Poole & Bournemouth
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Poole
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| In 1999, Poole was the home of the
Shelley Museum, located within Boscombe
Manor, the residence of Shelley’s only
surviving child Percy Florence. The museum
has since been closed, and we have attempted
to trace the present location of the exhibits
without success. When we visited in 1999, we
discovered a wonderfully eclectic collection
of Shelley and Byron memorabilia:
Shelley’s baby curls, cut before he
left for Syon House, and a portrait of
Byron’s daughter Allegra; |
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| an inkstand used by the poet, and his
baby cap; |
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| a model of the yacht Ariel and a
letter from Ianthe Shelley to her
daughter; |
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as well as myriad books, paintings,
autograph manuscripts, and virtually
anything relating to the Shelley circle or
Shelley's descendants.
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Bournemouth
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| In Bournemouth, one finds St.
Peter’s Church, founded in the 1840s.
Its cemetery holds a large tomb containing
three generations of the
Godwin/Wollstonecraft/Shelley family; here
are buried William Godwin and Mary
Wollstonecraft, who in 1851 were removed from
the St. Pancras cemetery and placed in the
vault with their daughter Mary; the heart (or
liver, depending on whom one talks to) of
their son-in-law Percy Bysshe Shelley; and
their grandson Percy Florence and his
wife. |
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