Place Name
Matthew Arnold (December 24, 1822 – April 15, 1888) was a poet and critic who later worked as an inspector of schools, which he took to support his family. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the celebrated headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, literary professor, and William Delafield Arnold, novelist and colonial administrator. Matthew Arnold remains admired as a poet whose works captured the disquiet of an age in which modern life was fast consuming much that had gone before. The Poetry Foundation writes: “In many of his poems can be seen the psychological and emotional conflicts, the uncertainty of purpose, above all the feeling of disunity within oneself or of the individual’s estrangement from society which is today called alienation and is thought of as a modern phenomenon.” He was also an inspector of schools for 35 years, and supported the concept of state-regulated secondary education. In 1865 he had great success with the collection Essays in Criticism, a landmark of its genre, while living in Chester Square. He left “the dear little house” in Belgravia in March 1868 for Byron House in Byron Hill Road, Harrow, in pursuit of better schooling for his sons, who he believed might learn better if they lived with him and went to Harrow School as day pupils. It was during this period that Arnold, a noted social and religious critic, produced his best-known work, Culture and Anarchy, in 1869. The family also took in an unusual boarder from the school: Prince Thomas of Savoy, nephew of the King of Italy. Shortly after his arrival at Harrow the prince was offered the crown of Spain but decided to follow Arnold’s advice to avoid the kingmakers and continue his studies. However, Arnold’s time there was marred by tragedy, as two of his sons died within a short period of time. Eight months after the family arrived in Harrow the eldest son, Thomas, died aged 16. While on holiday he fell from a pony and when he returned home he had an attack of rheumatism from which he never recovered. His final words to his father from his deathbed were “Don’t let Mamma come in”. Tragedy struck again three years later when the middle son Trevenen (Budge) died, again from the pursuit of outdoor activities. To please his father the plump 18-year-old participated in sporting events at the school. One day he arrived home after running a mile and had trouble getting his breath. A few days later he developed a cold and later that night Arnold found his son wandering around his bedroom in a daze. Budge eventually recognised his father and muttered “Ah, papa!” before falling into a coma from which he never awoke. To free themselves from the painful associations of Harrow, the family moved to Painshill, near Cobham in Surrey, in 1873. He died of a heart attack in 1888 on his way to Liverpool, where he was due to meet his daughter on her return from America. Henry James and Robert Browning were among the mourners at his funeral, and he was fondly remembered by his Oxford tutor, Benjamin Jowett: “No-one ever united so much kindness and light-heartedness with so much strength. He was the most sensible man of genius I have ever known.”
