Maybe I painted old man Furnivall as too benign and saintly an old chap. He was not without what they might call ‘personal issues’ earlier in life. Firstly, as George Bernard Shaw wrote “He was a good sort, but his quarrels were outrageous…” When he fell out with poet Algernon Swinburne, he used his lexicographical… Continue reading The other side of Frederick Furnivall: Tiny Teena
Tag: Frederick Furnivall
A little exercise
Why does history sometimes abandon the memory of a great and colourful character? It’s midday on a chilly February Sunday in the year 1910. At Hammersmith, a western suburb of London still countrified, 1,000 people have gathered on the bridge over the Thames. A ripple of applause and cheering breaks out for a thin row… Continue reading A little exercise