THE LIFE and TIMES of HASTINGS ELWIN OR ELWYN (1777–1852) and HIS CRITICAL ROLE in FOUNDING the BATH LITERARY and SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTION in 1823 by H.S
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THE GEOLOGICAL CURATOR VOLUME 8, NO. 4 CONTENTS THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HASTINGS ELWIN OR ELWYN (1777–1852) AND HIS CRITICAL ROLE IN FOUNDING THE BATH LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTION IN 1823 by H.S. Torrens.......................................................................................................................................................141 THE COLLECTIONS OF GEORGE GARDNER (1810–1849) FROM THE SANTANA FORMATION (CRETACEOUS) OF NORTHEAST BRAZIL by J.R. Nudds and J. Washington Evans...................................................................................................................169 COMMENT AND RESPONSE ON ‘BIOEROSION, PREPARATION AND CURATION’ Comment by S.K. Donovan, C. Hensley and D.N. Lewis..........................................................................................177 Response by J.D. Radley.........................................................................................................................................179 THE JURASSIC OF WARWICKSHIRE: PERSPECTIVES ON COLLECTING by J.D. Radley.........................................................................................................................................................181 LOST & FOUND.........................................................................................................................................................189 BOOK REVIEW.........................................................................................................................................................190 GEOLOGICAL CURATORS’ GROUP - 30TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING.................................................191 ERRATA: STATE & STATUS 2001 REPORT THE GEOLOGICAL CURATOR 8(3) [2005]..................................199 THE GEOLOGICAL CURATORS’ GROUP 2006 MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION/RENEWAL FORM...........201 GEOLOGICAL CURATORS’ GROUP - December 2005 -139- -140- THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HASTINGS ELWIN OR ELWYN (1777– 1852) AND HIS CRITICAL ROLE IN FOUNDING THE BATH LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTION IN 1823 by Hugh S. Torrens Torrens, H.S. 2005. The life and times of Hastings Elwin or Elwyn (1777–1852) and his critical role in founding the Bath Literary and Scientific Institution in 1823. The Geological Curator 8(4): 141–168. H.S. Torrens, Lower Mill Cottage, Furnace Lane, Madeley, Crewe, Cheshire, CW3 9EU, U.K. Revised version received 10th August 2005. For Stella Whyberd Pierce—in gratitude. 1753. It was that same museum which purchased Smith’s rock and fossil collections between 1815 and “It is to be wished, if for nothing else but the 1818. Smith’s realisation of the importance of using honour of Bath, that so valuable a gift [as this fossils to identify those strata which contained them Institution], transmitted from a generation almost led to museums all round the world filling with such passed away, should not perish in the hands of a collections. That same date was also chosen to “call race less alive to its value and importance” (Hunter attention to the BRLSI’s wonderful collections” 1853, 72). (Catchpole 2004, 47), since no museum had more filled up with fossils and rocks than their’s in Bath. Introduction The City of Bath was enrolled, in 1987, as one of the The Bath Literary and Scientific Institution, United Kingdom’s first World Heritage sites. It was (hereafter—BLSI, or from 1837, when it acquired the ninth here, listed by UNESCO (2003). However further royal patronage—BRLSI), has an important, such a culturally important city now has some strange if complex, history. As one direct result of its ‘cultural legacies’. There was particularly fierce foundation, the claim was first made there, by Rev. opposition from Bath’s rate-payers, where rates were, Joseph Hunter (1783–1861), that “Bath may justly be and still are, famously low, to the Public Libraries regarded as the cradle of English geology” (Hunter Act of 1850. This was rejected in Bath four times and 1827a, 14). The initiation of the study of Bath’s so any Bath Public Library and Art Gallery could geology by William Smith (1769–1839), from 1791, only be finally adopted in 1900 (Kelly 1977, 81-84). and its subsequent encouragement there by the BLSI, The museological history of Bath is equally complex, after Smith was in his northern English exile, was to because of the City’s dependence on ‘attracting have important museological consequences. A Bath tourists’ to keep the rates low. The history of the newspaper item dated 29 June 1929 (copy preserved BLSI/BRLSI Museum, by many decades the oldest in in T.S. Cotterell’s copy of Bather (1926), Bath Bath, but which is not ‘a tourist attraction’, is thus of Reference Library) reported how particular importance, although it fails to receive the citizens of Bath could not have a worthier notice in recent histories (e.g. Davis and Bonsall object to maintain, and their efforts should 1996). certainly be directed to the upkeep of this historic A more recent author has, rightly, claimed this is institution, which has been termed both ‘the Finest because Bath’s recent heritage-mongers have been Geological Museum outside London’ and to be antipathetic to local science and its history. ‘an institution whose opening date is uncertain’. There was no sign of a twentieth-century swing Such statements prompted the choice of 7 June 2003 [here] towards the sciences; indeed, quite the to launch the BRLSI’s reprint of the 1844 Memoirs of opposite appears to be the case. Any attempt, William Smith LL.D.. This was the 250th anniversary such as that of Williams and Stoddart (1978), to of the establishment of the British Museum on 7 June create a counter-hagiography of [Bath] scientists -141- and engineers was seemingly doomed to failure. married a London solicitor, Alexander Gordon However, during the nineteenth century science (c.1772–1854 —see Gentleman’s Magazine, February enjoyed considerable kudos in Bath, a position 1855, 221). The son of these latter, of the same name, reflected in the establishment of the prestigious also migrated to Sydney in 1857 where he died in Literary and Scientific Institution, whose Rooms 1903—(see Australian Dictionary of Biography and were opened in 1825, and which proceeded to Foster 1887–1891, vol. 1, 80). acquire... several scientific collections (Borsay 2000, 139). Hastings Elwin (or Elwyn) Senior (1742– Hastings Elwin junior’s vital role in the founding of 1833) this important institution is thus both critical and too Elwin senior is a similarly forgotten figure like his long forgotten. The Geological Curators’ Group has confusingly homonymous son. The only clues, but now campaigned for over 30 years, for the better which have considerable relevance to Hastings Elwin protection of its important collections (see Copp, junior’s later career as museum-builder and collector, Pickford and Torrens 1975 and Parker 1978). A are the several references to a “Mr Elwin” or “Elwyn” jubilee publication on the Institution’s history failed as art-collector and connoisseur in Georgian England. to mention him (Spender 1875). A recent piece by For example, he was listed, merely as “Elwyn”, by Jane Coates (the Institution’s then archivist) did note the German curator Gustav Waagen (1794–1868) in a new display which included material on the 1838, as among “founding fathers of the institution, notably Hastings Elwin” (Coates 2003, 4). But conclusive evidence of the most distinguished [such] collectors in his part in establishing this institution has never been England since 1792, who, by diffusing the most properly revealed, nor have details of his biography admirable works of art in their century, have or his distant fate. conferred upon it a lasting benefit (Waagen 1838, vol. 1, 57). It is extraordinary how some categories of people have fallen through the historical ‘net’ more than He is also listed in Joseph Farington’s diaries between others. I have already made this point in relation to 1797 and 1809 (Garlick and Macintyre 1979; Cave mineral surveyors (Torrens 2002). Their profession 1982). He is identified no further than ‘Hastings was often highly itinerant. Such itineracy becomes a Elwin’ in their index; but he is certain, in view of major problem for their biographical record and is these dates, to be Hastings Elwin senior. Fritz Lugt also one main reason why Hastings Elwin, of Norfolk, (1938) records details of five of the Catalogues of art Antigua, Bath and Australia, has fallen into near- he, as both Hastings Elwin or Elwyn, auctioned in complete historical anonymity. A second reason is London between 1787 and 1811 (Lugt nos 4242 of that Hastings Elwin, although twice married, had no 1787, 5263 of 1794, 7101 of 1806, 7791 of 1810 and children, through whom any memory, or archive, of 7918 of 1811). Lugt (1953) records another such sale his multi-faceted, widely spread, activities might of 1 June 1833 (Lugt no. 13325) by a mystery W.B. have been maintained. Elwyn who must be the Oxford educated barrister Dr William Brame Elwyn (c.1744–1841) but who came Elwin’s origins and birth from a different Canterbury family. Hastings senior was also active in art circles in London as a purchaser, Hastings Elwin was born on 8 March 1777, a fact and agent for the sale, of expensive paintings by, for only revealed on the far-away foot stone of what little example, Rubens, Van Dyke and others. He was also survives of his grave in Sydney, New South Wales. a major purchaser at the Fonthill House, Wiltshire He was the eldest son of the London barrister Hastings sale in August 1807 of two Vernet