THE SHELLEY CENTENARY MEMORIAL AT WARNHAM.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR.")
Sra,—The centenary of Percy Bysshe Shelley's death falls on July 8th, 1922. The time is therefore ripe for putting into execution the belated designs for commemorating the centenary of the poet's birth which we initiated in 1892. We then organized the celebration at Horsham (August 4th, 1892) which had for its ultimate object the establishment of a Shelley Library and Museum in that town. The appeal, asking for support in realizing this design, was signed by many represen- tative leaders of the English-speaking peoples. Among the signatories appeared the names of Lord Tennyson, George Meredith, Alfred Austin, Andrew Lang, W. M. Rossetti, Onslow Ford, William Watson, Williadt Morris, Thomas Hardy, Walter Cane, H. Rider Haggard, Frederic Harrison, G. F. Watts, Lord Leighton, Walter Besant, Dean Farrar, Marion Crawford, the then Bishop of Ripon, Henry. Irving, Leslie Stephen, Edmund Goma, Edmund Clarence Stedman, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Richard Watson Gilder (these last three re- presenting America), and Gabriel Sarrazin, with some two score names besides of persons of distinction in art, letters, and affairs.
The celebration at Horsham was a conspicuous 'success; but owing, presumably, to political pre-occupations at the moment the actual financial response to the appeal was wholly inade- quate, notwithstanding the warm approval of the scheme by the Press of the world. No alternative plan for employing the money collected secured the support of the promoters until the idea was bit upon to erect at Warnham, on a site as near as possible to Field Place, where the poet was born, a rural seat, wrought in stone, constructed to afford both rest and shelter to visitors. This suggestion met with the warm approval of practically all the signatories to the centenary appeal living at the time of its inception, including Mr. Thomas Hardy, Mr Frederic; Harrison, Mr. Edmund Gosse, Mr. Walter Crane, Mr. Theodore Watts-Dunton, Mr. Thomas J. Wise, Mr. Austin Dobson, Dr. Boyd Carpenter, Mrs W. M. Rossetti, Mr. H. S. Salt, Mr. Buxton Forman, and Miss Alma Murray.
The late Mr. Walter Crane, an ardent Shelleyan, having expressed a wish to carry into effect the idea of the co-trustees —the erection of a canopied seat, set in with a bas-relief in bronze emblematic of some striking incident of the poet's career, as, for instance, his sudden death foreshadowed in the closing stanzas of "Adonais "—was requested to make the necessary drawings. These very beautiful designs, completed by Mr. Crane just before his death, after his decease were mielaid, and have only come to light recently in the effects of the late Lieutenant Lancelot Crane. Mr. Lionel Francis Crane, the architect, the elder son of Walter Crane, has now executed working drawings from the designs of his father. Estimates have been obtained, from which it appears (the.cost of masonry having increased so greatly) that the outlay will approximate to 2800. Of this sum upwards of 2400 is in the bank (London County Westminster and Parr's) at Horsham. We venture to make an appeal to the lovers of English literature and to the appreciators of Shelley's genius to supply the deficiency. Dona- tions should be sent to us at the addresses given below, and cheques should be crossed "Shelley Centenary Memorial Fund."
Chichele, Penn Hill Avenue, Parkstone.
J'. J. ROBINSON.
" West Sussex Gazette," Arundel.
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