NEWS RELEASES
A Unique Exhibition for a Unique Man
30 April 2008
Never before or likely again in the history of Horsham will the town have this remarkable opportunity. Through a strange set of coincidences and circumstances Horsham Museum has managed to pull together a diverse collection of items relating to, or about Shelley’s family and friends. It was impossible to do this in 1992, his bicentennial year, and will be impossible in 2022, the anniversary of his death, but in 2008 Horsham Museum has pulled off a real coup for the people of Horsham and Sussex: an exhibition that displays a rare selection of items connected with Shelley, his family and friends.
The exhibition, entitled ‘Percy Bysshe Shelley, Family and Friends’, opens on Thursday 1 May and closes 14 June 2008
From Eton, that great public school attended by Shelley, we have the Entry book, signed when he first entered its portals as well as a book owned by him; from Harrow School we have a book given by Shelley to his great friend and literary rival, Byron; from Newcastle we have miniatures of his childhood friend and biographer Thomas Medwin; and from London a miniature of his uncle Thomas Charles Medwin, the man who helped fund his elopement to Edinburgh, thus helping to cause the family split. Christ’s Hospital, when it was in London, was the school of Leigh Hunt, Shelley’s friend, promoter and biographer. They have kindly lent a unique oil painting of their star pupil and intimate of Shelley, as well as his stunning red and black waistcoat.
This is not just an exhibition about Shelley’s friends as it also features his family and his Sussex connections. His mother Elizabeth used to embroider samplers and give them out to household helps; two such gifts when she became Lady Shelley will be on display, as will the stunningly illustrated Field Book drawn up when Shelley was a young lad, which maps out all the Sussex property owned by Timothy Shelley, his father. This amazing document was lent by Hampshire Record Office and hasn’t been seen in Sussex since its creation.
The exhibition combines these unique items with recent acquisitions by Horsham Museum, items that give a real family flavour to Shelley, such as the family recipe book written by Shelley’s step aunt, the daughter of his grandfather’s second wife. In it is written a recipe for gingerbread, a favourite delicacy of Shelley’s. Also on display will be a music album owned by Shelley’s son, Percy Florence, showing to the world his respectability in contrast to his father’s radicalism.
The exhibition also contains objects, books and accounts that give a powerful overview of this fascinating character and his family, not only interesting to those that have a passion for literature but also to historians who seek to explore the culture of Regency Sussex and England.
As an added bonus, for the slightly macabre – we can almost create a full head of hair from all the locks on display, from the heads of Leigh Hunt, Byron, Shelley’s mother in law Mary Wollstonecraft, Percy and Mary Shelley.
For further information contact Jeremy Knight, Curator.
Horsham Museum
9 Causeway, Horsham, West Sussex RH12 1HE
Tel: (01403) 254959 Fax: (01403) 282594
Email: museum@horsham.gov.uk
http://www.horshammuseum.org/