is stained and Mabel has written next to it ‘Hydrochloric Acid’ – presumably part of the photographic paraphernalia from her mobile ‘darkroom’; she was again expedition photographer. Return from Note 6
Note 7: By ‘Kourbat’ Mabel is referring to the Wadi Kurbab district on the southern Sudanese coast, including the so-called Halaib Triangle. Appointed by the British authorities in Cairo to keep an eye on the expedition was the young Capt. N.M. Smyth (1868-1941) (later Major General Sir Nevill Maskelyne Smyth, VC, KCB). Also with the party, paying his way, was Hugh Alfred Cholmley (1876-1944) of Place Newton, Rillington, Yorkshire; Hugh was a shooter on the trip – photographs and wildlife, especially birds: “While here [near Sawakin al-Qadim] we got a few Sand-Grouse, two young Shrikes, and an Egyptian Goatsucker. One day while near the sea I saw two black Ducks, which I am sure were Velvet Scoters – the large yellow beak and black plumage showed distinctly, but they were too far off for a shot.” (Cholmley, A.J. (1897). ‘Notes on the Birds of the Western Coast of the Red Sea’, Ibis 39(2): 196-209). The last four pages of this diary narrate the couple’s short stay in Athens on the way home, including a visit to the first Olympic Games of the modern era (April 6–15, 1896). The notebook has its cost price written in pencil in the front: one shilling (c. £2.50). Return from Note 7
The Bents’ hospital bill from Aden, 1897. Folded into her notebook of that year, it is signed by their Goanese physician, Dr Dias (The Hellenic Society).
Note 8: Also, as a (paying) guest, on this trip to Sokotra was (later Sir) Ernest Nathaniel Bennett (1865-1947), academic, politician, explorer and writer; he made the sensible decision not to join the party’s onward trek into the Aden hinterlands. Assisting the Bents on this journey was their long-term dragoman, and friend, Mathew Simos from the Cycladic island of Anafi; from the time they met (the winter of 1883/4) there were only three adventures in which he did not take part: 1889 (Persia), 1891 (Great Zimbabwe), and 1895 (the Bents’ second visit to the Hadramaut). Noteworthy in this Chronicle are several rare inclusions: a unique ‘contract’ for the party’s passage from Socotra back up to Aden; a hospital bill; and a letter from the Aden authorities regarding their onward journey. Mabel was too ill to update her diary for their last few days east of Aden, but she made an effort, the relaxed style of the experienced traveller in the Sokotra sections contrasting with the feverishness and despair of what she was able to write. Her last diary entry in the field was 16 March 1897. She concluded her memoir later, but does not indicate where or when, ending her final journey with Theodore with the lines: “At last a M.M. [steamer] came from Madagascar with room for us, so one afternoon I was taken up and an ambulance litter was brought beside my bed and I was laid in it and carried down to the sea…” Return from Note 8
[A note on the labels pasted on the front covers. All Mabel’s Chronicles shown above, except for the 1883/4 volume (The Cyclades), appear to be cut from printed paper featuring a distinctive, narrow strip of zigzags. This is curious (as the notebooks cover a period of fifteen years or so), suggesting perhaps that the labels were pasted on at a later date – at around the same time? The handwriting could be Mabel’s, or that of her niece Violet Ethel ffolliott (1882-1932), who gave the notebooks to the Hellenic Society (Mabel died in 1929), or even a cataloguer at the Hellenic Society.]
Tuesday, 18 December 1883: “Met Mr. Swan who more than fulfilled our warmest hopes.” (Travel Chronicles of Mabel Bent, Vol. 1 (p. 21; Oxford, 2006). Is there a photograph anywhere of the Bents’ great friend Robert M.W. Swan? The couple met Swan when he was a mining engineer on the Cycladic island of Antiparos in 1883. In 1891 he joined the travellers for their investigations at Great Zimbabwe, where he undertook surveying duties, contributing a chapter to Bent’s Ruined Cities of Mashonaland (1892). A decade later he was working for various mining companies on the Malay Peninsula, only to die of complications following liver surgery in Kuala Lumpur in 1904 (c. 45 years, the same age as Bent on his death coincidentally). No archive seems to have a likeness of this driven, capable Scotsman and we would like very much to see him, or learn of his final resting place.
Obituaries
“Swan, R.M.W. [Robert McNair Wilson]: We regret to record the death, which took place on March 26th last, of Mr. R. M. W. Swan, well known for his share in the earlier investigations of the ruins of Mashonaland. Mr. Swan was born in 1858, and after receiving a technical training in Glasgow University and in the laboratory of Mr. R. Tattock, went out to Spain in 1878 in the capacity of a mining expert. In 1879 he went to Greece, and the next seven years were spent in mining work, principally in Antiparos and neighbouring islands. In addition to his professional employment, he devoted much attention to archæology, publishing several papers on his researches, and sending many specimens to the British Museum. It was during this period that he first made the acquaintance of Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Bent, whom he accompanied during their visits to several of the islands, afterwards taking part in the expedition to Mashonaland, carried out by them in 1891, for the examination of the Zimbabwe and other ruins. During this expedition he undertook the cartographic portion of the work, executing for the first time a careful plan of the ruins, besides mapping the country along the routes followed, and fixing the positions of a number of points astronomically. When, after his return to this country, Mr. Bent described the results of his journey before the Society, Mr. Swan added some notes on the geography and meteorology of Mashonaland, and subsequently contributed to the “Proceedings” (May, 1892), a short paper on the orientation of the ruins, showing in a striking way the close connection which existed between the arrangement of the structures and the astronomical phenomena to which, as sun-worshippers, their builders had paid so much attention. The subject was more fully discussed in the section which he contributed to Mr. Bent’s “Ruined Cities of Mashonaland”. The theory which he developed was subjected to some criticism; but on returning to South Africa to continue his investigations, he collected “data”, which, as he claimed, fully bore out his ideas. During this journey, carried out in 1893, he examined various ruins, till then undescribed, besides doing something to improve the mapping of the country along his route, which led inland by way of the Limpopo.
“This visit to South Africa lasted about two years, spent in part in geological and mining work. In 1896 he examined the mining districts of Western Australia and Tasmania, and in 1898 went to Siam with a similar object, leaving again, after a short visit to this country, for the Malay Peninsula, where he was engaged in mining work until his death, which took place at Kuala Lumpur after an operation for abscess of the liver. Here, as in South Africa, he did much careful cartographical and geological work.
“Mr. Swan was an expert linguist, and from his residence in Greece had acquired a great love for the classics. He possessed a large store of knowledge on varied subjects, which he was always anxious to share with others. He was a Fellow of the Geological and Chemical Societies, as well as of our own, which he joined in 1893, having received the Murchison Grant in 1892. “(Royal Society’s Journal, May, 1904)
“Anthropology has… to regret the loss during the past year of the following workers and pioneers in unexplored fields, who, although they were not actually Fellows of the Institute, have done much to further the interests of the science which the Institute represents in the country:- Mr. R. M. W. Swan was well known for his researches in Mashonaland. In 1891 he accompanied Mr. Theodore Bent, and undertook the topographical part of the work, the maps and plans of the ruined cities being due to his researches. Shortly before his death, which took place in Malacca, he contributed to the Institute a paper on Stone Implements from Pahang, which appeared in Man.” (Report of the Council for the Year 1904. (1905). The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 35, 2-5; the paper referred to is: Swan, R. M. W. (1904). 34. Note on Stone Implements from Pahang. Man, 4, 54-56)
An early issue of ‘Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine’ (Wikipedia).
Bent’s scores of published articles can be usefully divided into three main categories: 1) Academic (written for his peers, i.e. archaeologists, geographers, ethnologists, anthropologists, inter alia); 2) middlebrow (catering to an educated market, but penned to engage and entertain); and 3) popular (aimed at the general reader, light in tone and readily accessible – the author was not beyond including fictitious elements, and this needs to be borne in mind when enjoying them).
Falling into the second category were the four pieces Bent wrote for Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, a well-respected journal launched by the publisher William Blackwood in Edinburgh with an April issue in 1817. In 1905, after Bent’s time, the magazine transferred its main office to London and, rebadging as Blackwood’s Magazine, continued publishing right up until 1980 – boasting of remaining within Blackwood family hands for its entire existence.
William Blackwood, in charge of the firm during Bent’s dealings with them, primarily in the 1880s (Wikipedia).
At the firm’s helm at the start of Bent’s submissions to the company was founder William Blackwood’s son, John (1818-1879), and at the time of Bent’s death, 1897, another William, John’s nephew. Bent never addressed his letters to any particular individual, and the names of the various junior editors responsible for regular correspondence with our celebrity explorer require further delving.
For references, David Finkelstein has published a monograph: The House of Blackwood. Author–Publisher Relations in the Victorian Age (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002); and there is an earlier account by Margaret Oliphant and Mary Porter – Annals of a publishing house: William Blackwood and his sons, their magazine and friends (published by Blackwood’s themselves in three volumes: Vol. 1 = 1897; Vol. 2 = 1897; Vol. 3 = 1898).
Much of the company’s archives is now curated by the National Library of Scotland (NLS; see below for references); there are over 30 known letters (1878-1892) surviving from Bent to the firm. The contents are typical of dealings between author and publisher, i.e. submission ideas, editorial advice, chasing for replies and payment, returning proofs, etc. It is clear that Bent was in the habit of approaching several publishers at the same time with the same article – hoping that if one rejected, another might accept. (Bent’s own papers, with copies of his dealings with his many publishers, alas, have never surfaced.) The correspondence with Messrs Blackwood ends in 1892, possibly because the editors turned down Bent’s ‘Mashonaland’ material (including what was to be his bestselling monograph) and the explorer then thought better of submitting anything in future. Perhaps the competition paid better too! We will never know, but the Edinburgh firm was to miss out on Bent’s most sensational work.
Many of the issues of Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine are freely available online. Their contents were often syndicated abroad, i.e. the link to Bent’s ‘Patmos’ article above leads to the Littell’s Living Age version (USA, Vol. 173 (1887), pp. 243ff).
Not to Blackwood’s but a specimen of Bent’s letterhead, 13 Great Cumberland Place, London, from a letter to Rider Haggard. Sutton Hall was the Bents’ country residence, outside Macclesfield (Bent Archive).
What now follows are short summaries of Bent’s correspondence with Messrs Blackwood between 1878 and 1892. Here and there, a line or two of Bent’s text is included to bring him directly into the picture. The NLS shelfmarks are provided throughout. We are extremely grateful to Dr Kirsty McHugh and Lynsey Halliday of the National Library of Scotland for their kind help in this research and for permission to quote from the correspondence.
Key: e.g. “(1878) NGS MS.4368 ff.149-150: 6 Dec 1878 (from Florence)” = letter year; NLS shelfmark/reference; date of letter; sent from
Page 200 from Bent’s “San Marino” (1879), one of his own sketches. Blackwood’s turned the book down (archive.org).
(1878) NLS MS.4368 ff.149-150: 6 Dec 1878 (from Florence): Bent offers his first monograph (on San Marino) to the firm; it is rejected and subsequently published (1879) by Longmans. “For reference I may state that my name appears in the Honour school of History, Class II, Oxford, Mods, 1875… I have a series of watercolour sketches [done] on the spot if you think them desirable.”
(1885) NLS MS.4466 ff.266: 12 Jul 1885 (from GCP): Returning from what are now the Greek Dodecanese, Bent offers an article ‘On a far-off island’ [Karpathos]. “I wonder if you would care for a short paper on modern Greek life and folklore as compared with the antient?”
(1885) NLS MS.4466 ff.270: undated, after 12 Jul 1885 (from GCP): Bent chases firm for a reply and they obviously accept the article. On Bent’s original letter is a notable (and quotable) editorial comment in another, anonymous, hand: “Very readable & interesting. I don’t think any good description of Karpathos & its people has ever appeared before. The customs are primitive and quaint in the interior; and although the writer has evidently not a keen sense for the picturesque, the paper is sure to be read & quoted.” One might take issue; Bent, presumably, never saw the note.
Bent’s friend from the British Museum, Sir Charles Newton (Wikipedia).
(1885) NLS MS.4466 ff.268: 14 Nov 1885 (from GCP): Bent is returning the proof of his Karpathos article. He makes a reference to his eminent acquaintance Sir Charles Newton (1816-1894): “It was with a view to excavating and collecting folklore that Mr. Newton advised me to go to Karpathos last winter.”
(1886) NLS MS.4481 f.34: 11 Feb 1886 (from Constantinople): Bent sends thanks for payment (cheque) for his Karpathos article; the amount unspecified (see below, MS.4495 ff.235-6: 29 Jun 1887). The article (Bent’s first of four with BEM) appeared as: ‘On a far-off island’ ( Vol. 139, Feb 1886, pp. 233-244).
(1886) NLS MS.4481 f.36: 26 Sep 1886 (from York): Bent offers an article on Samos and refers to an earlier one on Astypalaea that he sent “about 2 months ago” (this letter untraced). “My dear Sir – I have put together a paper on some of our experiences on the island of Samos, which I think would go very well with the paper I sent you on Astypalaea about 2 months ago.”
Detail from Bent’s map of the Cyclades from his 1885 guide showing the isles of the Eastern Aegean, including Samos, Patmos, and Astypalaea (Bent Archive).
(1886) NLS MS.4495 ff.240-1: 28 Sep 1886 [NGS have it filed as 1887] (from GCP): Clearly with no reply to his previous letter (26 Sep 1886), Bent submits the Samos article he refers to anyway (see NGS MS.4481 f.36: 26 Sep 1886). He suggests a pair (later a trio) of articles (Samos, Astypalaea, Patmos). The final sentence in the following passage indicates that Bent had flexible arrangements with his other publishers: “I send you herewith the paper on Samos; my idea was that perhaps that you might be able to publish one or two of my Greek articles consecutively, as when spread over many magazines they rather lose their point. I wish I had sent you one I wrote on Patmos but if you saw your way to publishing consecutively I think I could get it back… I daresay you would not object to publishing my name with the article as I have rather associated myself with Greek exploration when working for the British Museum & Hellenic Society. I send for your inspection a few of the photos my wife took during our last tour under extreme difficulties.” The Samos and Astypalaea articles were declined; the Patmos one was ultimately accepted (see below, MS.4495 f.227: 15 Jan 1887). The reference to Mabel Bent’s photographs is intriguing, as almost none of her original prints seem to have survived or surfaced. Very unfortunately, the prints Bent is referring to are not catalogued within the Blackwood archive at the NLS (pers. comm).
(1886) NLS MS.4495 f.244: 18 Nov 1886 [NGS have it filed as 1887] (from GCP): Still hearing nothing, Bent writes to chase news of his Samos and Astypalaea articles. “I should be obliged to hear from you respecting the two articles of mine you have.”
(1886) NLS MS.4481 ff.38-9: 2 Dec 1886 (from GCP): Doggedly, Bent chases yet again, this time including the MS of his Patmos article, which he must have retrieved from another publisher (see NGS MS.4495 ff.240-1: 28 Sep 1886 above). “I send for your perusal the third article [of a proposed trio] on Patmos which I proposed, if you see your way to publishing the 3 [on] Greek life on Aegean islands: (1) The Principality of Samos; (2) Revelations from Patmos; (3) Astypalaea. This will cover the whole of our tour last winter & it would be preferable to me to have them consecutively printed. I should be much obliged for an early answer…”
(1886) NLS MS.4481 f.40: 23 Dec 1886 (from GCP): Bent has still not had a reply, five months after submitting his first proposal. “I should be much obliged if you will let me know what your opinion is with regard to the 3 articles I sent you on Samos, Patmos and Astypalaea.” It seems, finally, that BEM did agree within weeks (over Christmas and the New Year) to publish Bent’s Patmos article, but not the other two. As for Samos, Bent had already published six articles with other journals (see Bibliography) referring to this island and BEM probably thought this was enough. (The Bents first visited Samos over the winter 0f 1882/3.) The Astypalaea piece did appear in The Gentleman’s Magazinein March 1887 (Vol. 262, pp. 253-65).
(1887) NLS MS.4495 f.227: 15 Jan 1887 (from GCP): Bent asks for a proof of his Patmos article quickly as the couple are about to start another expedition soon (to the Eastern Mediterranean) to indulge his “anthropological propensities”. He regrets his trio of Greek articles will not appear. “I am sorry you do not see your way to publishing the 3 papers consecutively… My work this year is taking me to Salonika & some of the Turkish towns on the Macedonian coast, where I hope I may come in contact with people which will give a wider field for my anthropological propensities.”
(1887) NLS MS.4495 f.229: 25 Jan 1887 (from GCP): Bent has been asked to add some detail to his Patmos article, he does so. BEM’s policy was generally not to print the author’s name at the article’s end, Bent asks them to make an exception, and they do so. “I have as you suggest added a few things respecting the books in the library & the legendary life of St John on Patmos… I think as you are only publishing one of my papers you will not refuse to put my name at the end of it, as I have more or less associated myself with the subject I prefer its being known who has written the article.” (Bent was not acknowledged in his Karpathos article, but he was for the other three BEM pieces.)
(1887) NLS MS.4495 ff.231-2: 2 Jun 1887 (from GCP; Bent’s headed stationery here is black-lined, the deceased is unknown): Bent writes chasing payment for his Patmos contribution and seeking a copy of the relevant issue. He again mentions that he is preparing an article on the Jews of Salonika (see NGS MS.4495 f.227: 15 Jan 1887 above). “I have just returned home from Greece & not finding a copy of the March magazine or a cheque for my contribution I conclude you have acted more wisely than some others & awaited my return to send them.” The article (Bent’s second of four with BEM) appeared as: ‘Revelations from Patmos’ (Vol. 141, Mar 1887, pp. 368-379). [A further Patmos article – ‘What St. John Saw on Patmos’ – appears in The Nineteenth Century, Vol. 24 (142) (1888, Dec), pp. 813-821.]
(1887) NLS MS.4495 f.233: 16 Jun 1887 (from GCP. Bent’s stationery is black-lined, the deceased is unknown): Bent is again asking, perhaps tetchily, for payment for his Patmos article. “I wrote to tell you the other day that I have received no cheque for the article I wrote in your March number. As I have only just returned from the East there is always a fear of its having got lost so I should be much obliged if you would let me know if one has been sent or not.”
(1887) NLS MS.4495 ff.235-6: 29 Jun 1887 (from GCP): Bent has received payment for his Patmos article but still not a complimentary copy. Surely he must have acquired a copy elsewhere but is just making his point! His payment was £14 (c. £750 today), which we can assume was around the going rate; the article was c. 8500 words (see also NGS MS.4546 f.241: 3 Nov 1890 and NLS MS.4546 f.241: 3 Nov 1890).
(1887) NLS MS.4495 f.237: 25 Jul 1887 (from GCP): Despite having no reply to his offer of an article on the Jews of Salonika (see MS.4495 ff.231-2: 2 Jun 1887), Bent sends his text in nevertheless. It is rejected but appears as ‘A Peculiar People’ in Longman’s Magazine in November 1887 (Vol. 11 (61) (Nov), pp. 24-36).
(1887) NLS MS.4495 f.238: 27 July 1887 (from GCP): Speculatively, as is his wont now it seems, Bent submits an article stemming from their Spring 1887 trip to the Northern Aegean, including substantial excavations on Thasos and a tour of Samothraki. “I send you herewith a paper on some of our Greek island experiences of last spring. I have made it short & only introduced material that I thought would interest. If you would care for it longer I could easily extend it.” BEM decline, but Bent publishes five scholarly pieces on Thasos and his more general article on ‘Samothrace’ was accepted by The Gentleman’s Magazine in 1888 (Vol. 264 (Jan), pp. 86-98).
(1887) NLS MS.4495 f.242: 30 Sep 1887 (from GCP): Remarkably prolific, Bent submits a further piece. “My excuse for sending you another Greek Island paper must be that I think this Teliote [Tilos] wedding therein related the most interesting of all our adventures in the Aegean Sea.” BEM, perhaps wisely, turned it down. This article was a tour-de-force of imagination and one of the main indicators we must cite when illustrating that Bent did not always report on what he actually saw. The account of this wedding outlasts the time spent on the island, as recorded in his wife’s diary, and neither does she refer to it. The episode is made up of extant Greek wedding practice and custom, but Bent never witnessed them on Tilos. Nevertheless, the article was published as ‘A Protracted Wedding’ in The Gentleman’s Magazine in October 1888 (Vol. 265 (Oct), pp. 331-341. Intriguingly, a slightly different version was to appear under the same title in the English Illustrated Magazine years later, in June 1891 (Vol. 93 (Jun), pp. 672-677), while the Bents were in South Africa!
Portrait of John Covel by C.L. Guynier (1716). Bent was responsible for bringing Covel’s diaries to public attention (Wikipedia).
(1887) NLS MS.4495 f.246: 1 Dec 1887 (from GCP): As noted, Blackwood’s were also book publishers and Bent now tries to interest them in the important diaries of John Covel (1638-1722) – English ambassador in Constantinople. “In the British Museum I came across a voluminous M.S. being the diary of Dr. Covel, chaplain to our ambassador at Constantinople 1670-7. This diary has never been printed.” The firm decline it. Bent published an introductory article, ‘Dr. John Covel’s Diary’, in The Gentleman’s Magazine in 1890 (Vol. 268 (May), 470-489). The work was successfully edited by Bent and published in 1893 as ‘Extracts from the diaries of John Covel (1870-1879)’ in Bent’s Early voyages and travels in the Levant (London: Hakluyt Society, pp. 99-287). The work is still available.
(1888) NLS MS.4511 f.156: 1 Jan 1888 (from GCP): Bent writes for a reply to his proposal to publish John Covel’s diary (see previous letter, MS.4495 f.246: 1 Dec 1887).
(1888) NLS MS.4511 f.158: 1 Aug 1888 (from GCP): Bent submits an article based on their Spring 1888 explorations along the Turkish coast. “Last winter I undertook for 2 societies excavations in Turkey & being unable to get satisfactory terms from the govt I made this cruise of which the enclosed is the account.” BEM turn it town, but the piece, among Bent’s most enjoyable, was published in November 1888 as ‘A Piratical F.S.A.’ in the Cornhill Magazine (Vol. 58 (11), pp. 620-635).
(1889) NLS MS.4528 f.236: 31 Jul 1889 (from GCP): Bent submits an article based on their visit into Armenia (as they were riding south-north through Persia in the Spring of 1889).
(1889) NLS MS.4528 f.238: 4 Oct 1889 (from GCP): Bent chases for a reply to his letter 31 July 1889 concerning an article on Armenia.
(1889) NLS MS.4528 f.240: 5 Dec 1889 (from GCP): Again, Bent chases for a reply to about his Armenia piece. BEM are clearly not interested. It is not until 1896 that an article on Armenia does appear, published in the Contemporary Review as ‘Travels amongst the Armenians’ (Vol. 70 (Jul/Dec), pp. 695-709). This is a good example of Bent’s tenacity and his loathness to ‘waste’ a perfectly good article – and a source of income.
(1889) NLS MS.4528 f.242: 17 Dec 1889 (from GCP): Bent submits his article ‘Under British Protection’ based on their visit to Bahrein in the early months of 1889. BEM turn it down and it is published in 1893 by The Fortnightly Review (Vol. 60 (54) (Sep), pp. 365-376). See comment above about Bent’s tenacity – are there perhaps articles of his that never saw the light of day?
(1890) NLS MS.4546 f.237: 7 Aug 1890 (from GCP): Bent sends an article on Tarsus, following their explorations in the area in the Spring of that year. BEM agree to publish it and it will be Bent’s third article for them: ‘Tarsus Past and Present’ (Vol. 148 (Nov 1890), pp. 616-625).
Bent’s map of some of the area of the Turkish littoral visited by the couple in 1890. Plate XII, J.T. Bent, ‘A Journey in Cilicia Tracheia’, ‘The Journal of Hellenic Studies’, Vol. 12, 1891 (archive.org).
(1890) NLS MS.4546 ff.239-40: 12 Oct 1890 (from GCP): Bent returns his Tarsus proof and other material to support an idea for a further piece: “I return the proof of “Tarsus past & present” corrected herewith… I am also sending you a reprint of the paper I read before the Geographical Society in the summer. It occurs to me that perhaps you would like a popular article on our wanderings & adventures amongst the nomads of the Taurus.” A BEM editor has written a note on Bent’s letter: “A very popular paper might be made out of Mr Bent’s reports to the Geographical & Hellenic Societies. I would invite him to submit to us a paper giving a brief general account of the condition of Cilicia, and accounts of his wanderings, and a description of the more striking natural features of the country, especially the Corycian caves, the passes, the Taurus range and the rivers. The Yuruk tribes are interesting and should be fully dealt with. The article should wind up with a general survey of the archaeological results, [word illegible] with reference to the history of the Province.” This suggestion is to result shortly in Bent’s fourth article for BEM: ‘Archæological Nomads in Rugged Cilicia’.
(1890) NLS MS.4546 f.241: 3 Nov 1890 (from GCP): Bent writes with thanks for the fee of £12 (c. £500 today) for his Tarsus article, which appears later in November. He confirms that he has finished his article on “the nomads of the Taurus & have sent it to be type written” (a reference to recent advances in publishing technology!).
(1890) NLS MS.4546 f.243: 6 Nov 1890 (from GCP): The Taurus article is back from being typed up and Bent sends it off. “I send you herewith the paper on our wanderings in the Taurus. I am not quite sure that I like the title perhaps you could suggest a better one.”
(1890) NLS MS.4546 ff.245-246: 5 Dec 1890 (from GCP): Bent returns his Taurus proofs and makes a reference to a possible expedition to ‘Mashonaland’: “I have received a joint overture from the R.G.S. and the British South Africa Company requesting me to undertake the examination and excavation of the recently discovered ruins in Mashonaland… The matter requires a little more thought etc. but I fancy will end in our going, in which case we shall be away 8 or 9 months but shall have material of a decidedly novel nature to communicate. I have not mentioned the fact to any other publisher, thinking perhaps you might like to undertake an account of that country either in journal or book form.” This letter is of genuine significance. Information on the early background to the Bents’ famous expedition to Great Zimbabwe in 1891 is scanty. The offer of a publication is noteworthy, as the eventual monograph, published by Longman’s, was a bestseller. Blackwood’s turned it down, as did John Murray (NLS MS.40087 f.101: 19 Feb 1892).
(1891) NLS MS.4566 ff.206-207: 13 Jan 1891 (from GCP): The preparations for ‘Mashonaland’ have been completed in a matter of weeks – a huge achievement given the scale of the project. Bent asks whether BEM would care to pay for his Tarsus piece before they set sail. “I am starting for Mashonaland on the 29th of this month [January 1891] & if it in no way interferes with your arrangements I should deem it a favour if you will send the cheque for my article [‘Archæological Nomads in Rugged Cilicia’, Vol. 149 (Mar 191), pp. 377-391] before then as I understand postal arrangements will be very difficult.” There is a note on Bent’s letter confirming that a cheque was posted to Bent on 15 Jan 1891; the amount is not specified.
(1892) NLS MS.4584 ff.156-157: 6 Feb 1892 (from GCP): The Bents are back from South Africa, again Bent enquires whether the firm would be interested in his material from this expedition. Cleary he had not contracted it to another publisher at this date. “We have returned from our trip to Mashonaland & our excavations at Zimbabwe both which though far longer than anticipation [sic] have been attended with highly satisfactory results… I am going to ask if you would care to give me an offer for my material, a portion to run through your magazine and the bulk to be produced in a well-illustrated volume… I am anxious if possible to come to an arrangement of this sort with one publisher and not to scatter my material as I have done before… Of course, having only been home a week or 10 days I have nothing ready to place before you, but hope soon to have my ideas collected & start work… An early reply will oblige.” This letter (and see NGS MS.4546 ff.245-246: 5 Dec 1890) is of genuine significance. Information on the early background to the Bents’ expedition to Great Zimbabwe in 1891 is scanty. Bent writes to John Murray (NLS MS.40087 f.101) on 19 Feb 1892 (and perhaps others as well) enquiring whether they might be interested, but the eventual monograph, The Ruined Cities of Mashonalandis published by Longman’s in 1892, and is an immediate bestseller. Bent’s Mashonaland material is subsequently disseminated in a score of articles – academic, middlebrow, and popular (see Bibliography).
The Blackwood’s archive in Edinburgh has no further Bent correspondence, it seems, after 6 February 1892, and the celebrity explorer placed his articles with other periodicals. It is speculation, but perhaps Bent was disappointed or upset with Blackwood’s response to his South African findings, which soon brought him considerable fame and provided a platform for his last great sphere of activity (and cause of his early death) – Southern Arabia.
– * –
It is to be hoped that the archives of some of the other periodicals Bent wrote for can be traced and accessed. The archives of one of his book publishers, Longmans, Green & Co., are today with the University of Reading, Special Collections (Berkshire, UK) (ref: GB 6 RUL MS 1393). The material contains production and sales information but not actual correspondence, apart from, and uniquely, Bent’s signed contract (ref: MS 1393/3/1974) for his The sacred city of the Ethiopians (1893).
The famous soapstone bird the Bents discovered at Great Zimbabwe (From “The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland” (1892).
The three major fields of research (between 1880 and 1900) for celebrity British explorers Theodore and Mabel Bent were the Eastern Mediterranean, Arabia, and Africa. We recently asked Mike Tucker, author behind zimfieldguide.com (delivering historic, cultural and wildlife information for Zimbabwe), if he had an angle on the Bents’ 1891 explorations of Great Zimbabwe and other sites, and he very kindly provided the following essay. Thank you Mike.
James Theodore Bent and Mabel Virginia Anna Bent gave many artefacts to the British Museum from Southern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe) collected during and after their excavation at Great Zimbabwe in 1891.
Introduction
A section of Theodore’s map in southern Africa (The Bent Archive).
The story of the Bents’ excavation at Great Zimbabwe is told in the article ‘The Bent’s archaeological expedition to Great Zimbabwe in 1891 and the prominent part played by Mabel Bent’ under ‘Masvingo Province’ on the www.zimfieldguide.com website. Theodore Bent wrote over 150 articles, papers and lectures, comprehensively listed in the Bibliography section of the website devoted to the couple. Both Theodore and Mabel Bent were prolific authors and their books are also listed on the website. Other information and details of their journey come from Theodore Bent’s book The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland (1892), written very rapidly on their return home to 13 Great Cumberland Place, London – it proved very popular and ran to five editions. Finally, I used facsimile copies of Mabel’s notebooks housed at the Hellenic Society Archive, University College London.
The Bents’ excavations at Great Zimbabwe
In 1877, Theodore Bent married Mabel (née Hall-Dare, 1847-1929) who became his constant companion, photographer, illustrator and diarist on all his travels and from the time of their marriage they went abroad nearly every year.
Peter Garlake (1973) gives a number of quotes that are relevant to these first excavations carried out at Great Zimbabwe and are repeated below. Bent approached the question of Great Zimbabwe believing, like almost everyone, that its origins must lie with a civilised and ancient people from outside Africa and he had in fact been chosen to undertake the project because of his prior archaeological work on the Phoenicians.
But as far as the Phoenicians were concerned the excavations were showing little evidence of their presence. “Now, of course it is a great temptation to talk of Phoenician ruins when there is anything like gold to be found in connection with them, but from my own personal experience of Phoenician ruins I cannot say that [the Great Zimbabwe ruins] bear the slightest resemblance whatsoever” (Garlake 1973: 66). Every local resident they met was keen to perpetuate the Phoenician myth as was their patron, the British South Africa Company, and the Bents soon saw that the archaeological evidence was contrary to this idea, “the names of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba were on everybody’s lips and have become so distasteful to us that we never expect to hear them again without an involuntary shudder”.
In June 1891 their excavation work around the Conical Tower within the Great Enclosure soon disproved the theories that Great Zimbabwe was ancient and of foreign origin. “We found but little depth of soil, very little debris, and indications of a native occupation of the place up to a very recent date” and Bent is quoted by his local guide C.C. Meredith as saying, “I have not much faith in the antiquity of these ruins, I think they are native. Everything we have so far is native.”
Great Zimbabwe – Aerial view of Great Enclosure and Valley Complex, looking west (Wikipedia, with site locations added).
To quote directly from Peter Garlake, “Work in the elliptical building [Great Enclosure] was abandoned within a fortnight and excavations started in the eastern enclosure of the Hill Ruin [Hill Complex] ‘because it occurred to us that a spot situated on the shady side of the hill might possibly be free from native desecration.’ This was not to be. Throughout the deposits there were great numbers of household objects: sherds from hand built vessels, pottery spindle whorls, iron, bronze and copper spearheads, arrowheads, axes, adzes and hoes and gold working equipment such as tuyères and crucibles. Most of these still seemed indistinguishable from contemporary Karanga articles.” (Garlake 1973: 67)
Yet Bent still continued to be focussed on Phoenician origins. In the Great Enclosure were found four birds carved in soapstone on monoliths and flat soapstone dishes with abstract patterns or animals carved around the edges, small carved cylinders that looked like phalli and an ingot mould: objects unique to the site. Had similar objects been found elsewhere? Bent theorised the birds might copy stelae from Assyria, Mycenae, Phoenician Cyprus, Egypt and Sudan: the patterns on some of the objects resembled Phoenician motifs, the mould resembled one found in Cornwall and thought to be Phoenician.
Similarly with the architecture. The shape of the Great Enclosure resembled the temple of Marib in Southern Arabia, the Conical Tower looked like a Phoenician temple on a Byblos coin as well as structures in Assyria, Malta and Sardinia. The birds might symbolize gods or goddesses, the disc patterns indicate sun worship, the soapstone monoliths and phalli were “grosser forms of nature-worship” (Garlake 1973: 68) and so on.
From his above muddled ideas Bent decided there was, “little room for doubt that the builders and workers of the Great Zimbabwe came from the Arabian Peninsula… a prehistoric race built the ruins… which eventually became influenced and perhaps absorbed in the… organisations of the Semite…a northern race coming from Arabia…closely akin to the Phoenician and Egyptian…and eventually developing into the more civilised races of the ancient world.”
His final conclusions, “that the ruins and the things in them are not in any way connected with any known African race” seem extraordinary in view of all the artefacts excavated by the Bents in 1891.
The Collection of Bent artefacts from Great Zimbabwe at the British Museum
The numbers of objects donated below represent only those listed on the British Museum’s online collection, there may well be others in storage and not yet listed.
In all, the British Museum lists on their online collection 583 objects given by Theodore Bent. Those from present-day Zimbabwe number 272 objects (i.e. 47%) the remainder come from their archaeological excavations in Greece, the Turkish coast, Ethiopia, Arabia, etc.
Mabel Bent gave a further 155 objects. Those from present-day Zimbabwe number 26 objects with the remainder from Iran, Yemen, Arabia, Greece, etc. Her final donation to the museum was in 1926, three years before her death, suggesting that the artefacts possessed great sentimental value, reminding her of her twenty years of travel with her husband, who died at the early age of 45 in 1897.
For the purposes of this essay, I have only shown below a representative sample of the objects that the Bents collected or excavated on their 1891 expedition to present-day Zimbabwe.
Plate 1: A selection from the 100s of artefacts acquired by the British Museum from the Bents following their expedition to present-day Zimbabwe in 1891 (The Trustees of the British Museum).Plate 2: A selection from the 100s of artefacts acquired by the British Museum from the Bents following their expedition to present-day Zimbabwe in 1891 (The Trustees of the British Museum).Plate 3: A selection from the 100s of artefacts acquired by the British Museum from the Bents following their expedition to present-day Zimbabwe in 1891 (The Trustees of the British Museum).Plate 4: A selection from the 100s of artefacts acquired by the British Museum from the Bents following their expedition to present-day Zimbabwe in 1891 (The Trustees of the British Museum).Plate 5: A selection from the 100s of artefacts acquired by the British Museum from the Bents following their expedition to present-day Zimbabwe in 1891 (The Trustees of the British Museum).
References:
Garlake, Peter S. 1973. Great Zimbabwe. London: Thames and Hudson.
Bent, J. Theodore 1969. The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland. Bulawayo: Books of Rhodesia, Gold Series, Vol. 5 [first edition 1892, Longman, Green & Co., London].
… and one further curio from Mashonaland:
Cane snuff-box with incised line design (Af1892,0714.99) (Trustees of the British Museum).
“After leaving Chipunza’s kraal, and crossing the River Rusapi, a ride of two hours brought us to Makoni’s kraal… Most of the men had very large holes pierced in the lobes of their ears, into which they would insert snuff-boxes of reeds, decorated with black geometric patterns, and other articles” (The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland, 1892, pp. 354-5). Bent acquires one and it is now in the British Museum (Af1892,0714.99.a), with its original label from 14 July 1892.
The recent death of Ratan Tata (28 December 1937 – 9 October 202) has prompted this reposting of an article (Jan 2021) linking this famous family to Mabel Bent. Ratan was the son of Naval Tata, who was adopted by Ratanji Tata, the son of Jamshedji Tata; the latter, of course, was the founder of the Tata Group. Mabel attended Jamshedji’s funeral in Surrey (UK) on 24 May 1904; her association with the family remains unknown.
“And now I think we are among the most remarkable people in this world. Fancy going all the way to Bombay and departing thence without ever landing!” (from Mabel Bent’s Chronicleof 1889)
The tomb of Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata (1839-1904), Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey (wikipedia).
We begin our essay on Theodore and Mabel Bent and India not at the Taj Mahal, nor the Ellora Caves, but in leafy Brookwood Cemetery (Surrey, UK), an hour from London, on May 24, 1904:
“And why, it may be asked, were so many Indian and English friends gathered… in such a place on a dismal day in a downpour of rain? The day was dismal, and rightly so, for the obsequies were being performed of Mr. Jamsetdjee Nusserwanjee Tata, the foremost citizen, taken all round, that India has produced during the long period of British rule over the most cultured and civilised people east of Suez…”
For it seems, indeed, that Mabel Bent, and perhaps Theodore too, although dead and buried himself these seven years, was a friend, or at least an acquaintance, of the extraordinary Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata (1839-1904), the pioneer Indian industrialist who founded the Tata Group, India’s largest conglomerate company (as at 2021).
And in the same periodical that reports the industrialist’s funeral – the Voice of India, Saturday, 18 June 1904 (p. 583) – we have an image of Mabel, bearing flowers, her long red hair tucked under a black hat:
“From Mr. N.J. Moola I have received the following list of inscriptions attached to the wonderfully beautiful and choice flowers that were an eloquent expression of the affection in which Mr. Tata was held…”
And included in this list we find: ‘With deep sympathy, from Mrs. Theodore Bent,’ and Mabel remained friends with the family, as a cutting from the Belfast Evening Telegraph of Monday, June 28, 1913, indicates: “Mrs. Theodore Bent’s recent evening party was as great a success as her other functions have always been, and was particularly noticeable for the number of distinguished foreign and Colonial guests present. The suite of beautiful rooms, which form a perfect museum of curios from all parts of the world, were looking their best, and were crowded with guests of many nationalities, many of the ladies wearing diamonds in the form of tiaras and other ornaments, some of the handsomest being displayed by a Parsee lady, Mrs. Ratan Tata, who had splendid sapphires set into diamond frames as a necklace, and also for securing her white saree.”
To be able to associate Mabel, the archetypal Victorian, with the legendary ‘Father of Indian Industry’ seems somehow an unusual but fanfaring introduction to the Bents and India, with all the dynamics and symbolism in play between the nations at the end of the 19th century. India meant something, and meant adventures in and around the region for the Bents.
A little scene-setting: one of Edward Lear’s “Indian Trees, Palms and Bamboos” from his 1873/5 journey. Ten years later Lear was to receive a copy of Theodore Bent’s book on the Cyclades (from ‘A Blog of Bosh’).
In all, our couple made three trips to India – not the London, ten-hour flight to Mumbai of today, but then, of course, traversing several seas (the Suez Canal was opened to navigation on 17 November, 1869). Let it be known, Theodore never expressed any sustained interest in exploring or excavating regionally in India, nor to travel and write about its culture; it seems the idea of the land was just too big for him to provide any focus or purchase, and there was something, too, in his psychology, that did not fit. And yet, such was the meaning of India, it would have been extraordinary indeed were he never to have set foot on the Asian continent. Thus, concisely, we can condense their trips to India into: one business meeting (1895), two transit stops (1889 and 1894), and one brief tourist excursion (1895).
But it was India nevertheless.
Theodore wrote no articles directly relating to these visits, the name ‘India’ appearing in just one title. For Mabel, her diary entries are strangely muted (as we shall read in a moment): there is no colour, no sensory Indian overload, as if British control of the ports they landed at and left from, without much exploration, had thrown an odd English and subfusc wash over everything.
P.&O.’s ad from ‘A handbook for travellers in India, Burma, and Ceylon’ (J. Murray 1911, archive.org).
Their first Asian visit was in December 1889 – in a dramatic volte face and characteristic burst of energy and enthusiasm from Theodore that was to launch the couple out of their Eastern-Mediterranean orbit – having been denied further rights to ‘explore’ in either Greece or Turkey – and project them thousands of kilometres eastwards, for Bahrain, then under British and India Office protection, and with Theodore at relative liberty therefore to shovel-and-pick his way there through the ‘Mounds of Ali’. His fuel for this foray was an interest he had by the end of the 1890s in various long-standing theories and Classical references that seemed to link Bahrain with the Phoenicians, and in turn to the movement of early peoples around the Eastern Mediterranean and beyond – perhaps the theme that could be said to be the pivot of his short life’s work; his means of taking himself and his wife to Bahrain was via a slow boat from Karachi, then in India and under the British Raj. But their first port of call was to be Bombay.
Map from “A handbook for travellers in India, Burma, and Ceylon” (J. Murray 1911, archive.org).
The summer of 1888 was taken up, as usual, with Theodore conducting a busy schedule of talks and lectures in England and Scotland, as well as a non-stop programme of article-writing and publishing. Late summer was the time for extended holidays in Ireland and northern England, seeing family and friends, and so it was not until after Christmas 1888 that Theodore and Mabel had everything in place to leave London. Through Suez, and changing at Aden, they reached Mumbai (then Bombay) after three weeks, and immediately left for Karachi and a cruise up the eastern side of the Persian Gulf; making a brief halt at Muscat, before crossing to Bushire, arriving there on 1 February 1889. From there they crossed the Gulf once more to reach Bahrain. (Their finds there, now in the British Museum, were modest and the couple spent only two weeks on the island.) By the end of February 1889 the couple are leaving again for Bushire, Mabel adding in her diary: ‘having passed 40 days and 40 nights of our precious time on the sea, we then and there made up our minds to return over land…’ And with this throwaway remark, Mabel announces the couple’s epic ride of some 2000 km through Persia, the first leg of their journey home to Marble Arch.
But let us now peer over Mabel’s shoulder and read her ‘Chronicle’ while she writes on the “British India S.S. Pemba, January 21st 1889, Monday. Passing Gujarat, India”
P&O’s SS ‘Rosetta’ in 1884 (photo taken by Walter Cunningham Hume). The Bents travelled on her from England to Aden in early 1889, where they changed to the P.&O. ‘Assam’ and then the B.I. ‘Pemba’ (courtesy of Nicholas Messinger).
“I now for the first time [Monday, 21st January 1889] feel tempted to bring forth this book, as I am so soon to get off the beaten track. Theodore and I left London on December 28th (Friday) in the P.&O.S.S. Rosetta, not a very comfortable or clean ship and landed at Naples (Saturday) on the way and changed at Aden (Monday), with no time to land, to the P.&O. Assam, which, though smaller, is wider and has much better passenger accommodation and was very clean.
A plan of Bombay from “A handbook for travellers in India, Burma, and Ceylon” ( J. Murray 1911, archive.org).
“We reached Bombay on Sunday 20th [January 1889] after a roughish time in the Indian Ocean, passing on Saturday the American racing yacht Coronet going round the world. There were few passengers on the ‘Assam’. And now I think we are among the most remarkable people in this world. Fancy going all the way to Bombay and departing thence without ever landing! We found the tender of the British India waiting hungrily for us and were carried off with the mails at once. This [i.e. the ‘Pemba’] is a very small ship and only one passenger for Kurrachi 1st class, but quantities of odd deck passengers dressed and the reverse. We have a cabin next to the little ladies’ cabin and their bath and all in communication, so Theodore has a dressing room and we are most comfortable. We are to call at several places on our way to Bushire. The sea is very calm and it is nice and cool and we are passing a coast like Holland with palms, or rather coconut trees.
Karachi and its environs. From “A handbook for travellers in India, Burma, and Ceylon” (J. Murray 1911, archive.org).
“We reached Kurrachi on Wednesday 23rd [January 1889] about 2 o’clock, and being tempted by the thought of 2 nights ashore, landed. We were surprised at the immense fleet of huge sailing boats which surrounded the ship instead of the usual little ones, but we were a good way out. They are building a new lighthouse further back and on lower ground but higher in itself, as the present one is being shaken by the guns on Manora Point.
Manora Point from “Kurrachee Past, Present And Future” by Alexander F Baillie, p. 62, 1890, Calcutta (archive.org).
“On landing on the bunder, or quay, we took a carriage for Reynold’s Hotel. After leaving the bunder, where various shipping buildings are, we drove for a mile or more along the bund, or embankment, across water and in about 6 miles we reached our destination. All around is arid and sandy but they are making a fierce fight to rear up some dusty plantains, palms, pepper trees, etc. The hotel was a great disappointment as the establishment is just a one-storeyed bungalow with a veranda all round and everyone’s door opening on to it and most with no kind of blind to prevent the inmates being beheld by outsiders. We found ourselves, when night came, in this case and so without ceremony flitted to a suite next door with imitation coloured glass. There was a dressing room behind and a built bath cemented in a bathroom beyond. All was very untidy and wretched and when night came we wished ourselves on board the ‘Pemba’.
Empress Market from “Kurrachee Past, Present And Future” by Alexander F Baillie, frontispiece, 1890, Calcutta (archive.org).
“The cantonment road was near, also many others intersecting the sandy plain all 40 feet wide and one with footpaths fully 20. This led past the bungalows of officers, each in a compound, which made the road very long and dull, and it was very hot too. On Thursday [24th January 1889] we drove to the city about 4 miles off and nearer the sea and discovered the native town and wandered up and down narrow streets full of people intermixed with cows and passed several baths where people were washing themselves outside the buildings.
“We departed at dawn on Friday [25th January 1889] and drove down to the bunder and were off after breakfast, now the only 1st class. Friday night we stopped 3 miles out from Gwadar in Beloochistan, so of course saw nothing, and on Sunday morning, 27th [January 1889] early, found ourselves at Muscat in Arabia.”
Five years on – Karachi revisited: Bound for India a second time
The MM SS ‘Ava’ at Port Said on her way to Aden. The Bents changed to the MM SS ‘La Seyne’ there for Karachi in the winter of 1894 (courtesy: P. Romona).
For 1895, the Bents have decided to make a second attempt to penetrate regions of Yemeni Hadramaut, this time approaching from the south-east, via Muscat again and the coast of modern Oman. Their first trek into the Wadi Hadramaut, in 1894, was only partially successful, and on their return they soon made plans to try again. Mabel’s previous Chronicle had ended in an upbeat tone with ‘and if we possibly can we’ll go back’. In any event they only had a few months (and, as said before, they normally took a break in mid-summer to visit family and friends in England and Ireland) to seek backing and make all the necessary preparations, including informing the ‘media’. Ultimately Theodore was ready to issue a ‘press release’ to The Times (31 October 1894): “Mr. Theodore Bent informs Reuter’s Agency that he and Mrs. Bent are about to start another scientific expedition to Southern Arabia. Leaving Marseilles by Messageries steamer on November 12, they will proceed to Kurrachee, whence they will tranship to Muscat.”
For a first-hand account, we have an extract from Mabel’s classic book on their Arabian adventures – Southern Arabia (1900) – in which she explains (p. 228 ff):
“My husband again, to our great satisfaction, had Imam Sharif, Khan Bahadur [expedition cartographer of note on their last trip], placed at his disposal; and, as the longest way round was the quickest and best, we determined to make our final preparations in India, and meet him and his men at Karachi.”
The MM SS “La Seyne”. The Bents sailed on her to Karachi in the winter of 1894/5 (courtesy: P. Romona).
But let’s at this point switch back to Mabel’s diaries, and her entry for: “Saturday 15th December, 1894. The Residency, Muscat. As it is now nearly a fortnight since I have seen a white woman, I think it time to start my writing. We left England [Friday] Nov. 9th [1894] and after 2 nights at Boulogne embarked at Marseilles on [Monday] the 12th [November 1894] on board the M.M.S.S. ‘Ava’. We had a good passage and warm, seeing Etna smoking on the way, and about 2 days after had a great white squall; I daresay in connection with the earthquakes. We transshipped at Aden to ‘La Seyne’, Theodore going ashore to see about the camp furniture left there 7 months ago.
Government House, where the Bents stayed in Karachi in November 1894. From “Kurrachee Past, Present And Future” by Alexander F Baillie, p. 146, 1890, Calcutta (archive.org).
“We reached Kurrachee on the morning of [Thursday] the 29th [November 1894] and a letter came on board from Mr. James, the Commissioner, asking us to stay at Government House, saying he was going to the Durbar at Lahore, but his sister, Mrs. Pottinger, would entertain us – and so she did, most kindly. She is so pretty and charming, I do not know which of us was most in love with her…
The Sind Club and Frere Hall, Karachi. From “Kurrachee Past, Present And Future” by Alexander F. Baillie, p. 148, 1890, Calcutta (archive.org).
“We remained at Kurrachee till Monday night after dinner. We drove out every evening and one morning went to the bazaars. I bought a lot of toe rings of various shapes, silver with blue and green enamel. They were weighed against rupees and 2 annas added to each rupee. One day we went to call on 2 brides and bridegrooms, Mr. and Mrs. McIver Campbell and Mr. and Mrs. Thornton. The ladies, Miss Grimes and Miss Moody, had come out to our steamer, been married that day, and were passing their honeymoon together at Reynold’s Hotel, amid the pity of all beholders. We embarked [Monday 3rd/Tuesday 4th December 1894] on the B.I.S.N.S.S. Chanda with a little plum pudding Mrs. Pottinger had had made and mixed and stirred by herself and us, and Mr. Ireland, a young invalid officer who was being taken care of at Government House, and her young nephew, Mr. A. James. We were 3 days on the Chanda, a clean little ship with a very clever nice Captain Whitehead, and on Thursday morning [6th December 1894] we reached Muscat…”
A third and final return to India
Theodore’s own watercolour sketch of Muscat from his paper ‘Exploration of the Frankincense Country, Southern Arabia’. The Geographical Journal, 1895, Vol. 6 (2) (Aug), 109-33.
Alas, this expedition along the Oman coast also turns out to be less than successful – although the couple made some remarkable discoveries. The fastness that was the ‘Wadi Hadhramout’ again resisted the Bents’ advances and the party found itself stranded at Sheher, on Yemen’s south coast, in late January 1895, in vain hoping to strike northwards into the Wadi area, or, failing that, to return to Muscat to explore further there.
Mabel’s expedition Chronicle of around this date is haphazard and, understandably, rather depressed. Something happens, and, as in nowhere else in her twenty years of diary-keeping, the detailed notes of the couple’s travels disappear. We get a few lines from the Yemeni south coast before moving with her on board the Imperator for Mumbai:
“[About Wednesday, 30th January 1895, Sheher] … The next 2 days there were great negotiations and plannings as to our future course. One plan was to go hence to Inat in the Wadi Hadhramout, down to Kabre Hud and Bir Borhut and thence to the Mosila Wadi; eastward and back by the coast to this place and then try to go westward. But the other is to us preferable; to go along the coast, first up Mosila and into the Hadhramout and then try to go west, without coming here again. Of course there are so many delays of all sorts that we shall be here some days yet. The one pleasure we can enjoy is a quiet walk along the shore covered with pretty shells and birds…
A Bombay street, from ‘A handbook for travellers in India, Burma, and Ceylon’ (J. Murray 1911, p.203 archive.org).
“A good long time has elapsed since I wrote and I resume my Chronicle. Sunday, February 17th [1895]. And hardly can I write for the shaking of the very empty Austrian Lloyd S.S. ‘Imperator’ bound for Bombay. After a good deal of illusory delay, the Sultan Hussein declared he could not answer in any way for our safety if we went anywhere and so we at first thought of going to Muscat in a dhow and going to the Jebel Akhdar, as we had intended if it had not been for Imam Sheriff’s illness, but with the wind blowing N.E. it would have taken fully a month. We then must have gone round by India to get home and all our steamer clothes were at Aden. So as soon as we could we hired a dhow and embarked thereupon at about 1 o’clock for Aden…”
Back on dry land, we know the Bents were in Aden again by Wednesday, 13 February 1895. On that date Theodore wrote a ‘press release’ via the Royal Geographical Society, which was published in The Times of 1 March, announcing that ‘The party… went on to Sheher… Last year the people were very friendly to Mr. Bent’s party and promised to take them on a tour into the interior, but the season was too far advanced. To Mr. Bent’s surprise, however they received him and his party very coldly, absolutely refused to let them go outside the town, and told them that for the future no European would be allowed to enter the Hadramaut… Although it is evident Mr. Bent has not been able to carry out what would have been an expedition of the first magnitude, still it would seem that his journey will not be without interesting and novel results. His latest letter is dated from Aden, February 13, and he expects to be home about the middle of April.’
The Austrian Lloyd ‘Imperator’. The Bents travelled on her from Aden to Mumbai in early 1895 (B. Ivancovich, wikipedia).
And they will come home via India; and Mabel’s few lines above are all we have of the Bents’ last trip there. Why did Mabel not keep up her diary? They would have reached Bombay on the Imperator (a lovely ship of 4140 tons, launched in September 1886 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Austrian Lloyd Shipping Company) by the end of February 1895, and we know the two of them were back in London by the end of April.
The Manchester Guardian of 25 April 1895 carried another report: ‘Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Bent have returned to London after spending the winter in exploring some of the little known or entirely unknown valleys of Southeastern Arabia. The flying trip which Mr. Bent made to India to see Colonel Holdich, the head of the Indian Survey, as to some unexpected difficulties, presumably of official origin, thrown in the way of the realisation of his plans for visiting the Eastern Hadramaut Valley, was unfortunately unsuccessful, as Colonel Holdich was absent on frontier business…’
Superintendent of Frontier Surveys in British India, Theodore’s friend, Colonel Sir Thomas H. Holdich (wikipedia).
Allowing for a two- or three-week journey back to England, Theodore and Mabel would have remained three or four weeks in India. As we have read above, one mission Theodore had in the country was to try and find his friend the great ‘Superintendent of Frontier Surveys in British India’, Colonel Sir Thomas H. Holdich, intending to elicit his support for one further expedition to the Hadramaut.
But Mabel’s above note, about needing Aden again to collect their personal effects, including ‘steamer clothes’ prior to making for Bombay, leads indirectly to one last bit of classic tourism and sightseeing – the fabled Ellora Caves. It looks, however, as if Mabel never went along; indeed, the only reference we have to the trip comes after Mabel’s death in 1929; prompted by her obituary in the Times, a letter appears in the same newspaper a few days later. This letter, of 6 July 1929, is from Mrs Julia Marie Tate, of 76 Queensborough Terrace, Hyde Park, London, widow of William Jacob Tate, in which she wistfully recalls:
Steamer Point, Aden around 1900.
“… a vivid picture of a moonlit night as clear as day off Aden, watching Arabian ‘sampans’ unloading tents and quantities of camp ‘saman’ [personal effects]. Presently their owners climbed up, Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Bent. A few months before [i.e. the winter of 1894/5] we had called at their [London] house in Great Cumberland-place to learn their whereabouts, but the *butler knew nothing, only that they were ‘somewhere in the Indian Ocean.’ This improvised meeting brought about the fulfilment of a cherished desire of theirs when my husband took his old schoolfellow to see the wonder caves of Ellora. This was their last reunion on earth.”
Part of the ‘Carpenter’s Cave’, Buddhist Cave 10 at Ellora, and visited by Theodore Bent in 1895 (wikipedia).
It is remarkably odd that Mabel makes no mention of this trip to the ‘wonder caves’ – was she ill? Or prevented somehow from going? Did it cause such resentment that she refused to chronicle the stay in Mumbai, and the long journey home by sea? Her regret at missing out on this excursion – then as now one of India’s greatest tourist attractions – can be imagined, for she was not easily denied. Also unusual is the fact that Theodore also wrote nothing about the visit to the caves (a trip that would have necessitated several nights away from his wife) – he did have much else on his mind, but perhaps also he had no desire to bring up the matter again and avoid any breakfast-table ill will!
The Ellora Caves for tourists. ‘Thomas Cook: India Burma and Ceylon : information for travellers and residents’ (1898, p. 79) (archive.org)
And his companion? William Jacob Tate (1853-1899) was at Repton School with Theodore in the late 1860s. He joined the Indian Civil Service but had to retire early on account of his health and died just two years after Theodore in December 1899, at the age of 46. Mabel and Mrs Tate perhaps remained in town while Theodore and his old school friend visited the Ellora cave complex of monasteries and temples carved in the basalt cliffs north of Aurangabad (Maharashtra State), some 300 km north-east of Mumbai – “Reached from Nandgaon (G.I.P. Railway) by tonga, holding three passengers… Visitors are advised to take a sufficient supply of provisions and liquors for the trip.’ (Thomas Cook: India Burma and Ceylon : information for travellers and residents (1898, p. 79)
As for Mrs Tate, she can be forgiven her unseen tears in her letter to the Times. A stone in the Kemmel Chateau Military Cemetery Heuvelland, Belgium, is inscribed: ‘Tate, Lieutenant, William Louis, 3rd Bn., Royal Fusiliers. Killed in action 13 March 1915. Age 24. Eldest son of the late William Jacob Tate, I.C.S., and of Mrs. Julia Marie Tate.’ And the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial has this: ‘Tate, Captain, Frederick Herman, Mentioned in Despatches, 10th Bn., King’s Royal Rifle Corps. 11 August 1917. Age 22. Son of Mrs. Tate… the late W.J. Tate.’
The old steamer on her westward bearing leaves Bombay in her wake. No amount of meditation in the Ellora Caves, or anywhere else, will ease such wounds, be it for Tate or Tata: ‘With deep sympathy, from Mrs. Theodore Bent.’
* The ‘butler’ here is Mr. A. Lovett, and it is a pleasure to reference him; how nice it would be to trace his descendants (if any). Sadly, he was to lose his job on Bent’s demise in May 1897. The Morning Post of 13 May prints this notice: “Mrs. Theodore Bent can recommend A. Lovett as Butler: four years’ character; leaving through death. – A.L., 13 Great Cumberland-place, W.”
Thomas Stirling Lee (detail) by Philip Wilson Steer, OM, oil on canvas (private collection).
“He modelled but sparingly for bronze…” (Kineton Parkes 1921: 111)
“… one of the best of the pure sculptors of the Nineteenth Century Renaissance, a man who loved his work with all his heart and soul, and one who loved his fellow men.” (Kineton Parkes 1921: 112)
“It is certainly for his power of telling a story beautifully… that Mr. Lee will continue to be admired.” (Spielmann 1901: 66)
An introduction to a rediscovered and previously unpublished, cire perdue, cast bronze, wall relief/large medallion by the Arts & Crafts/New Sculpture master, Thomas Stirling Lee (1857-1916).
The commission
“Mr. T. Sterling Lee is at present engaged on a bronze bas relief of Mrs Theodore Bent, who is spending the season at her London house.” (Lady of the House, Saturday 15 June 1895)
“Mrs J. Theodore Bent”. The 1895 version of a bronze relief/medallion by Thomas Stirling Lee in the collection of the Bent Archive (2024).
By the mid 1890s, Theodore and Mabel Bent had become celebrities; they had amazed London with their fifteen-year campaign of explorations and discoveries in large areas of the Eastern Mediterranean, Africa, and the Middle East, which, regularly updated in the media, had captivated a huge, international audience. Bent had produced countless articles and scholarly papers, as well as six books; the couple gave regular talks and lectures (often with lantern-slides reproduced from Mabel’s photographs) to various institutions and at popular events; the British Museum had hundreds of their acquisitions. Their personal collection in London was often on show to the public; they were sought after by editors for interviews, Mabel featuring equally with Theodore.
It is not surprising, therefore, that, as well as the couple appearing at the leading studio photographers for their portraits, Mabel should also have approached, or been approached by the innovative British sculptor and artist Thomas Stirling Lee (TSL, 1857-1916) for her relief likeness, opting for a roundel (‘medallion’) in bronze. Presumably she must have gone to TSL’s studio, in Chelsea Vale, with its small foundry en suite, to sit for him. He would have been paid for this commission certainly; at an exhibition some years later he was asking 10 guineas (c. £750 today) for medallions of idealised themes (Leeds City Art Gallery Exhibition, 1909). It is not known to date whether TSL also produced a likeness of Theodore Bent. note 1
The two bronze reliefs of Mabel Bent
The lettermark of Thomas Stirling Lee that appears on some of the sculptor’s work – it is a combination of his three initials (Bent Archive, 2024).
The 1895 relief (confidently attributed to TSL) has (June 2024) been acquired by the friends of the Bent Archive and features above. Facing right, the sitter’s features are handsome and strong, her famous red hair coiled, her chin ready to face the travel challenges ahead, her nose a compass needle, due East; her name, Mrs J. Theodore Bent, runs boldly clockwise, with the date – 1895; the TSL monogram stands out, bottom left (the combined letters ‘TSL’ and a series (3 or 4) of knobs on the rim before the lettermark). Sculpted and cast by TSL in bronze; maximum width 260 mm; weight 1.86 kg.
A studio portrait of Mabel Bent in the late 1880s/early 1890s, possibly (date and photographer unknown; Bent Archive).
The 1896 relief is today in private hands and is not illustrated here note 2 . It is essentially a reworking of the 1895 version. Again facing right, this time the features are softer, as if Mabel had requested a perhaps less assertive appearance; as if the 1895 relief were sculpted en-scène, in the intense heat of the Wadi Hadramaut, for example, while the 1896 version comes demurely from her London drawing-room at 13 Great Cumberland Place, perhaps while giving an interview, over tea and sandwiches: Mabel as Britannia. Once more, her famous red hair is coiled high, her name runs clockwise, with the date – 1896; the TSL lettermark and characteristic knobs also appear, bottom left. Sculpted and cast by TSL (dimensions and weight n/a at present).
In terms of the two dates (1895 and 1896), it is difficult, without documentation, which might appear, to give the exact times when TSL (or Mabel Bent) might have been working on the sculpting and casting the reliefs. Over these years, Theodore and Mabel were exploring east and west of the Red Sea. Mabel may have been available for the modelling in the late spring and summer, when they habitually returned to their London townhouse before undertaking family visits to the north of England and Ireland.
TSL was a regular contributor to the Royal Academy and the 1896 event included ‘Five medallions, bronze’. It would be good to think that with these might have been one of the reliefs of Mabel Bent (Graves 1905: 21).
The sculptor – Thomas Stirling Lee (1857-1916)
Manresa Road, Chelsea, in the 1880s, the Stirling Lee milieu. ‘The Scottish Art Review’, Vol. 2 (June-Dec. 1889), p.72 (archive.org).
Stirling Lee’s story is romantic and poignant – the admired but unfulfilled artist – working at the turn of Victoria’s century, pulled here and there by the various stylistic waves reaching both sides of the Channel. A most highly regarded, likeable and clubbable personality by all accounts, TSL was one of the founders of the Royal Society of British Sculptors, and the Chelsea Arts Club in 1891.
There is a great deal of background data on TSL online, including his works, as one might expect; for now, some sympathetic paragraphs from Kineton Parkes (1921: 111-113) provide a maquette:
The famous bronze statue of Charles Gore (1853-1932), Bishop of Birmingham, by Thomas Stirling Lee, outside St Philip’s Cathedral, Birmingham (Wikipedia: Michael Westley, CC BY-SA 2.0)
“THERE are sculptors to-day, and of the immediate past, who acknowledge no influences, and who, moreover, deplore the training they received: men who stand alone and apart from all groups, schools and associations. Sometimes their work is so individual as to call for this isolation, sometimes it is more or less in conformity with the work of the academies, and definitely resembles the products of the schools. Still, these artists, possessing an individualistic and egoistic personality strongly developed seem to differentiate from their fellow-artists and to form a heterogeneous class of their own. Such an one was Stirling Lee…
“Thomas Stirling Lee was one of the most retiring men and most modest artists I have ever known. He was always willing to talk about art, but he seemed to do it from an impersonal standpoint, while, paradoxically, he was a most personal artist, and held emphatic opinions on the art of sculpture. He carved directly in marble and stone, and he modelled but sparingly for bronze. His work of earlier years may be seen in the panels decorating the St. George’s Hall at Liverpool, blackened but not obliterated by the atmosphere of that great city of dreadful noise.
“His later panels are in the Bute Chapel of Bentley’s great cathedral at Westminster. Between those two sets of works he produced busts and reliefs: portrait and ideal. His work was plain, but it was distinguished. It had little ornament, but it was not severe to the point of being undecorative: it was indeed sympathetic. I remember a bust of a girl’s head – it is in the Art Gallery of the Nicholson Institute at Leek, in North Staffordshire – which is full of tenderness, and there are others just as sympathetic. A series of small bronze portrait plaques of his friends of about 1889 shew how friendly a man Stirling Lee was [our emphasis]. If he was retiring, he was also brotherly, as the members of the Chelsea Arts Club (of which he was a founder, with Whistler and some few others) well remember. He was a great worker, and one of his most ambitious pieces was one of his least successful, his Father and Son, the reception of which greatly disappointed him.
The marble bust of Margaret Clausen by TSL now in Tate Britain, London (Tate Britain).
“There are dangers, as well as virtues, in being too modest, as well as in direct carving: they may be your undoing, and I believe, combined, they were in Stirling Lee’s case. To the grief of his friends, he died suddenly in South Kensington station, in one of the years of the war, and there passed away then one of the best of the pure sculptors of the Nineteenth Century Renaissance, a man who loved his work with all his heart and soul, and one who loved his fellow men. His studios were always in Chelsea: in Manresa Road, in the Vale, and, when the Vale disappeared, then he had built for himself the studio in the Vale Avenue, where his Westminster Panels and his Father and Son were carved. One of his last exhibited works was his marble bust called Beatrice, at the Royal Academy. There is a beautiful bust, full of thought, of a girl in the Bradford Museum, and an equally fine bust is that called Lydia, which was seen in the special Exhibition by the Chelsea Arts Club at Bradford in 1914.” note 5
Richard Dorment (1985: 24) is another writer to comment on the sculptor’s good nature, referring to ‘the sweet-tempered Thomas Stirling Lee’, prepared to follow his brother sculptor Alfred Gilbert ‘to Rome and back to London’.
Puccini but without the tunes
TSL’s acquaintance, Morley Charles Roberts (1857-1942)(wikipedia).
For a glimpse of some aspects of artistic life in the late 19th century, and the founding of the Chelsea Arts Club, including the involvement of TSL, see Arthur Ransome’s (he of Swallows and Amazons) Bohemia in London (London, 1907)… But a more entertaining and feathery work (a novel) exists, Puccini but without the tunes, written by Morley Charles Roberts (1857-1942), very much larger than life and on the periphery of the Chelsea scene in the late 1880s. The characters are thinly disguised and ‘Mr West, the sculptor’ can confidently be taken as a model for TSL. Some references from it are welcome here – and not without with charm: “Across the narrow lane was another long studio, occupied by West the sculptor, to which was attached a shed containing works in progress and others long past hopes of sale, while at its northern extremity a bronze-casting furnace sometimes shot at night a blue flame far above its iron chimney”… and, later “… under the table was a terracotta bust of herself [the model, Miss Mary ‘Priscilla’ Morris] by West, and on it a medallion as well.” (Morley Roberts 1890: 19-20, p. 93 for the medallion; the emphasis is ours). Did Morley perhaps see the bronze roundels cast by Stirling Lee for some friends around this date? (Kineton Parkes 1921: 112). Indeed, was Morley Roberts one of the sitters? In any event, this seems to have been the period when TSL began to produce them – within his small foundry in Chelsea Vale.
Morley Roberts also provides a physical description (of West = TSL?), and let’s take it as fairly accurate: “For no one could meet West once without liking him… [He] was a man of the middle height, very strongly built and powerful in the arms from continually using the hammer when working in marble, with a very bright and pleasing face, which indicated both sensibility and refinement. His eyes were almost sparkling in his merrier moods, but grew intense and solemn in the rarer moments when he spoke out to some sympathetic soul what a man usually keeps silence about, his hopes and desires, his aims and methods, his feeling for nature, for the world and man. For he was intensely spiritual under a thin cover of materialism, and gloried in his art, which he held to be based on Truth and Right, as both consolation and reward of the worker.” (Morley Roberts 1890: 77-9). In ‘Thomas Stirling Lee, the first Chairman’ by Geoffrey Matthews, Chelsea Arts Club Yearbook 2022, there is a photograph of TSL capturing much of what Morley Roberts finds in him.
More on medallions
TSL’s medallion relief of his friend Walter Sickert (1860-1942). TSL’s lettermark can be identified lower right. (The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge).
Although with a long and distinguished presence, in various media, the vogue for medallions seems to have come to the fore again in the first half of the 19th century – actual likenesses and idealised themes – epitomised in the work of Pierre-Jean David d’Angers. (Note that ‘medallion’ can also refer (Jezzard 1999: 99) to “larger wall plaques, memorial plaques, memorial tablets, wall tablets, commemorative medallions, medallion portraits and medallions.” Larger productions, weighing 2 kg or more, could be encased within bespoke wooden frames for wall-mounting.)
“Mrs Rodney Fennessy”, portrait medallion, made in 1889 by TSL. The date ‘1889’ can be seen lower left (The Victoria and Albert Museum).
In Britain, following the work of William Wyon (1795-1851) , the French-born artist Alphonse Legros (1837-1911) is widely seen as leading the late 19th-c revival of the medallion – favouring metal casting, pouring molten media into hollow forms. Among his preferences was to send initially his forms to Paris, where the art was perfected, and avoiding finishing effects, such as smoothing the circumference and polishing, thus eschewing the neo-classical tradition and pointing towards the Arts and Crafts movement. It can be said that Thomas Stirling Lee was an apostle in terms of his relief modelling and casting of portrait roundels (Attwood 1992: 4-10).
Bronze relief plaques (medallions) by TSL seem to be rare, perhaps a ‘hobby’ and distraction, pocket money. It is more than likely that the medallions/reliefs TSL produced for his friends and clients remain with the families – personal things that do not shout out for publication or exhibition.
What follows are the results of online searches, only, for examples of TSL’s medallions; but it is some sort of a beginning for more dedicated research by historians, if they are so minded.
Of course, if you have onewe would be delighted to hear – and perhaps the series can be assembled for a TSL retrospective one day: indeed, 2026 will mark the 110th anniversary of his early death.
Also attributed to TSL, a relief (178 mm) in a private collection, and thought to be a likeness of Christabel Annie Cockerell (Lady Frampton, 1864-1951). Another is in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, and an unrecognized version sold at the disposal of the contents of Claremont Court, Jersey, in September 2015 (see below).
As well as the two reliefs of Mabel Bent (1895 & 1896) already referred to, other known examples of TSL medallions include one Walter Sickert note 3 roundel in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge [M.17-2006; dated c. 1882; bronze; 158 mm; facing right; the name ‘SICKERT’ in raised letters along viewer’s right edge of the roundel]; the (?) Herbert Goodall roundel in the British Museum; the Mrs Rodney Fennessy roundel in the V&A, London [A.5-1973; 1889, 250 mm; bronze; facing right; the name ‘Mrs Rodney Fennessy’ running around the right edge].
TSL’s charismatic subject, Walter Richard Sickert RA RBA (1860-1942) (wikipedia).
The V&A also have a TSL medallion of Sickert [A.6-1973; undated; bronze; 170 mm; facing right; the name ‘W. SICKERT’ running around the right edge], as do Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (No. 1973P40; further details forthcoming). This mercurial and influential artist seems therefore to have commissioned at least three likenesses from TSL – one more than Mabel Bent! note 3
There is a later, rectangular, relief (c. 35 cm x c. 25 cm) of Herbert Goodall (1857-1916), architect/artist member and third club Chairman, in the Chelsea Arts Club collection. note 4 The date is uncertain, presumably TSL cast it around the same time as the BM roundel (above). (An image of it can be seen at The Goodall Family of Artists.)
The Three Walker Roundels
The Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (wikipedia).
Dorothea Mary Short (1890-1972) bequeathed her three TSL medallions (WAG 8458-60) to the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, and they have inventory dates there of 1973. Dorothea inherited these bronzes from her mother, Esther Rosamund Short (née Barker, 1866-1925), who was left them in 1945 on the death of her husband, the celebrated printmaker and teacher Sir Francis (Frank) Job Short RA PPRE (1857-1945). Short and TSL were friends, and both members of the Art Workers’ Guild. TSL was elected Master in 1898 and Short in 1901. (Coincidentally, the two V&A TSL bronze reliefs referenced above, Sickert and Fennessy, were also donated by Dorothea Short.)
The three Walker TSL bronze roundels are:
WAG 8458 – (George)Percy Jacomb-Hood (1857-1929, c. 210 mm, c. 1881; Exh. RSBA 1887-8 (543)). Possibly one of the set of medallions of TSL’s friends, regularly referenced.
WAG 8459 – ‘Rose’ (Esther Rosamund Barker) (c. 200 mm, c. 1888, perhaps before her marriage to Frank Short in April 1889).
WAG 8460 – ‘Young woman with piled hair’ (perhaps Christabel Annie Cockerell (Lady Frampton, 1864-1951)), (c. 170 mm, date unknown), (previously mentioned above).
The sale of the contents of Claremont Court, Jersey, in September 2015, included another version of TSL’s Christabel Annie Cockerell relief. Lot 296 was enigmatically described as “A cast bronze portrait plaque probably first half 20th century, depicting a young man in profile, 7in. (17.5cm.) diameter”. It sold for £50.
For good measure, the Walker also has a marble bust by TSL of Frank Short (WAG 8461, 330 mm x 340 mm, date unknown), and a framed plaster relief of Esther Rosamund Short (framed: c. 670 mm x 530 mm, date unknown). Both it seems were also bequeathed by their daughter Dorothea Mary in 1972/3. Regrettably, none of the TSL pieces are currently on show at the Walker and it is to be hoped they will appear online in the future.
The above, taken together with the museum’s sculptures by TSL of ‘Alderman Edward Samuelson’ (WAG 4175, marble, c. 740 mm, 1885) and also ‘Mrs H.L. Johnston’ (WAG 4214, marble, c. 290 mm x 230 mm, 1881?), fittingly, make the Walker’s TSL collection the largest in the UK it would appear. (Pers. comm. and kind assistance (August 2024), Alex Patterson (WAG) and Whitney Kerr-Lewis (V&A).)
Miscellaneous references to TSL’s medallions and other portrait reliefs
A few “beautiful heads in relief”, by TSL at the New English Art Club, Dudley Gallery, Piccadilly (Winter show 1891)(reported in the Pall Mall Gazette, 16 Dec. 1891. (Possibly the set of TSL’s friends, regularly referenced.)
“The Fifth Exhibition of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers – In the summer of 1898 there was held at the Skating Rink, Knightsbridge, an exhibition of modern art which, from an artistic point of view, has never been surpassed in London… Mr. Stirling Lee (the energetic Honorary Secretary of the Society) is represented by two charming bronze medallions of children’s heads, and a marble bust of Mrs. T.B. Hilliard…” (The Connoisseur, International Exhibition Supplement, 1905, Vol. XI (Jan.-Apr.), 129ff.)
An untitled bronze medallion at the Manchester Art Gallery, The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers Exhibition, 1905.
An untitled bronze medallion at the City of Bradford Corporation Art Gallery, Cartwright Memorial Hall Exhibition of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters, and Gravers, 1905.
Five untitled bronze medallions on show at the Leeds City Art Gallery Exhibition, 1909 (the set advertised at 10 guineas each).
An untitled bronze medallion on show at the ‘Exhibition of Fair Women’, Spring 1909 – International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, London.
Page 18 from Sotheby’s sale catalogue of Friday, 16 March 1923 – “Representative selection of works of art, by Nelson Dawson, Esq., A.R.W.S., R.E., R.W.A.” (Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 1923) – showing the sale of seven works by Thomas Stirling Lee. Of interest are the sale prices for the two marble heads, Lots 179 and 180 (£2k-£3k at today’s rates); the medallions of Sickert and Goodall are thought to be the ones now in the Fitzwilliam and British Museum accordingly (see above) (archive.org).
Sotheby’s, 16 March 1923, had a sale featuring the art collection of Nelson and Edith Dawson, including seven bronzes, “with rights of reproductions”, by “the late T. Stirling Lee”: Lot 179, “Head of a Girl; Lot 180, “Head of Mrs La Thangue” note 3 ; (Lot 181), “Medallions of Walter Sickert and [Herbert/Frederick] Goodall, the landscape painter” [the item presumably in the British Museum; note 3 Lot 182, “Three Figure Panels”.
It seems the painter Alfred William Rich (1856-1921) had in his collection a medallion by TSL which was eventually bequeathed to an unspecified museum by his wife Phillippa (Holliday) through the Art Fund between 1933 and 1935. It is referred to as a “Bronze Plaque of Girl’s Head”. It is impossible to know from research so far whether this roundel is one of those listed above. We may assume Rich and TSL were acquainted via the activities of the ‘International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers’, inter alia. Philippa in 1884 – might TSL have modelled a plaque of her for the painter?
Other busts
Perhaps in return for Wilson Steer’s portrait of him, or vice versa (see reference above), TSL does a bronze of Philip Wilson Steer (1860-1942), who died 1942. It was said to have been left to the Tate (Birmingham Daily Post, 17 July 1942), but is now in the Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, Birkenhead (along with a marble likeness of Dorothy (Seton), one of James McNeill Whistler’s models). It is not unreasonable to think that one of TSL’s earlier medallions also featured Wilson Steer, but there does not seem to be a direct reference to one.
TSL was an active member of the Art Workers’ Guild, and was elected Master in 1898. The Guild has a fine bronze bust of him (c. 1898), mallet and chisel in his hands, by Arthur George Walker (1861-1939). The Guild also displays TSL’s bronze (1900) of Sir Mervyn Macartney (1853-1932), commemorating Sir Marvyn’s year as Master, as well as TSL’s bust of John Brett (1831-1902), a British artist associated with the Pre-Raphaelites.
TSL attended Westminster School briefly (1870-1), his bust of Richard Busby (1606-1695), who served as headmaster for more than 55 years, was placed in the school for the bicentenary of Busby’s death in 1895. (TSL left abruptly to join the studio of sculptor John Birnie Philip as an apprentice.)
Other bronze plaques (non-portrait)
TSL produced several bronze relief plaques of religious and idealised themes throughout his career. An example is his ‘Mother and Child’, sold at auction in London in 2014.
The essential site for the works in general of TSL is to be found at “Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain & Ireland 1851-1951”, edited online by the University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII. It is indispensable, beginning with a concise introduction to the artist. It features interactive sections on Works, Locations, Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards, many Lectures and other Events, Institutional and Business Connections, Personal and Professional Connections, Descriptions of Practice, Sources.
TSL’s works travelled around the world for exhibitions, i.e. a medallion (unspecified, item 927, cat. Page 45) appeared at the Christchurch Gallery, New Zealand, for the “New Zealand International Exhibition, 1906-7”.
There are several reference to TSL in ‘The Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society Catalogues’ for the 3rd exhibition in 1890 (at The New Gallery, 121 Regent Street, London) and the 11th in 1916 (the year of his death) (at The Royal Academy, Burlington House, London). For the 3rd exhibition TSL worked with A.G. Walker on a design by J.D. Sedding for an altar of alabaster, lapis-lazuli and metal (the plaster panels shown were intended to be repoussé metal). For the 1916 event, F.A. White lent three panels of saints carved by TSL – ‘St Ninian’, ‘St Bridget’, and ‘St Columba’. The material is unspecified. These were perhaps models of the representations of these saints produced by TSL for Westminster Cathedral (see below). This event was TSL’s last – he was to die suddenly in 1916, ineligible for the Great War, in progress now two years.
For the list of works displayed by TSL at the Royal Academy from 1878-1902, see Graves 1905: 21.
Other commissions
The Liverpool controversy
The following excerpt relates to the most significant commission of TSL’s career; it is taken from the University of Glasgow’s ‘History of Art and HATII’, online database 2011 – Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain & Ireland 1851-1951. [This site presents unparalleled data on the working life of TSL.]
A sketch model for one of TSL’s panels for St George’s Hall, Liverpool. The nudity was considered inappropriate and the sculptor never completed the commission; the disappointment remained with him throughout his career. This is one of the illustrations accompanying the sculptor’s obituary in ‘The International Studio’, vol. 59, no. 235, 1916: 176 (archive.org).
“[TSL’s] most important commission was the series of reliefs for the exterior of St George’s Hall, Liverpool. Lee was originally awarded the entire scheme of sculpture comprising twelve large reliefs and sixteen smaller panels (the latter on the upper parts of the building) through an open competition organised by Liverpool Council in 1882. However, due to a combination of high costs and the mixed reception that Lee’s first two relief panels received, only six relating to ‘The Progress of Justice’ (situated to the left of the portico) were completed under the original plans (1885-94).” (See, e.g., Dorment 1985: 24; Beattie 1983: 43 ff, including images)
TSL also carved two (less contentious) panels for St. George’s Hall, i.e. for its so-called ‘National Progress’ series, one being: “‘Liverpool, a fishing village, gives her sons the boat and the net’. Liverpool has just given the fishing net to the young stripling on the right, and now hands a model of a boat to an older man, perhaps a merchant shipman, respectably dressed in a cloak.” There are six panels in the series, two by TSL, on the east facade of the building, to the right of the central portico. They were commissioned in 1895, the last being installed in 1901. The other four were the works of Charles John Allen and Conrad Dressler. (Photo: Robert Freidus; text: R. Freidus and J. Banerjee; see also T. Cavanagh, ‘The Public Sculpture of Liverpool’, Liverpool, 1996) (Victorian Web).
The issue became a grand cause célèbre, with the artistic community generally rallying around TSL to get the contract honoured and completed. At a special meeting of the ‘National Association for the Advancement of Art and its Application to Industry’ on 30 October 1889, a special Resolution, endorsed by hundreds of artists, sculptors, architects, etc., was passed to the effect: “That the Mayor and Corporation of Liverpool be approached with an expression of the hope that they will reconsider their decision to discontinue the decoration of St. George’s Hall by Mr. Stirling Lee and in accordance with his designs.” The Liverpool authorities were on the horns of a dilemma; they could not be seen to be spending City funds on designs that many considered, in many instances hypocritically, inappropriate, but at the same time a project much admired by influential voices within the artistic community. Ultimately a compromise was reached when “Mr. P.H. Rathbone liberally offered to defray the cost of making and setting up the remaining four panels, designed by Mr. T.S. Lee for St. George’s Hall.” (Transactions of the National Association for the Advancement of Art and its Application to Industry 1889-91, Vol. 2, pp. xiv-xv)
For Morris (1997: 52) (who goes into the Liverpool debacle sensitively, “The whole Liverpool experience deeply demoralised the sculptor and his later work lacks the intensity and vision of the St George’s Hall reliefs. He was, however, well-educated, highly trained, sociable and articulate, and his importance lies in his ideas and influence rather than in his sculpture…”
It seems the designs TSL came up with for some carved stone panels to decorate some late-phase alterations to Leeds Town Hall, across the Pennines, were less controversial.
TSL’s bronze panels for the former Adelphi Bank, Liverpool
TSL’s four bronze panels (1892) for the former Adelphi Bank, Liverpool. Representing ‘David and Jonathan’, ‘Castor and Pollux’, ‘Achilles and Patroclus’, and Roland and Oliver’, they were cast for him by his friend and Chelsea neighbour, Conrad Bührer (The Victorian Web).
The sculptor’s bronze work includes the four relief panels on the great doors to the former Adelphi Bank building on the corner of Castle Street and Brunswick Street, Liverpool. (To appreciate the doors properly today you will need to wait until the coffee shop they open into is closed.) The overall design was by W.D. Caröe (1857-1938) and completed in 1892. Taking its theme from the bank’s name, Adelphi (‘brotherhood’), TSL’s panels – two per door, one above the other – were to represent ‘David and Jonathan’, ‘Castor and Pollux’, ‘Achilles and Patroclus’, and Roland and Oliver’. The panels were cast for TSL by his friend and Chelsea neighbour Conrad Bührer (1839-1929). Caröe’s design for the date on the doors is cryptic – on the left reading ‘1A8’ and on the right ‘9D2’ (i.e. AD 1892). For more information, see the Martin’s Bank archive and the Victorian Web. [Although this article focuses on TSL’s medallions, and Mabel Bent, readers might like to be reminded that Theodore Bent’s uncle, Sir John Bent (1793-1857), was Mayor of Liverpool in 1850/1.]
Prestigious commissions in marble
Angus Vickers by Philip Alexius de László (findagrave.com)
At the Royal Academy Exhibition (London) of 1911, TSL showed his marble bust of ‘Master Angus Vickers’ (cat. no.1820, p.106). Angus (1904-1990) was a young scion of the famous Vickers engineering family, being one of the three sons of Douglas Vickers (1861-1937), and this work was clearly a very prestigious commission for TSL; the boy was around six or seven years of age. Presumably the bust is still with the family and no image of this work seems to have been published. The photo shown here is a detail from a portrait of him painted when he was 21.
TSL took on several commissions for the busy ‘Arts & Crafts’ architect Edgar Wood (1860-1935). These included some ornate marble decorations for fireplaces at the Grade-1 listed Banney Royd House, Edgerton, Huddersfield (1901); sculpture and copper roof for the Clock Tower (listed Grade 2) in Lindley, Huddersfield (1900-2); and a small bronze statue, Woman and Child, at Long Street Methodist Church, Middleton, Greater Manchester (1903). (Click for a visit (Sept 2024) by TSL’s great, great nephew – by happenstance also Thomas Stirling Lee – to see the statue in the church.)
There is a suggestion that TSL provided the statue of the boy, now lost, for the extraordinary fountain centrepiece for Edgar Wood’s Jubilee Park, also in Middleton. It was opened in 1889 to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. Some commentators have likened the statue to TSL’s small model “The Music of the Wind”, now in the (stored) Sam Wilson Collection in Leeds (see above) (Jubilee Park Fountain, Middleton – Advice on Restoration, 2015: 24-5).
Silver work & Masonic jewels
TSL was an active Freemason: “A new lodge, for the convenience of professors of the arts of sculpture and painting, was consecrated on Tuesday [13 June 1899], at Freemasons’ Hall, London… The lodge is numbered 2751 on the roll of Grand Lodge of England.” TSL was appointed one of the officers. (The Freemason’s Chronicle, 17 June 1899, pp.287-9)
A spectacular and very rare centre-piece in silver for a table decoration for an unknown commission, designed and sculpted by Thomas Stirling Lee (c. 1904, dimensions n/a). Present collection unknown. (Illustrated in W.S. Sparrow 1904. The British home of today; a book of modern domestic architecture & the applied arts: 207, New York.)
A much-reproduced piece of sculpture by TSL is his spirited “Music of the Wind” of around 1907. A model in wax is now in Leeds, part of the Sam Wilson Collection (1851-1918); apparently a version in silver also exists, explaining the reference to it in this section of the works of TSL. It seems the entire Sam Wilson Collection (he was a local textile magnate) was placed in storage by the Leeds Art Gallery in 2009, and thus these sculptures by TSL must languish there (for a fine illustration, see Morris 1997: 53).
A Freemason, TSL was a founder of the ‘Arts Lodge’, designing splendid and unusual masonic jewels, i.e, ‘Past First Principal’s jewel for Public Schools Chapter, No. 2233 presented to E. Comp. Herbert F. Manisty, 1909’ and ‘Past First Principal’s jewel for Public Schools Chapter, No. 2233 presented to E. Comp. J. S. Granville Grenfell, 1917’, the latter presented after TSL’s death in 1916.
A brief obituary appeared in Ars Quatuor Coronatorum: being the transactions of the Lodge Quatuor Coronati (No. 2076, London, V.29, 1916, p.331): “Thomas Stirling Lee, a well known sculptor, of Chelsea, on the 28th June, 1916, in the sixtieth year of his age. Bro. Lee was a Past Master of the Old Westminsters’ Lodge No. 2233, and held the rank of Assistant Grand Superintendent of Works of England. He became a member of the Correspondence Circle in January, 1906.”
Monuments
TSL designed the memorial for fellow mason Henry Sadler (d. 1911), in New Southgate Cemetery, London. It was paid for by friends and lodge members. Just five years later, TSL was buried in the same cemetery.
Interiors
“Panel of wall staircase in Mr. Geoffrey Duveen’s House. Designed and carved by T. Stirling Lee” (‘The International Studio’, vol. 59, no. 235, 1916: 176; archive.org).
TSL designed and produced features for the Duveen residence at 22 Old Bond Street, London, and the interior of Palace Gate House, Kensington Gore: “The stranger… will not be tempted to hurry up the stairway where Mr. Stirling Lee and Mr. Frith together have thought out the modelling of the plaster ceiling and the arrangement of the balustrade.” And for the ‘museum room’, “Mr. Stirling Lee has here two little figures of Science and Literature standing out from the wall” (The International Studio, vol. 7, 1899: 99-100). The two little figures are untraced.
Part of an oak balustrade carved by Thomas Stirling Lee for 15 Stratton Street, London (c.1904). W.S. Sparrow 1904. The British home of today; a book of modern domestic architecture & the applied arts, New York, p. 208 (archive.org).
For H.A. Johnstone’s magnificent residence at 15 Stratton Street, London, TSL carved (c. 1904) from oak a series of “double-sided carved panels of entwined and realistically depicted children”, for a gallery balustrade. They were removed when the house underwent reconstruction. Provenance includes: Peter Marino Art Foundation, NY.
Church commissions
Westminster Cathedral, Ashley Place, London: “Chapel of St Andrew and the Scottish Saints, the gift of Lord Bute and the work of R. Weir Schultz 1910-14. Lean openwork screens of white metal by W. Bainbridge Reynolds; sculpture by Stirling Lee, stalls by Ernest Gimson (considered amongst his finest works) with kneelers by Sidney Barnsley, reliquary by Harold Stabler and altar cards by Graily Hewitt.”
St Mary’s, Stamford Parish, Lincolnshire: an “excellent bronze altar frontal in an Italian style by Stirling Lee”, as part of J.D. Seddings’ decorative scheme of the 1890s.
St James’, Heyshott, West Sussex: In Arthur Mee’s volume on Sussex in ‘The King’s England’ series (London 1937: 105), the author writes in relation to St James’ Heyshott: “The reredos has a plaster relief gilded and set in an old wood frame. It shows Christ in the centre with angels wrapped up in their wings on each side. It is the work of Stirling Lee, who lived here and died suddenly while doing it.” [This entry is now hard to support as the reredos referenced is not in situ. The Heyshott ‘Post Office Directory’ entry for 1911 lists TSL as residing, apparently, at Hoyle, just a few km s/w of Heyshott. The wonderful countryside made a welcome change from the Chelsea fogs and TSL would stroll and paint watercolours there – one entitled “Evening on Hoyle Common” was exhibited by him at a New English Art Club event.]
All Saints, Brockhampton, Herefordshire, UK. A unique Arts & Crafts church built around 1900 by the renowned architect/designer William Richard Lethaby (1857-1931). TSL was commissioned to carve the reredos.
St Paul’s Church, Four Elms, Kent, UK. After 1881, TSL helped assisted Henry Pegram with the carving of the reredos here (a plainly framed white marble relief of the Adoration of the Magi designed by W.R. Lethaby.
TSL was also on the team behind a scheme to redevelop the old Liverpool Cathedral but this was abandoned.
Bespoke carving
In 1891, TSL undertook a commission (Pall Mall Gazette, 4 Nov. 1891) to carve a figurehead for millionaire Wallace M. Johnstone’s (of 3 St James’s St, London SW) steam-yacht (possibly the The Lady Nell). This work, if complete, has not yet surfaced.
Three plaster panels – “reminding one forcibly of Blake at his best”
Cover page of a ‘Caxton Head’ catalogue (archive.org).
In the eclectic ‘Caxton Head Catalogue, No. 735’, of 6 January 1913, page 14, under ‘Sculpture’, three unusual TSL plaster panels were offered for sale by the great dealer James Tregaskis, at his house at the sign of the Caxton Head, 232, High Holborn, London, W.C. (“Every item has been collated with care, and is therefore guaranteed perfect unless the contrary is indicated.”)
“Original plaster panels in high relief, designed by Mr. Thomas Stirling Lee, and modelled by him. Magnificent examples of a very high order of mural decoration, by one of our foremost living sculptors, the boldness of their symbolic conception reminding one forcibly of Blake at his best.
“Cat. No. 992: ‘The children of the light holding their child in the rays of the sun.’ [Symbolizing the Light of Immortality]. 55 in. by 8 in. Bronzed. In massive oak and gold frame, glazed. 75 guineas.
“Cat. No. 993: ‘Pluto taking Proserpina down to the shades; with two side panels: The Metamorphosis of the Nymphs into Trees and Plants.’ [The centre panel symbolises the flowers hidden in the earth, the side panels the change of the seed into the tree and plant]. Each 8 in. by 13 in. In massive oak gold frames, glazed. The three, 36 guineas.
“Cat. No. 994: ‘Pluto and his Fire Horses; with side panels: Love taking her Child from the flames of Fire, and Truth testing her Child in the Fire’. [Symbolising the moral influences of Fire]. Each 8 in. by 16 in. In massive oak and gilt frames, glazed. The three, 36 guineas.”
Presumably these three mysterious panels, unfortunately not illustrated, were sold to a private collector, or returned to TSL. No other information on them seems to appear online. The reference to Blake is fascinating and seems to be unique. TSL’s poetic Liverpool panels could have stepped right from, inter alia, ‘Jerusalem’; and we dream again of Blake the sculptor…
Lost masterpieces
Three works by TSL in particular generated early interest in the young sculptor. All were exhibited at the Royal Academy and all are now unrecorded. Hopefully they are still being enjoyed within private collections, but they might also be lost. They do not appear to have featured in exhibitions or publications since the early 1900s. Perhaps still in TSL’s possession at his death they may well have passed to the family of his nephew, Gilbert Stirling Lee, of whom TSL was fond – his wife modelled for him.
Two of these works have already been referenced above, Adam and Eve finding the Dead Body of Abel, and Cain, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1881 (TSL was 24 or 25). Sadly, there appear to be no illustrations of them.
Catalogue of the ‘International Exhibition’ held in Glasgow in 1888, at which TSL shows his marble of “Cain” (item 1551, catalogue p. 91), offering it for sale, it seems, for £1000 – tens of thousands at today’s rate (archive.org).
The Encyclopædia Britannica (1916, Vol. 24, p. 526), in its entry on modern British sculpture, opines: “[TSL’s] statue of ‘Cain’, extremely simple in conception, is a masterpiece of expression.” After the RA show of 1881, the marble appears again at the ‘International Exhibition’ held in Glasgow in 1888, labelled as “Cain” (item 1551, catalogue p. 91), and with an accompanying biblical quote: “And Cain said unto the Lord. My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth.’ – Genesis iv.13, 14. There is a sale price included – £1000: an astonishing sum.
Unsurprisingly, in 1897 Cain was still in the sculptor’s collection and he lent it to the large “Victorian Era” event that year at London’s Earl’s Court. It is listed in the catalogue (item 468, p. 37) as “Cain.” “Mine iniquity is greater than I can bear” (based on Genesis 3:17). In 1908 it seems TSL showed it again (but perhaps as a plaster figure, item 1386, p. 130 of the catalogue) at the extensive ‘Franco-British Exhibition’ in London. The fratricide seems to have disappeared after that date…
The Dawn of Womanhood
TSL’s ‘The Dawn of Womanhood’ (dimensions unknown, before 1883, versions in marble and plaster)(archive.org)
It was in 1883, when TSL was in his early twenties, that the young sculptor exhibited his ‘Dawn of Womanhood’ – his other lost masterpiece – at the Royal Academy; a bravura piece very much reflecting the modern, fluid French style he had immersed himself in in Paris during his studies there (1880-1). Its reception was mixed from the start, with The Builder (19 May 1883, p.661) printing that “Mr. Stirling Lee’s contorted figure called by the magnificent title, ‘Dawn of Womanhood’, [is] one of the instances of titles far above the real achievement of the work. The recumbent figure, with head thrown back and agonised expression in the features, suggests rather the idea of ‘night-mare’.”
Edmund Gosse is more considered and measured in his (later) analysis when reviewing contemporary sculpture (1894):
“A step forward was taken in 1883 by Mr. T. Stirling Lee, in his ‘Dawn of Womanhood,’ a recumbent nude statue which attracted a great deal of somewhat bewildered attention in the [Royal Academy] Lecture Room. Never had anything of the kind been seen in England in which crude realism had been carried so far… [No] photograph does justice to this strange work, to which we look back with interest and amusement. The sculptor had, it is impossible to doubt, seen the Byblis changée en Source, by which Suchetet had, the preceding year, awakened a furore in Paris. Mr. Lee had perceived, with an artist’s instinct, how delightful and fresh that minute study of nature was. But he had missed the tact which so bold an experiment demanded. His ‘Dawn of Womanhood’ was like an absolute cast from the flesh. There was no selection of type, no striving after beauty of line; the figure was a literal copy of an ugly naked woman. Mr. Lee had not realised that, without style, Art does not exist. His experiment was interesting, and it distinctly marked a step in the progress of the school, but its influence was slight.” (‘The New Sculpture III, 1879-1894’, The Art Journal 1894, p.277)
In his all-embracing review of British sculpture, Bob Speel describes the subject, in his exploration of the theme of ‘dawn’, as “a young, awkward, almost gawky figure… a nude girlish figure in the act of awakening, mid stretch and with one hand against her hair”.
Four years after her Royal Academy debut, the (unsold) Dawn was exhibited by TSL at the 1887 ‘Royal Jubilee Exhibition’ in Manchester (item no. 942, p.324 in the catalogue), and then the following year at the 1888 ‘International Exhibition’, Glasgow (item no. 1634, p.94 , in the catalogue of the Fine Arts section), where she was offered for sale at £1000, easily over £50,000 today.
It seems to have been a decade later that she next made a spectacular appearance – at the 1897 ‘Victorian Era Exhibition’, Earl’s Court, London (page 36 of their catalogue, item 430). (Perhaps she found a buyer here, as a plaster copy only was on show at the 1901 ‘International Exhibition’, Glasgow – page 110 of its catalogue, item 80.)
And after 1901 Dawn of Womanhood seems to have vanished, with no reference to her in any collection today.
TSL the landscape artist
“The Fine Art Society has been exhibiting… landscapes by Mr. T. Stirling Lee. Mr. Lee, who is so well known as a sculptor, revealed a highly sympathetic treatment of landscape in his paintings (The international Studio 1897: 159). Perhaps these will appear one day.
TSL obituaries
“Ideal Bust by T. Stirling Lee”, one of the illustrations accompanying the sculptor’s obituary in ‘The International Studio’, vol. 59, no. 235, 1916: 176 (archive.org).
“London – We regret to record the death of Mr. T. Stirling Lee, the well-known sculptor, who died suddenly at the end of June [1916]. The second son of Mr. John S. Lee, of Macclesfield, he was educated at Westminster School and then apprenticed to [John Birnie Philip], who was finishing the Albert Memorial. Mr. Lee studied at the same time at the Slade School, where he showed such aptitude for art that Mr. Armitage, R.A., advised his being sent to Paris, there being no school for sculpture in London at that time. Accordingly he next worked at the Petites Ecoles des Beaux Arts, and gained a first and a second medal during his first term. Subsequently he became a fellow-student with Alfred Gilbert in Professor Cavelier’s atelier, where he gained the R.A. gold medal and travelling scholarship, as well as the Composition Gold Medal of the Beaux Arts. At twenty-five Mr. Lee won the competition for the decoration of St. George’s Hall, Liverpool, but long delay on the part of the Corporation caused the young sculptor much early disappointment, and though he was allowed to finish part of his work, he died without seeing his life’s work completed. Two of his finest early works are Adam and Eve finding the Dead Body of Abel and Cain exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1881. He has done a good many portrait busts of notable people, amongst others Sir Frank Short’s daughter [see the ‘Walker Roundels’ section above] and Miss Kitty Shannon (1887-1974) [perhaps the subject of another unidentified medallion. Kitty, herself a talented illustrator, was the daughter of TSL’s acquaintance, and owner of some of his sculpture, Sir James Jebusa Shannon (1862-1923)]… He was one of the very few who carved direct in marble, from life. The later period of his art has been largely devoted to ecclesiastical work, an excellent example of which is his altar-piece in Westminster Cathedral, and he quite recently completed another altar-piece showing the Wise Men of the East, in which his love of symbolism found expression. As a sculptor Mr. Lee’s work was very individual. He was greatly attracted by the Early Greeks, and he was a born carver, with a strong sense of pattern.” (‘Studio-Talk’,The International Studio, vol. 59, no. 235, 1916: 175-6)
(For criticism of TSL’s carving from life, see Kineton Parkes 1931: 43.)
“The late Mr. Stirling Lee, sculptor – Many friends and lovers of art will deeply regret the sudden death of Mr. Thomas Stirling Lee, the well known sculptor. Mr. Stirling Lee was the sculptor of the reliefs at S. George’s Hall, Liverpool, which created some controversy at the time, but happily remain as Mr. Lee designed them, one of the finest monuments of his genius. This is indeed a satisfaction to those who remember the necessity for strenuously opposing any modification of the original design, for Mr. Lee was a sculptor of remarkable individuality and power, and had the distinction of his fellow-sculptors’ admiration in an unusual degree. Perhaps the greatest loser by his death will be the Church Crafts League, of which he was one of the original founders and a guiding spirit. The League was formed to bring the clergy into a better understanding of the arts, and into closer communication with artists. Much useful work has been done by it, mainly under Mr. Lee’s guidance. He was also the first secretary of the International Society of Artists.” (The Burlington Magazine For Connoisseurs, V. 29, 1916, p.264)
For other TSL obituaries, see, e.g., The Builder, 7 July 1916: 4 (‘We regret to announce the death, suddenly, on June 29, of Mr. Thomas Stirling Lee… ’); The Building News, No. 3209, 5 July 1916: 21 (‘Mr. Thomas Stirling Lee, sculptor, of the Vale Studio, Vale Avenue, Chelsea, fell unconscious in the arcade at South Kensington Station on Thursday [29 June 1916], and on being conveyed to St. George’s Hospital was found to be dead… The funeral took place yesterday (Tuesday [4 July 1916]) afternoon at New Southgate.’). Similar notices appeared, inter alia, in the Liverpool Echo (30 June 1916) and the Evening Mail (30 June 1916). It seems the solicitor acting for his estate was a member of the Jacomb Hood family (S Jacomb Hood, 27 Buckingham-gate, Westminster) (The London Gazette, 6 October 1916, p. 9694)
TSL’s addresses
Given variously as The Vale, 326 Kings Road, London; 35 Craven Street, Strand, London; Merton Villa Studios, Manresa Road, London. It seems his final London address (as well as his Chelsea studio) was 1 Campion Road, Putney (probably a modest Victorian villa, now demolished), and by 1916 he also had a base in the country, at Hoyle, near Selham, Sussex (The London Gazette, 6 October 1916, p. 9694).
The Lee family: A dynasty of surveyors, builders, architects, and artists.
John Swanwick Lee (1830-1883) = Janet Sterling (June 1851) (d. 1889) – their children: 1) John Stirling Lee (1852-1886) = Emma Charlotte Stevens – their child, Gilbert Stirling Lee (1878-1966); 2) Helena Lee (1854-1922); 3) Thomas Stirling Lee (1856-1916); 4) Philip Stirling Lee (1858-1909) = Mary Maud Single (b. 1858) – their children: a) Sarah Lee (b. 1868); Jane Lee (b. 1873); Philip (b. 1884); Eveline (b. 1887); Alfred (b. 1888); Lulu (b. 1890).
Obituary of TSL’s father
The Late Mr. J. Swanwick Lee
“We regret to have to announce the death of Mr. John Swanwick Lee, of Craven-street, the senior partner in the eminent firm of surveyors of that name. Although Mr. Lee has passed to his rest at the comparatively early age of 54, the extent of the works upon which he has been engaged would occupy too great a space for us to attempt any detailed notice of them. As a building surveyor his practice extended to all parts of the kingdom, and even to France. His association with the late Sir Gilbert Scott, and other leading architects for upwards of 30 years, brought him into connection with the largest and most important public and other works of his generation. It is not too much to say that more than 500 works bear his well-known signature on the estimates.
“Mr. Lee’s practice combined land and estate works with building, and, as an engineer, his works at Seaford Bay, Sussex, show a thoroughly practical way of protecting land endangered by the sea at moderate cost.
“In all mathematical questions Mr. Lee took a great interest, and contributed a paper on the Great Pyramid triangle, which may lay the foundation of important scientific results. Mr. Lee’s death will be mourned by a large circle of professional friends and acquaintances, and his loss to the immediate neighbourhood of his residence at Southgate will be greatly felt. Into every philanthropic or other movement for the benefit of the locality he threw himself with the utmost heartiness, and a great gloom has come over the neighbourhood by his death. Mr. Lee came from Macclesfield, and was a pupil of the late Mr. Charles Balam, surveyor. He leaves three sons, two of whom are partners in his firm, and his second son is Mr. Thomas Stirling Lee, sculptor.
“In all relations of life Mr. Lee was just and upright, and gained the respect of all with whom he came in contact. We extend our heartiest sympathy to his family in their great sorrow at the irreparable loss.” (The Building News, 5 Jan. 1883: 9)
We may assume that John Swanwick Lee provided well for all his children. His son, TSL, was able to live comfortably in Chelsea and in Sussex. The London Gazette of 6 October 1916 gives notice of his estate at the time of his death.
Another indicator of TSL’s private means was his willingness to invest in the works of fellow artists, many of them close friends. To the Spring 1903 Whitechapel Art Gallery Exhibition (London) TSL lent five pictures from his private collection: “Thames at Chelsea” by A. Holloway; “Yarmouth” by T. F. Goodall; “Sussex Downs” by James Charles; “Moonlight Walk” by J. S. Christie; and “Moonlight on Cairn” by James Paterson, A.R.S.A.
Note 1: “Miss J.D.S. Aldworth, an Irish artist who is rising to distinction in London, has had the honour of submitting to her Highness the Duchess of York the pastel painting which she presented to be sold for the benefit of the Princess Mary Village Houses. Miss Aldworth studied first in London, and subsequently in Paris, under M. R. L. Fleury… and has exhibited in the Royal Academy, the Institute of Painters, the Royal Hibernian Academy, and other shows. Miss Aldworth. who belongs to a well-known Cork family, is a successful portrait painter in oils and pastels, and adds another name to the long roll of talented Irish artists. Amongst the best portraits in oils we may mention that of the late Theodore Bent, F.R.G.S., F.S.A.” – Dublin Daily Express (1 August 1898). See also http://tambent.com/2018/01/24/papers-say-lost-oil-portrait-of-theodore-bent-discovered-now-read-on/ Return from Note 1
Note 3: Herbert or Frederick Goodall: The British Museum does not (as yet) specify the sitter on their Collection site page for COL object CME15800. It was purchased from the Fine Art Society and the BM acquisition register records the medallion as being of Herbert Goodall but the attribution is under investigation (BM pers. comm., 17 June 2024). The National Portrait Gallery seems to have additional provenance information on the object: “[After] c. 1870. Bronze relief medallion, 160 mm diameter, inscr. ‘GOODALL’, head, profile to right; Christie’s, 14 June 1973 (40); Sotheby’s, Belgravia, 7-8 Nov. 1973 (17). Bearded, so after c. 1870. Almost certainly the plaque of Goodall by Thomas Stirling Lee, exh. Armstrong-Davis G., Arundel, 1978.”
Mrs Rodney John Fennessy: Emily, née Selous (1837-1915). Fennessy (1837-1915) was manager of the River Plate Bank of London and Buenos Aires, residing at 37 Brunswick Square, London. Emily is known to have exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1873, 1882, and 1883 (Algernon Graves, The Royal Academy of Arts. A Complete Dictionary of Contributors and their work from its foundation in 1769 to 1904, Vol. 3, London, 1905, pp. 97-8; and see http://victorian-studies.net/gissing/newsletter-journal/journal-48-2.pdf).
We are grateful to Nadine Lees, Digital Co-ordinator (Digital Media & Rights), Birmingham Museums, for initial information on TSL Sickert medallion No. 1973P40. There is currently no photograph available and the item is presumably in store. Return from Note 3
Note 4: Pers. comm. June 2024, Stephen Bartley, Hon. Archivist, Chelsea Arts Club Archive. (TSL was elected the Club’s first Chair in 1890 and that Steer was a founder Member. Frank Short succeeded TSL as Club Chair in 1894 and he was succeeded by Herbert Goodall in 1897. Herbert was an architect and the son of Frederick Goodall RA). Return from Note 4
Note 5: Happily, this charming, unidentified, bronze (1919-006) is still in Bradford’s Cartwright Hall Museum, but currently in store, along with an anonymous marble head (1919-005). Two heads being better than one, “[the] works of art which the Free Libraries Committee propose to buy for the Cartwright Hall, and the prices, are as follows: No. 596 Head in bronze (Stirling Lee), £100; No. 595, Head in marble (Stirling Lee), £100 ….” (Bradford Daily Telegraph, Saturday, 6th January 1906). A photo is unavailable at this stage, but perhaps it will appear in the future (pers. comm. Dr Lauren Padgett, Assistant Curator of Collections, Bradford District Museums and Galleries, July 2024). Return from Note 5
References & Further reading
Attwood, P. 1992. Artistic Circles. The Medal in Britain 1880-1918. London: British Museum.
Beattie, Susan 1983. New Sculpture. London: Yale University Press.
Dorment, Richard 1985. Alfred Gilbert. London: Yale University Press. [Containing several references to their friendship]
The Fitzwilliam Museum Syndicate’s Annual Report and list of Accessions made during the period 1 August 2006 – 31 July 2007. Cambridge, 2008: 18. [For the medallion of W. Sickert]
Gosse, Edmund = see ‘The New Sculpture’.
Graves, Algernon 1905. The Royal Academy of Arts; a complete dictionary of contributors and their work from its foundation in 1769 to 1904, Vol. 5, p. 21, London: Graves. [For works displayed by TSL]
Jezzard, A. 1999. The Sculptor Sir George Frampton, vol. 1. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Leeds.
Jubilee Park Fountain, Middleton – Advice on Restoration, 2015: 24-5. The Edgar Wood & Middleton Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI) 2015.
Kineton Parkes, William 1921. Sculpture of to-day, Vol. 1, New York.
Kineton Parkes, William 1931. The Art Of Carved Sculpture, Vol. 1, London.
Macer-Wright, Philip 1940. Brangwyn: A Study of Genius at Close Quarters, London.
Matthews, Geoffrey 2002. Thomas Stirling Lee, the first Chairman, in The Chelsea Arts Club Yearbook 2022 (page numbers n/a). [The article includes a photo from the Reading Museum and Art Gallery in which TSL can be seen at the notorious ‘Rodin Dinner’ at the Café Royal, 15 May 1902.]
Mee, Arthur 1937. Sussex in the ‘The King’s England’ series: 105, London
Morris, Edward 1997. Thomas Stirling Lee, in Sculpture Journal, Vol.1, pp. 51-6. [This short, but important (and relatively recent) article is not to be missed; it happens to contain an extremely rare etching (c. 1890) of TSL by his friend G.P. Jacomb Hood. This work is currently in storage (internal object number H1989.203) at Brighton Museum, where it is described as showing “the sitter looking at the viewer, the head being sketched in detail. Lee is wearing a broad rimmed hat and he has a full beard and moustache. His shoulders and jacket are drawn with a few lines” (information kindly provided by Laurie Bassam, The Royal Pavilion & Museums Trust, August 2024). Morris’s article (not open access) is available from certain databases or Liverpool University Press.]
The New Sculpture, 1879-1894, in The Art Journal, New Series, 1894: 133 ff. [This extended essay by Edmund Gosse is perhaps the most oft-cited résumé and critique of the work and ideas of TSL in relation to his friends and contemporaries (mid 1990s). In the work cited here, the essay appears in three parts over a number of pages: 133-42, 199-203, 277-82, 306-11. The entire article is available free online, with several illustrations.
Ransome, Arthur 1907. Bohemia in London, London. [Aspects of artistic life in the late 19th century and the founding of the Chelsea Arts Club]
Mabel Bent by Thomas Stirling Lee, 1895, in bronze relief (detail) (The Bent Archive).
“There are sculptors and sculptors in England, but few for whom their material becomes plastic before a great thought. It is possible to pass through a modern exhibition, and be unmoved by a single evidence of the feeling which shows that study and long labour have not been lost in the attainment of mechanical dexterity and power of construction, which are as nothing without spiritual insight and emotion. Yet there are men in the country who have this vision, and one of them is Stirling Lee of Manresa Road.” (Morely Roberts,The Scottish Art Review, vol. 2, 1889: 74)
To our knowledge there has never been an exhibition of the life and work of this ‘man of vision’- it is high time there was one.
Mabel in her “princesse dress of rich white silk, trimmed with a flounce of Carrickmacross lace, with veil to match, and a set of pearls, the gift of the bridegroom.” From a newspaper article (newspaper not recorded), August 1887. An undated studio photo, probably taken after her marriage (photo: The Bent Archive).
Happy anniversary. August 2nd is Theodore and Mabel’s wedding anniversary – they married (he 26, she 31) near Mabel’s family seat (Co. Wexford) on this day in 1877, in the little church of Staplestown, Co. Carlow.
Staplestown Church, Co. Carlow.
The couple were perfectly matched and formed a happy, childless partnership, spent exploring for nearly the next 20 years the Eastern Mediterranean, Africa and Arabia, until Theodore’s untimely death in May 1897, returning from east of Aden – as fatal then as now.
The announcement of the engagement of Theodore and Mabel in ‘The Morning Post’, of May 23, 1877.
We know the couple met in Norway, probably c. 1876, but the date/place has yet to be discovered. By May 23 the engagement was announced (e.g. The Morning Post, May 23, 1877. The wedding, as noted above, was August 2 – not very long to organize the event on both sides of the Irish Sea. It was clear that Theodore had no intention of residing in his native Baildon, Yorkshire. Both his parents were dead and within weeks of the wedding he was selling off parcels of his land there, e.g. at the Bradford Finance and Local Purposes Committee meeting of Tuesday, 14 August 1877, one of the items reports that it was agreed “to accept the offer of Mr. James Theodore Bent to sell to the Corporation certain lands and hereditaments situate in the township of Baildon, containing 25 acres, 2 roods and 18 perches, for the sum of £4,000… With regards to the purchase from Mr. Bent, it was of land lying on this side of Esholt, at a tolerably level portion near the river. The purchase was recommended with a view to using the land for sewage defœcation purposes, should it be required.” (Leeds Times, Saturday 18 August 1877). The sum is the equivalent of £250,000 or so today – a nice wedding present.
Mabel was brusque, pragmatic, robust, fearless, obsessive and totally dedicated to Theodore’s work – their work – as expedition quartermaster, photographer, and chronicler. She was also to the right of fanatical. Theodore died in days, and Mabel found herself equally abruptly adrift – she turned to her faith and spent several years rootling around Palestine, soon becoming embroiled in the early doings of the Anglo-Israeli Association (various aliases) and remained a member for 30 years until her death in 1929. (One of the many archaeological ironies is that co-adherents desecrated the ‘Hill of Tara’ (Co. Meath, and just a few kms south-east of Mabel’s birthplace) in the early 1900s, looking for the ‘Ark of the Covenant’; and there is the on-going controversy about ‘The Bethel Seal’ – did Mabel plant it as a love-token for her dead spouse?)
“May I lend your magazine to the Reverend Commander Roberts RN – Rector of Ardley, Bicester – our Secretary – I think he would write to that man? Mabel Virginia Anna Bent, 13 Great Cumberland Place, London, W. [Mabel’s London home], 28 April 1909” [A rare example of Mabel’s signature]Arguably, none of this detracts, in the end, from Mabel’s Herculean (Amazonian?) efforts to support Theodore, and contribute to the many successes of their adventures in the field, from Aksum to Zimbabwe.
And the reason for the anniversary nod to her, anyway, is just to point out this aspect of Mabel’s nature (and he that is without, etc.), and note the arrival at the Bent Archive (thanks to Anna Cook) of a signed and incompletely dated card from Mabel to Charlotte Bellingham Wrench (addressed to her fine house, Killacoona, Ballybrack, Co. Dublin), asking if she (Mabel) could forward a magazine (presumably anti-AIA) to Lawrence Roberts, ‘our secretary’ (and committed AIAist), and write to ‘that man’ (Mabel could be a dogged and ruthless adversary).
Mabel’s correspondent: Mrs Charlotte Bellingham Wrench, Killacoona, Ballybrack [Co. Dublin]The year is hard to make out from the postmark, but thanks to John Enfield, President and Journal Editor of the British Postmark Society (pers. comm., July 2019), we have it catalogued as 1909. Mabel was in full voice and causing trouble in Jerusalem; unswerving in her views, she had just published her ‘Anglo-Saxons from Palestine; or, The imperial mystery of the lost tribes’ (1908, London: Sherratt & Hughes), based on her interests in British Israelism.
Never mind, ‘Ní bheidh a leithéid ann arís – Her like will not be seen again’ (as goes the Irish epitaph later selected for one of Mabel’s great-nieces). She is buried with Theodore in St Mary’s, Theydon Bois, outside London, go visit her…
Poster for the first modern Olympic Games, held in Athens in April 1896 (Wikipedia).
A recent article covered the Bents at tennis but now it’s the Olympics – not the extravagant, chauvinist affair that is Paris today (July 2024), but a much happier time, 6th – 15th April 1896, in Athens, Greece, and the first Games staged in the modern era – for there were to be no tiddlywinks, table-football, cat’s cradle, or wife carrying, no scooter racing, just classic events – athletics, cycling (the Bents were very keen), fencing, swimming, no-nonsense, that sort of wholesome thing. (Incidentally, tennis, a sport much enjoyed on the front lawns of Mabel Bent’s Wexford family home, was also included, the Olympics’ singles being won, fittingly enough for us, by Dublin-born John Boland.)
And, needless to say, Theodore and Mabel can cry out – “We too! We were there!”
Constitution Square, in the era of the Bents, and their base in Athens. Their hotel was located here (private collection).
But let’s travel back a few weeks and months first. On 2nd December 1895, the Bents had set off to explore along the Sudanese coast, reaching as far as Suakin, and en route finding traces of old gold mines. By the end of March 1896 the couple are more than ready to return, leaving Alexandria to spend a few days in Athens – a city much loved by the pair since the early 1880s – before their journey back to their London townhouse near Marble Arch. In the Greek capital, by the way, Theodore is serendipitously recruited by the British School to supervise archaeological excavations at the ancient gymnasium (Kynosarges), before he and Mabel joined the crowds to go watch some events on the opening day of the above-mentioned first modern Olympics, 6th April 1896.
Here is Mabel’s diary for the end of March 1896, abridged somewhat:-
“We remained in Cairo till Friday 26th [March]… and embarked on the Khedival steamer for the Pireas… The steamer was most crowded. Theodore had a cabin with 5 Greeks and I was one of 5, for 2 nights. We arrived at the Grand Hotel, Athens, Sunday 28th March. Iannis, the proprietor, Spiro, and the other waiters were warm in their welcome. The town was gayer than I have ever seen a town in Holy Week, as it was being all beflagged and illuminated for the Olympic Games, which were to take place on Easter Monday… We left on April 7th, via Corfu, having seen the first day of the Olympic Games.” (The Travel Chronicles of Mrs J. Theodore Bent, Vol. 1, p. 325, 2006, Archaeopress, Oxford)
Calendar of events at the first modern Olympic Games in Athens 1896. The Bents attended Day 1, 6th April (Wikipedia).
The Wikipedia entry for the 1896 Games in Athens has an informative calendar/table detailing all the events over the ten days they were staged. The chart shows us that Day 1 (April 6th) witnessed an exciting, if short, programme of athletics. There seems to have been a brief opening ceremony before George I, the Greek king, at 3 in the afternoon. Two first-place medals were awarded that Monday – the 1500 metres, won by Australian Edwin Flack, and the discus, an American winning, Robert Garrett. (They both received silver medals, the iconic gold not appearing until later Games apparently.)
An artist’s impression of the 100 m at the 1896 Games in Athens (Wikipedia).
Mabel, sadly, gives very little away in her account, she can’t have been much impressed and obviously knew no one there – not even the debonair Dubliner John Boland. Perhaps in the crowds she could see little: as well as the discus and the 1500 metres, there were also the heats of the 100, 400, and 800 metres to be savoured.
It seems most unlikely, therefore, that Mabel would have bothered much when the Games ultimately reached London for the first time in April 1908, Theodore having died in May 1897, a year after the events in Athens referred to above – Citius, Altius, Fortius… indeed.
General Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi, 1866 (wikipedia).
There is a backstory to Bent’s The Life of Giuseppe Garibaldi(1881). Theodore Bent had left Oxford with an undistinguished history degree in the mid 1870s, met and married a distant Irish cousin, Mabel Hall-Dare, in 1877, and then promptly took his new bride off to Italy, where he was to practise ‘history’, i.e. travel, write, and research, until 1882; the couple, wealthy enough, would use their London townhouse at 43 Great Cumberland Place as an occasional retreat the while.
The heady years of the couple’s status as celebrity explorers were a decade away; as yet, Bent had no career, but he did have a devoted wife, with whom he was lucky enough to share the traveller’s gene – that labelled ‘the need to be somewhere else’; thus he and Mabel were perfectly happy, and no thoughts of children ever appear in her diaries. Plus, as said, they were wealthy enough.
Page 200 from Bent’s “San Marino”. We see his sketch of Garibaldi’s billet in 1849 (archive.org).
For Theodore, the fruits of these (non-fully unified) ‘Italian’ years ripened into a trilogy of books, two of which he managed to get the very solid London firm of Longmans, Green & Co. to publish. The first (1879, Kegan Paul & Co.) was a lightweight, but well received, account of the tiny Republic of San Marino, illustrated by its author – Theodore’s sketches pepper nearly all his books, with Mabel adding the photos on occasion. This modest work, besides getting the couple citizenship of the little state, obviously did well enough for Bent’s second publishers, Longmans, to agree to issue next (in 1881) an indigestible tome on the great port-city of Genoa, a study only really memorable as an example of Bent’s energy and speed of output – qualities he retained all his short life, producing hundreds (see his bibliography) of articles, papers, and lectures, in addition to his six books (a seventh was to be completed by Mabel after his death in 1897).
Garibaldi as he appears in the frontispiece of Bent’s 1881 biography (archive.org).
In the same year as Genoa (1881), Bent completed his biography on Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882), the hero-revolutionary. We don’t yet know why exactly took on the project, although clearly the great man was nearing the end of his life and there was always interest in him, i.e. a market for one more leather-bound volume to add to library shelves. On a personal level, the boy Bent might have read of Garibaldi’s visit to the UK in 1864 – Theodore would have been 12; the young Oxford student would have studied the exploits of the man during his historical researches, no doubt; Chapter 11 of Bent’s guide to San Marino is taken up with the General’s entry to, and escape from, its capital in the summer of 1849.
Although Garibaldi, of course, was deeply associated with Genoa, he only appears by name on one page (412) in all the 420 of Bent’s book on how the Republic rose and fell. But, inescapably, the General must have been on the young Bent’s mind (he was born in 1852) ever since his ‘honeymoon’ in San Marino, if not before. As for the author’s material and sources – well, hardly anything is referenced and there are no detailed bibliographies in any of his three ‘Italian’ books, nor even indices. We may safely assume he would have consulted what biographical information he could find, including the autobiography of his warrior hero, edited by Alexandre Dumas père and translated into English two decades previously (1860, London: Routledge & Co.).
How did Bent get his data and was it accurate? He certainly did tour the locations (often with Mabel to take notes no doubt), perhaps making earlier visits as undergraduate; he talked to witnesses, and there would have been newspapers, articles, and published accounts, but ultimately Bent gives very little away in terms of sources (a serious oversight for an academic of course). Nevertheless, his Garibaldi appears in London at the end of 1881, just months after Genoa – no little achievement when one thinks of the proofing and printing processes of the time.
The tireless champion of the Garibaldi family, Jessie White Mario (1832-1906)(wikpedia).
And immediately there are problems. The young historian finds himself under attack – the Garibaldi lion has been poked. Enter the family’s champion, the unquenchable Englishwoman Jessie White Mario (1832-1906). Needless to say, this present article isn’t nearly robust enough to accommodate her, and readers are directed elsewhere; suffice it to say that she had been devoted to, obsessed with, Garibaldi and his cause for decades – one of the hundreds of women drawn to the romantic warrior (think Che Guevara here). Evidently planning a biography herself, she was pipped to the post by Bent, and, swiftly acquiring a copy, went through it with a fine-tooth comb looking for issues, of which there was no shortage. From her villa in Lendinara (Rovigo, Veneto, northern Italy), blood up, she immediately wrote to Garibaldi’s son Ricciotti (1847-1924) – his father now infirm and passing his time on the family’s private island of Caprera, off, Sardinia – listing the inaccuracies, slanderous and actionable, as she saw them (Ricciotti, in Rome, had not yet seen a copy). She offered to enter the fray on the family’s defence and remonstrate directly with Longmans in London, insisting that they withdraw Bent’s book. Ricciotti’s reply to White Mario picks up on some of her points, accepts her offer, and asks to be sent a copy. From the list of offending passages, two examples illustrate Bent’s clear suggestions of corruption: one referencing a contract for granite from Caprera, the other a luxury yacht (some things don’t change). note 1 Garibaldi’s son, Ricciotti (1847-1924)(wikipedia).
The accusations by Bent are unambiguous. Good as her word, White Mario, assisted by her brother, writes angrily to Longmans, who reply promptly (and anxiously), sensing a diplomatic misunderstanding of some scale, and possibly expense. On 31 January 1882, just a few months into sales of Bent’s book, a representative of his publishers replies to White Mario, saying that Mr Bent’s (for some reason they give his name as William) “only wish has been to give an unbiased view of Garibaldi’s life: that if he had been led by false information into making any statements that are not true he much regrets it…” Additionally, Bent would be pleased to make any corrections requested, and the letter ends: “[We] shall be glad to get the matter settled with as little delay as possible, as the suspension of the sale of the book so soon after publication involves us in inconvenience and pecuniary loss.” In a further letter dated 12 April 1882, Longman’s declare the first edition of Garibaldi, a Life as being formally ‘withdrawn’.
Our guide through this above maelstrom is Elizabeth Adams Daniels, via her swashbuckling study Jessie White Mario: Risorgimento Revolutionary, published by Ohio University Press in 1972 (see pages 112, 142-3). (The author refers, generously, to Theodore Bent as ‘one of Longman’s popular writers on Italian subjects’, mining the publishers’ archives and other sources for evidence of White Mario’s interventions on behalf of the Garibaldi family.) note 2 Title page of the 2nd edition of Bent’s “Garibaldi” (1882)(archive.org).
Notwithstanding this retreat before the General, a second edition of the biography does appear just a few months later, in 1882 (there was by now an eager market for it, its subject, sick and verging on bankruptcy, having been led away to fight in pastures new on 2 June of that year). Adams Daniels infers that this new iteration contained errata sheets, but these do not seem to have surfaced online. As we shall see later, when comparing extracts from the two versions, alterations were made to Bent’s text directly.
The life and times of Garibaldi drew a line under Bent’s attempts at ‘Italian’ historical memoires and there is to be no Italian ‘quartet’. (We need only look at lines from one of the reviews: “Mr. Bent should have abstained from sneering at the evening of a life which has certainly been useful to mankind.” – The Graphic, 19 November 1881, p. 519.) The couple’s next phase of travels was to take them into the Aegean and the Levantine littoral, possibly in the wake of the merchant vessels of the Genoese Empire, eastwards, over the winter of 1882/3. The end of 1883 sees the Bents blown into the Greek islands, and the traveller’s next book, on the Cyclades, was to establish his change of locale and literary style – essentially the exploits of explorer and travel writer, themes much more suited to his nature. After the Levant, the Bents tackled Africa, and then Arabia, in 20 extraordinary years of explorations.
Thomas Norton Longman (1849–1930), one of the partners of Bent’s publishers during his association with the firm (wikipedia).
Despite the obvious loss caused to Longmans over the Garibaldi issue, the firm was, it seems, prepared to remain Bent’s publisher for his next three books (Cyclades– 1885; Mashonaland– 1892; Aksum– 1893); their investment in the travel writer paid off, all three were bestsellers and ran to several editions. These can be acquired today either as originals, from antiquarian sources, or as new reprints, or via online versions.
Bent has been in print since 1877, and well merits it.
Note 1:
Textual comparisons
Page 96 of Bent’s Garibaldi (1st edn, 1881): “Caprera is rich in granite; the Pantheon at Rome was built of stone fetched from thence, and so was part of the Pisan Cathedral, and other celebrated buildings. In 1870, a contract was entered into for supplying Rome with some of it, for the improvements going on in the Eternal City. Ricciotti Garibaldi managed the affair, and put a little money into his pockets by the transaction.”
Page 96 of Bent’s Garibaldi (2nd edn, 1882): “Caprera is rich in granite ; the Pantheon at Rome was built of stone fetched from thence, and so was part of the Pisan Cathedral, and other celebrated buildings. In 1870, a contract was entered into for supplying Rome with some of it, for the improvements going on in the Eternal City, but the negotiations to a great measure fell through, and the Garibaldi family got but little money therefrom.”
Pages 234/5 of Bent’s Garibaldi (1st edn, 1881): “Garibaldi would not receive a purse from his English friends. They wished to subscribe a sum of money, which, if invested, would secure him from want for the rest of his days. As yet his sons and his son-in-law were not so deeply involved as to oblige him to take it; but he gladly accepted the yacht Osprey [Princess Olga], which they offered him, for the old General loved to skim along the blue waters of the inland sea, and there it lay for awhile at Caprera, until, as is the fate with most toys, the General got tired of it, and went out to sea in it less and less. Ricciotti Garibaldi looked on with covetous eyes at so much wealth lying idle in the harbour of Caprera, so he asked his father’s permission to go a cruise one day in the Osprey, which was readily granted, and since then the Osprey has not been seen in the waters of Caprera.”
Pages 234/5 of Bent’s Garibaldi (2st edn, 1882): Garibaldi would not receive a purse from his English friends. They wished to subscribe a sum of money, which, if invested, would secure him from want for the rest of his days; yet, notwithstanding, he gladly accepted the yacht Osprey [Princess Olga], which they offered him, for the old General loved to skim along the blue waters of the inland sea, and there it lay for awhile at Caprera, until, as is the fate with most toys, the General got tired of it, and went out to sea in it less and less; it was eventually sold to the Italian Government, and Prince Amadeo, Duca d’Aosta, went several trips of pleasure therein.”
Garibaldi’s Yacht
Crown Princess Olga Nikolaevna (1822-1892), by the greatest of contemporary portraitists, Franz Xaver Winterhalter (wikipedia).
Bent got this wrong. There was indeed some gossip (Liverpool Mercury, 2 August 1864) that Lord Burghley’s beautiful yawl the Osprey(built in Renfrew in 1854) would find her way to Garibaldi at Caprera, but the deal foundered, probably because she was too small at under 20 tons. The idea at all that a yacht should be purchased via a British subscription fund (‘The Garibaldi Yacht Fund’) took to the water in Liverpool in the early 1860s (the General knew the famous port powerhouse well). In the end it was not the Osprey but the schooner Princess Olga (built 1846) that was acquired and crewed out to him: “General Garibaldi has accepted the yacht Princess Olga, presented to him by various friends in England and Scotland. The Princess Olga sailed from Cowes on the 24th of October [1864], and arrived all safe at St. Roques, eight miles from Gibraltar, on the 8th inst. She sailed the next morning for Caprera” (The Illustrated London News, 19 November 1864, p. 519).
The sleek-rigged vessel was named after the famed beauty Olga Nikolaevna of Russia (1822-1892), who would still have been Princess Olga in 1846 when her eponymous yacht was launched off Cowes, Isle of Wight. As wife of Charles I of Württemberg from 1864, she took the title of Queen.
As beautiful as the woman lending her her name, the ‘Princess Olga’ (foreground) rounding the Nore Light in a race on 7 July 1847, the year after her launch (hand-coloured print (detail), Thomas Goldsworthy Dutton, NMM Greenwich/Wikipedia c.c.).
The story was wired all over the Empire, e.g.: “The Princess Olga, schooner, 50 tons, has been bought by the committee of the Garibaldi fund to be presented to General Garibaldi, for his use at Caprera. This vessel was built by Mr. Joseph White, of East Cowes for Mr. Rutherford, of the Royal Victoria Yacht Club, who himself furnished the design. She is built of the best India teak; copper bolted and fastened. Her internal fittings are commodious and elegant. Her saloon and ladies cabin were painted by Sang and his assistants, the fruit and flowers by Benson, the figures by Bendixen. Her head, a likeness of the Princess Olga, of Russia, was carved by [Hellyer], of Portsmouth. She is very fast, and has won many prizes, and has been long recognised as the show yacht of her class.” [Reprinted in the Launceston Examiner [Tasmania], Thursday, 15 December 1864]
And her fate? This must await another researcher: “The fact is that by 1874… people were becoming increasingly aware of the Garibaldi’s misfortunes and precarious financial condition. In 1869 he sold the yacht donated by British admirers, the Princess Olga, to the state for 80,000 lira, but the proceeds were stolen by the intermediary.” (Alfonso Scirocco: Garibaldi. Princeton University Press, 2007, p. 395) Return from Note 1
Note 2: The remaining archives of Longman, Green & Co. are now kept at Reading University, UK (GB 6 RUL MS 1393), and a summary of Bent’s dealings can be found here. Return from Note 2
Ethel Hall-Dare, 1848-1930, later Bagenal, Mabel’s sister, as a young woman. Possibly at Newtonbarry House (The Bent Archive).
The Irish are grand on court, always have been, ever since lawn tennis took off within the Emerald Isle in the late 19th century (think John McEnroe, eligible to have played Davis Cup for Ireland, were he that way inclined, with grandparents from Co Westmeath and Co Cavan – a decent forehand away only from Co Meath and Mabel Bent’s place of birth in 1847).
Limerick Lawn Tennis Club (“There was a young man called Dennis / who took on Hall-Dare at tennis / who can forget / his dash to the net / and subsequent trip to the dentist.”), proudly staged the first Open championships in Ireland in August 1877, coincidentally, or not, the same year as the first Wimbledon. Simon Eaves and Robert Lake (2020) paint a rosy picture of the sport’s acme (and a decline a little later): “For a time in the 1880s and early 1890s, lawn tennis in Ireland was at its peak, and a leading nation in the sport, globally. Its players were among the world’s best, the only rival to its national championships in terms of prestige and quality of entries was Wimbledon, and its coaching professionals ranked among the world’s most sought after.”
The Irishman John Boland, winner of the the men’s singles at the first modern Olympic games, held in Athens in April 1896 (Wikipedia).
Tennis was also one of the limited number of sporting events selected for the first modern Olympics held in Athens, Greece, from 6th – 15th April, 1896, and, as chance, or not, would have it, the men’s singles was won by Dublin-born John Boland. Of course, the Bents were in Athens at the time; they attended the first day of the Games only – the tennis started a few days later.
The game was an immediate hit with Mabel’s family, the Hall-Dares, who installed grass courts on the lawns of their estate near Bunclody, Co Wexford. Among the several sports and pastimes mentioned in Mabel’s travel diaries, colonial tennis (biking was another interest) never failed to excite her, and one reference may stand for them all:
“We did not do much that day, but about 4 sat out in wintry wind to watch the tennis [Theodore and Mabel are in Bushire in the Persian Gulf]. There are 2 courts in earth [at] the Residency and a club, and they have a cricket club. With consuls, telegraph people, etc., there are about 20 Europeans. I asked one of the young ladies if she knew any Persian ladies. ‘No. I’ve never seen any. I never do like Natives.’ Once you get to Egypt anyone… is a Native – no one cares to discriminate of what country.” (1 February 1889, The Travel Chronicles of Mrs J. Theodore Bent, Vol. 3, Oxford, 2010)
Lawn Tennis Tournament, ‘The Gorey Correspondent and Arklow Standard’ – Saturday, August 26, 1882.
Mabel and Theodore were again travelling a few years before, in August 1882, when Mabel’s sister-in-law Caroline Hall-Dare organised a spectacular tennis tournament within the grounds of the family home, Newtonbarry House, sleepy on the banks of the brown Slaney River. We have a reporter from the The Gorey Correspondent and Arklow Standard (Saturday, August 26, 1882) to thank for a white-flannel and parasol account of it all:
“On Wednesday, 16th inst., a Lawn Tennis Tournament was given by Mrs Hall-Dare, at Newtonbarry House, to the ardent players of the County Wexford, who all arrived on the ground at twelve o’clock, when the drawing for partners took place. This was admirably conducted by the Rev. Canon Blacker and Mr. P.C. Newton. The games began immediately after on eight of the courts which are situated so beautifully upon the even sward which faces the mansion. After the first rounds had been played the company assembled for luncheon. In the afternoon the numbers were swelled to nearly two hundred, who witnessed, with much interest, the final rounds of this exiting Tournament.”
The fine lawns of Newtonbarry House, eminently suited to tennis, from a recent Google image.
There is nothing like keeping it in the family, and ultimately the mixed doubles winners were ‘Miss Hall Dare’ (possibly the eighteen-year-old Elizabeth Frances Hall-Dare, Caroline’s daughter, and thus one of Mabel’s nieces, but there are other candidates) and Mr R. Donovan, who beat Miss Boyd and Mr C. Donovan. There was a ‘Consolation Prize’ for those knocked out in round one, and the winners of this were Miss E. Newton and Major Knox Browne (later a distinguished soldier), who beat Caroline Hall-Dare and Mr E. Donovan (the Donovan family, perhaps of Ballymore Townland, Co Wexford, not far east of Newtonbarry, obviously also took their tennis very seriously. There is note of a Mr Richard Donovan apparently meeting his future wife at a Kilkenny tennis party).
Caroline Hall-Dare, née Newton (1842-1918), Mabel’s sister-in-law. Perhaps taken in the late 1870s at the height of her tennis prowess (The Bent Archive).
Like us, you might think it rather a shame that the event’s organizer, host, and provider of courts, won nothing. Perhaps Caroline had yet to adjust to the 1880 changes to the tennis rules, when “the hand-stitched ball was replaced by the Ayres ball, the net was lowered to 4ft at the post. The service line was brought in a distance of 21 feet from the net. A service ball touching the net was deemed to be a let and a player was forbidden to volley until it had crossed the net.” No problem at all for John McEnroe of course.
Irish Tennis Championships, Dublin, before 1903 (Robinson – Arthur Wallis Myers (1903): Lawn Tennis at Home and Abroad. Scribner’s Sons, New York. (online), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21618417).
Those interested in the history of Irish tennis will enjoy the three-volume study by Tom Higgins of Sligo Tennis Club. (This is mentioned really as a nod to Mabel Bent’s childhood home, Temple House, Sligo, although it is unlikely the house then had courts, in the 1850s.)
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