Rabindranath Tagore in Gordon Square: London #2

'RABINDRANATH TAGORE
(1861–1941)
Indian Poet, Philosopher and
First Nobel Laureate from Asia
Unveiled by
HRN The Prince of Wales
7th July 2011'

'Sculpted by Shenda Amery

Installed by the Tagore Centre UK'

'Thou hast made me endless, such is thy pleasure. The frail vessel thou emptiest again and again, and fillest it even with fresher life. This little flute of a reed thou hast carried over hills and dales and hast breathed through it melodies eternally new. At the immortal touch of thy hands my little heart loses its limits in a great joy and gives birth to utterance ineffable. Thy infinite gifts come to me only on these very small hands of mine. Ages pass and still thou pourest and still there is room to fill.

Rabindranath Tagore'

Charles Dickens Connections in Kensal Green Cemetery, London

The grave of Robert Bell (1800–67) is now illegible. He was born in Cork, Ireland, and moved to London where he first worked as an editor for the weekly Atlas, and later as a journalist. He edited a large number of books of English poets, and was a friend of Dickens.

'SAMUEL LOVER

BORN FEB. 24, 1797.

DIED JULY 6, 1868.'

Lover was an Anglo-Irish songwriter and novelist who founded Bentley's Magazine with Dickens. He is probably best remembered for his novel Handy Andy (links to both volumes below).

Famously, John Forster (1812–76) wrote the biography of his friend Dickens, and also wrote biographies of Swift and Goldsmith. His bequest to the country was his library of 18,000 books, which included the manuscripts of all of Dicken's novels except A Christmas Carol. Dickens probably modelled Podsnap in Our Mutual Friend on him.

'DWARKANAUTH TAGORE,

OF CALCUTTA,

OBIIT 1ST. AUGUST 1846.'

'Tagore was the grandfather of the great Indian poet Rabindranath

Tagore (1861–1941), and met both Dickens and Thackeray when visiting London.

ADDENDUM: I forgot to include this one of William Harrison Ainsworth (1805–82), who for a time lived in nearby Kensal Lodge, and had both Dickens and Thackeray as guests.

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Samuel Lover – Handy Andy: A Tale of Irish Life: Volume One
Samuel Lover – Handy Andy: A Tale of Irish Life: Volume Two
William Harrison Ainsworth, Manchester

The Vale of Health: Literary London #25

The Vale of Health must be one of the best kept secrets in London. A kind of hamlet without any retail outlets, it stands in the south-west corner of Hampstead Heath and just outside Hampstead proper. Once a bog known as Hatch's Bottom, it was drained in 1777 by Hampstead Water Company, and a few cottages were erected for poor people. The picture is very different now, although to walk around this very quiet, very small cul-de-sac is like being in a different time.

In 1915 D. H. Lawrence lived with his wife Frieda at 1 Byron Villas, although the plaque is on another house. While here, Lawrence began the literary magazine The Signature with John Middleton Murry, for which Murry's wife Katherine Mansfield contributed under the pseudonym Matilda Berry. It was against the patriotic spirit of the time, and lasted only three issues. The Lawrences left for Cornwall on 1 December 1915, and persuaded the Middleton Murrys to join them shortly afterwards.

The poet Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) lived at 3 Villas-on-the-Heath in 1912.

After two years' imprisonment for insulting the Prince Regent, Leigh Hunt then took up residence at Vale Lodge from 1815-1821. During his stay here, he wrote five sonnets in praise of Hampstead, and introduced Keats to Shelley. He is perhaps most noted for Dickens's depiction of him as Harold Skimpole.

Stella Gibbons lived in Vale Cottage from 1927 to 1930, a few years before she became the noted author of Cold Comfort farm (1932).

Compton Mackenzie lived at Woodbine Cottage from 1937 to 1943, during which time he wrote the six volumes of The Four Winds of Love. He noted that village life was only a half hour away from Piccadilly Circus.