Jump to content
Main menu
Main menu
move to sidebar
hide
Navigation
Main page
Recent changes
Random page
Help about MediaWiki
Special pages
Niidae Wiki
Search
Search
Appearance
Create account
Log in
Personal tools
Create account
Log in
Pages for logged out editors
learn more
Contributions
Talk
Editing
Thomas Love Peacock
(section)
Page
Discussion
English
Read
Edit
View history
Tools
Tools
move to sidebar
hide
Actions
Read
Edit
View history
General
What links here
Related changes
Page information
Appearance
move to sidebar
hide
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
== Early occupation and travelling == In February 1800, Peacock became a clerk with Ludlow Fraser Company, who were merchants in the [[City of London]]. He lived with his mother on the firm's premises at 4 Angel Court Throgmorton Street. He won the eleventh prize from the Monthly Preceptor for a verse answer to the question "Is History or Biography the More Improving Study?".<ref name=letters/> He also contributed to "The Juvenile Library", a magazine for youth whose competitions excited the emulation of several other boys including [[James Henry Leigh Hunt|Leigh Hunt]], [[Thomas de Quincey|de Quincey]], and [[William Johnson Fox|W. J. Fox]].<ref name=Garnett/> He began visiting the [[British Museum Reading Room|Reading Room]] of the [[British Museum]] and continued doing so for many years, diligently studying the best literature in Greek, Latin, French, and Italian. In 1804 and 1806 he published two volumes of poetry, ''The Monks of St. Mark'' and ''Palmyra''. Some of Peacock's juvenile compositions were privately printed by [[Henry Cole (inventor)|Sir Henry Cole]]. In around 1806 Peacock left his job in the city and during the year made a solitary walking tour of Scotland. The annuity left by his father expired in October 1806. In 1807 he returned to live at his mother's house at [[Chertsey]]. He was briefly engaged to Fanny Faulkner, but it was broken off through the interference of her relations.<ref name=letters/> His friends, as he hints, thought it wrong that so clever a man should be earning so little money. In the autumn of 1808 he became [[private secretary]] to [[Home Popham|Sir Home Popham]], commanding the fleet before [[Flushing, Netherlands|Flushing]]. By the end of the year he was serving Captain Andrew King aboard {{HMS|Venerable|1808|6}} in the [[The Downs (ship anchorage)|Downs]].<ref name=letters/> His preconceived affection for the sea did not reconcile him to [[nautical]] realities. "Writing poetry," he says, "or doing anything else that is rational, in this floating [[Hell|inferno]], is next to a moral impossibility. I would give the world to be at home and devote the winter to the composition of a [[comedy]]." He did write [[prologue]]s and addresses for dramatic performances on board HMS ''Venerable''. His dramatic taste then and for the next nine years resulted in attempts at comedies and lighter pieces, all of which lacked ease of dialogue and suffered from over-elaborated incident and humour. He left HMS ''Venerable'' in March 1809 at Deal and walked around Ramsgate in Kent before returning home to Chertsey. He had sent his publisher Edward Hookham a little poem of the [[River Thames]] which he expanded during the year into "The Genius of the Thames". On 29 May he set out on a [[Thames meander|two-week expedition]] to trace the course of the Thames from its source to Chertsey and spent two or three days staying in Oxford.<ref name=letters/> Peacock travelled to North Wales in January 1810 where he visited [[Tremadog]] and settled at [[Maentwrog]] in [[Merionethshire]]. At Maentwrog he was attracted to the parson's daughter Jane Gryffydh, whom he referred to as the "Caernavonshire nymph". Early in June 1810, the ''Genius of the Thames'' was published by Thomas and Edward Hookham. Early in 1811 he left Maentwrog to walk home via South Wales. He climbed [[Cadair Idris]] and visited Edward Scott at Bodtalog near [[Tywyn]].<ref name="letters" /> He also visited [[William Madocks]] at [[Dolmelynllyn Estate|Dolmelynllyn]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=MADOCKS, William Alexander (1773-1828), of Tan-yr-allt, Caern. {{!}} History of Parliament Online |url=https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/madocks-william-alexander-1773-1828 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220117030409/https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/madocks-william-alexander-1773-1828 |archive-date=2022-01-17 |access-date=2022-07-25 |website=www.historyofparliamentonline.org}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last=Hayman |first=Richard |date=2014-06-01 |title='All Impetuous Rage': The Cult of Waterfalls in Eighteenth-century Wales |url=https://doi.org/10.1179/1466203513Z.00000000017 |url-status=live |journal=Landscapes |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=23β43 |doi=10.1179/1466203513Z.00000000017 |issn=1466-2035 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220828030633/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1179/1466203513Z.00000000017 |archive-date=2022-08-28 |access-date=2022-07-25 |s2cid=130820784}}</ref> His journey included [[Aberystwyth]] and [[Devil's Bridge, Ceredigion]]. Later in 1811, his mother's annuity expired and she had to leave Chertsey and moved to Morven Cottage [[Wraysbury]] near [[Staines]] with the help of some friends. In 1812 they had to leave Morven Cottage over problems paying tradesmen's bills.<ref name=letters/>
Summary:
Please note that all contributions to Niidae Wiki may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see
Encyclopedia:Copyrights
for details).
Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Search
Search
Editing
Thomas Love Peacock
(section)
Add topic