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John Holland


madannie77

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Prompted by two recent postings by RichardB, a search for John Holland came up with nothing significant on this forum.

So, as a start

John Holland (1794-1872)

Born in a cottage in the grounds of Sheffield Manor and initially trained to be an optical instrument maker like his father, he beagn writing and publishing poems at an early age which brought him to the attention of James Montgomery, editor of the Sheffield Iris. In 1825 Holland became editor of the Iris, leaving in 1832 to take a position in Newcastle. He returned to Sheffield the following year and edited the Sheffield Mercury from 1835 until 1848. In 1833 he became Curator of the Sheffield Literary and Philosophical Society, a position he held until his death in 1872.

Source (Wikipedia)

The primary source for the biographical details of Holland is a book with a long-winded title (so Victorian, that)

"The Life of John Holland of Sheffield Park, from numerous letters and other documents furnished by his nephew and executor John Holland Brammall"

by William Hudson, published by Longmans, Green & Co in 1874

I haven't managed to read it all yet - it is over 560 pages long :o

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Prompted by two recent postings by RichardB, a search for John Holland came up with nothing significant on this forum.

So, as a start ...

I like it; read something that acts as a seed and go for it ... :rolleyes:

John Holland, Curator, Literary & Philosophical Society's Museum, Music Hall, Surrey Street, home Park (Pigot's 1841, Thomas Rodgers 1841)

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John Holland, Curator, Literary & Philosophical Society's Museum, Music Hall, Surrey Street, (Slaters 1846)

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all of which leads to the question : "Who was Ruth Wragg ?"

[Not an error, intentionally plonked here in the John Holland thread ...]

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Montgomery, of course, was a very favourite author; and he often repeated passages both from his published

poems and also from some others, which I suspect have escaped even the keen scrutinising search of the late Mr. Holland.

In his younger days he had himself composed a considerable amount of poetry, which he

could repeat to any extent. But it was in the doggerel style and Hudibrastic vein ;

and it is very doubtful whether he possessed the requisite literary taste and ability to have

written anything that would at all have stood the critical ordeal if printed in a volume.

Source

Recommended reading, all it it. Then read all the Chapters again.

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Prompted by two recent postings by RichardB, a search for John Holland came up with nothing significant on this forum.

So, as a start

John Holland (1794-1872)

14th March 1794 - 28th December 1872 it says here.

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Montgomery had many and a few devoted friends Foremost them was John Holland whom he than once calls a good man and true He was the poet's loved and loving from a very early period and to him conjunction with Mr Everett was the duty of compiling the life of the poet The task was discharged with sound judgment and nice discrimination with deep affection and abundant zeal.

Source

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John Holland.

Mr. John Holland died in December, 1872, and when his life by Mr.

Hudson was published, the Athaeneum newspaper wrote in quite the stately tone:

"Mr. Holland was a hard-working literary man and worthy of much respect. His

scientific attainments were considerable, and if he was not a poet, his

verses--of which there was an enormous number-were marked by taste, and he did

much to promote culture in Sheffield. But we cannot think that his biographer

was wise in devoting 550 pages, when a short sketch was all that was called for."

William Hudson's life of John Holland was published in September, 1874.

Holland was what may be termed a humble-minded poet, and it was Montgomery, his

friend and patron, who averred that his poems would be twice as good if they

were twice as short.

However, if much of what he wrote will not live, it is a

fact that his "Rainbow" was generally ascribed to Campbell, and the fact that he

was for almost all his youth a solitary individual may have had something to do

with his lack of breadth.

He was essentially a poet of nature, and in very much of his work there was fragrance and charm.

His paternal ancestor was Vicar of Sheffield, his tombstone in the Parish Churchyard bearing date August, 1597.

His parents lived in Sheffield Park, then a sufficiently charming district to bear

some comparison with its namesake in Sussex. His father was a great lover of

news and gardening, and by trade an optical instrument maker.

The gifted son was born in 1794, and when quite a young boy, and unaided, managed to

acquire a knowledge of Latin grammar even whilst assisting in his father's garret

workshop. So far as his poetry went, he graduated through the Lady's Magazine,

whilst he was teaching in Red Hill School,

"a man slight in build, always wearing silk stockings and breeches, with a Puritanical fashion in hair."

Gradually his writings appeared in the columns of the Sheffield Mercury, and in

1817 his friendship with Montgomery began and quickly ripened, with affection on

both sides. Bit by bit he drifted from literature into journalism, and when the

Iris passed from James Montgomery to Blackwell, John Holland became its editor.

He was not fitted for the post, and publicly expressed his pleasure that his

editorial duties had ceased before the coming of the daily newspapers. Still, it

was whilst he was editing the Iris that he received from that stormy soul,

Ebenezer Elliott, a letter which ran as follows:

" Dear Sir,

Yet while there is time, do now those deeds on which you may reflect in satisfaction in the last

hour, when subterfuges avail not and timid, selfish expediency is a convicted

felon; when in this moment, when the balance is trembling into decision for weal

or woe, whom shall England expect to do their duty if not men of religious

principles?''

For all his expressed and obvious distaste of journalism, Holland

went with Blackwell to Newcastle to edit the Courant there, but he came back to

Sheffield in 1883, and was elected curator of the Literary and Philosophical

Society, with which he was connected for 40 years, and participated in that

famous debate respecting the exclusion of Ebenezer Elliott as a member. His

"Tour of the Don," well known as it is, remains an abiding proof of his ability.

From : http://youle.info/history/fh_material/Making_of_Sheffield/13-LIVES.TXT

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The above contains an error ... can you spot it ?

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Yes .

Interesting feat to return to Sheffield 11 years after dying, and fifty years after becoming curator of the Literary & Philospohical Society .

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