On my most Classically-relevant day with the Headlam papers including in poems by several of them as children

I have said previously in this blog that some days spent with the Headlam papers take on their own character.

Today's - that's Thursday 29th February - both rounded off what I was looking at yesterday, and echoed LAST Thursday's session when, arriving for the library opening time, and leaving when it closed, leaving only for a lunch break, I looked at things written by Headlam young people. 

Waiting for the doors to open

My lunch break was longer than last week's when I allowed myself just 20 minutes - as I went to a cafe called Flat White Kitchen I'd heard about but been put off going into until now as it's not possible to see inside. When inside, it's lovely, over several floors in a historic building. 

This longer break was necessary as I had spent the last bit of the morning frantically working out which material I most need still to see and to find out whether these could be retrieved for the afternoon. I was feeling a sense of urgency because I was thinking that I might not go into Durham the following day as there looked set to be travel disruption due to train strikes.

I did get the material after lunch! I raced to look at it - and managed to see everything, but as with last week without time to process fully what I'd found, or be sure quite what I'd found. But I have lots of photos to look at later on.

First I rounded off yesterday's look at John Headlam's papers about his sons' schooling, reading that, in 1847, Francis continued to be mostly improving.

Arthur, meanwhile, continued to be successful in his studies, and wrote to his father to seek his advice about a dilemma he faced concerning which of two scholarships to go for at Cambridge.

That was a letter written on February 18th. Just a few months later, John died. Among the remaining papers for 1851, I saw his Will in which most of his property was to be left to Thomas Emerson, his oldest son. Among the bequests to the other children, were funds for Francis to see him though his university studies. Concerning his son John however, his father explains that his share is reduced because John has somehow 'displeased' him and 'set [him] at defiance'.

Among what remained in the folder was a diary kept by John's widow, Maria, started perhaps after John's death. The diary is concerned with day-to-day matters - though inserted into it was a love poem - more on that soon. First I am going to share about the most exciting things I saw - a set of folders where everything was bang-on relevant as it was comprised of nothing but poems by Headlam children, from when they are quite young - on topics that look to have been set by their father. 

Many are about nature. Other topics include war, there are some collaborative writings. There were poems by the boys whose formal schooling I had been reading about and by Margaret, whose longer poetry I had read last Thursday. There was poetry too by Isabella and by two other girls whose writing I had never seen.

There was quite a bit of classical content, with poems - in English and in one case in Latin - on topics such as Aurora, Iris, Zephyrus and the fall of Carthage. In addition to the children's own compositions there are translations from Horace by several of them.

Finally, there were poems by John himself including one he had written, or written out, for Maria before they were married, on a first kiss.

So to some concluding remarks. John Headlam comes across as a hands-on father who was very active beyond the family: I haven't said this already, but his papers include various published works including letters to Sir Robert Peel about prison reform.

John's children were educated at home - and in the boys' case at school too. The boys' formal education included a lot of Classics. The girls were just as familiar with classical references as these brothers.

I plan to say some more about the poems in the talk I'm giving on Thursday March 7th. More on this soon...