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R,CHARD MONCKTON MILNES was born in the year - OUDL Home

R,CHARD MONCKTON MILNES was born in the year - OUDL Home

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122 V. Sackville-WestAnd Louisa Guggenberger wrote:What's <strong>the</strong> text today for read<strong>in</strong>gNature and its be<strong>in</strong>g by?Effort, effort all <strong>the</strong> morn<strong>in</strong>gThrough <strong>the</strong> sea and w<strong>in</strong>dy sky.Is <strong>the</strong>re noth<strong>in</strong>g but Occurrence?Though each detail seem an Act,Is that whole we deem so pregnantBut unemphasized Fact?It <strong>was</strong> an unfortunate <strong>the</strong>ory to hold; it drove MadameDarmsteter (Mary Rob<strong>in</strong>son) <strong>in</strong>to giv<strong>in</strong>g ' her triste muse'<strong>the</strong> task of ' <strong>in</strong>vent<strong>in</strong>g a delicate misery which, happily,has never existed', and it completely turned <strong>the</strong> head ofLouisa Guggenberger, who is described <strong>in</strong> consequenceas 'emphatically <strong>the</strong> poetess of evolutionary science'—which apparently expla<strong>in</strong>s <strong>the</strong> <strong>in</strong>terest that Darw<strong>in</strong> took<strong>in</strong> her poems, though one would more naturally have expectedit to make him throw her book across <strong>the</strong> room.Then <strong>the</strong>re <strong>was</strong> Augusta Webster, perhaps <strong>the</strong> mostserious of <strong>the</strong> lot, and Mrs Clive with her reflections onmortality; but it is time to say someth<strong>in</strong>g about <strong>the</strong>seladies <strong>in</strong> ra<strong>the</strong>r more detail if <strong>the</strong> title of my paper is tobe at all justified.Augusta Webster, who <strong>was</strong> <strong>born</strong> <strong>in</strong> 1837 and <strong>was</strong> publish<strong>in</strong>gverse all through <strong>the</strong> 'seventies, must have spentra<strong>the</strong>r a queer childhood. Her fa<strong>the</strong>r <strong>was</strong> a vice-admiral,who, we are told, but briefly and without detail, had ' wona reputation for his success <strong>in</strong> sav<strong>in</strong>g shipwrecked seamen'.He <strong>the</strong>n held various coastguard commands, sothat his daughter Augusta <strong>was</strong> brought up trail<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong>wake of a naval career, now stranded <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> north <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong>castle of Banff, now whisked down south to Penzance,at <strong>the</strong> extreme opposite end of <strong>the</strong>se islands, now actuallyon board a ship, <strong>the</strong> Griper, <strong>in</strong> Chichester harbour. Theseodds and ends of biographical <strong>in</strong>formation float up to one,

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