'Let humble[4] Allen, with an awkward shame,
Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.'
POPE: _Epilogue to the Satires of Horace_.
St. Blazey Highway has a clear title to being the birthplace of Ralph
Allen; but his parentage is doubtful, owing to his name not appearing
in the baptismal register, and to the obscurity caused by the two
following entries in the Register of Marriages:
1686.
William All----, and Grace ----, was mar---- 24th August (entry
imperfect).
1687.
John Allen, of parish of St. Blazey, and Mary Elliott,[5] of the
parish of St. Austell, were married the 10th of February.
Ralph was born about 1694. His father kept a small inn called 'The Duke
William'--sometimes 'The Old Duke'--(the site of which is now occupied
by three or four dwelling-houses), and he seems to have been a man
of good common-sense and sturdy disposition, judging from one or two
slight anecdotes of him which have come down to us: doubtless he gave
his boy Ralph good advice, if not much literary instruction. But the
youngster primarily owed most of his remarkable success in life to the
fact of his happening to be staying with his grandmother, who kept the
St. Columb Post-office, when the Government Inspector came his rounds.
This officer seems to have at once recognised the shrewdness and
neat-handedness of the lad; and an appointment in the Post-office at
Bath, to which place young Ralph was brought under the care of Sir John
Trevelyan, was, before long, offered to him. Here he soon distinguished
himself by detecting a plot to introduce into Bath illegally, in
connexion with the Jacobite rising of 1715, a quantity of arms. This
discovery he forthwith communicated to General Wade, who thereupon
became his friend and patron, and whose natural daughter--so Pierce
Egan tells us--a Miss Earl, became Allen's first wife. His first wife,
but not his first love: her he magnanimously portioned, and yielded up
to another man, with whom he thought she might be happier; and hence,
probably, the reason why the basso-relievo of Scipio's resignation of
his captive was selected as one of the principal decorations of the
Hall at Prior Park. Farington thus refers to Allen's discovery of the
Jacobite plot: 'When the rebellion burst out, a numerous junto in
Bath took most active measures to aid the insurrection in the West of
England; and Mr. Carte, the minister of the Abbey Church, _when Allen
detected the plot_, was glad to escape from the constables by leaping
from a window in full canonicals.'
On his becoming Deputy Postmaster at Bath, the anomalies and
inconveniences attendant upon the postal system, as it was then worked,
engaged Allen's serious attention. It will scarcely be believed that in
those days a letter from Cheltenham or Bath to Worcester or Birmingham
was actually sent first to London! To remedy this state of things Allen
by degrees perfected that scheme of cross-posts throughout England and
Wales with which his name will always be associated, and for which he
was himself the contractor for many years; viz. from 1720 to 1764.[6]
Accounts differ as to the profits which accrued to him under this
contract, which was from time to time renewed; but there is no reason
to doubt the story that ultimately he cleared by it no less a sum than
half a million sterling.
In 1644, by a Resolution of the House of Commons, Edmund Prideaux, a
Member of the House, was constituted Master of the Post Messengers
and Carriers, and in 1649 he established a weekly conveyance to every
part of the kingdom, in lieu of the former practice under which letters
were sent by special messengers whose duty it was to supply relays of
horses at a certain mileage. In 1658 Cromwell made Prideaux one of his
Baronets; and he acquired great wealth. It is said that his emoluments
in connexion with the Post Office were not less than £15,000 a year.
(Maclean's Trigg Minor, vol. ii. pp. 210-11.) Thus, whilst to one
West-countryman, who, if not indeed a Cornishman by birth (for the
Prideauxes were lords of Prideaux, close to Allen's birth-place), was
at least of Cornish extraction--Postmaster-General Edmund Prideaux,
Attorney-General--we owe in a great measure the regular efficient
establishment of the Post Office and its first becoming a source of
revenue--to another Cornishman, the subject of these remarks, we are
indebted for the important improvements referred to above.
In the Home Office Papers, 1761 (2nd and 5th December, Post Office Pl.
5, 385--'By-way and Cross-road Posts'), will be found 'a narrative of
Mr. Allen's transactions with the Government for the better management
of the by-way and cross-road posts from the year 1720 to the year
1762, whereby it will be seen how much he has been the instrument of
increasing the revenue and encouraging the commerce of this kingdom
during the whole of that long interval. Dated 2nd December, 1761.'
The narrative shows that in 1710 the country postmasters collected
quantities of 'by or way letters,' and clandestinely conveyed them.
Correspondence was perpetually interrupted. 'The by and way letters
were thrown promiscuously together into one large bag, which was to
be opened at every stage by the deputy, or any inferior servant of
the house, to pick out of the whole heap what might belong to his own
delivery, and the rest put back again into this large bag with such
by-letters as he should have to send to distant places from his own
stage.' Traders resorted to clandestine conveyance for speed. Surveyors
were, however, appointed to make reports on the Post Office at the
beginning of the reign of George I., but their reports did not touch
these by-letters. Mr. Allen, having contrived checks which detected
considerable frauds, next formed the plan for the conveyance of these
letters in 1710. His offer to advance the revenue of the Post Office
from £4,000 to £6,000 a year was accepted; but false and malicious
representations were made against his proposal. On an inquiry as to the
revenue from these letters, it was found that for seven years it had
sunk £900 a year. He then made another proposal to farm the postage
for seven years at the sum which they then yielded, taking any such
surplus as he could make them produce, and an 'explanatory contract'
was then agreed to. On an examination into the account of the country
letters, it had increased £7,835 2s. 7d., which Mr. Allen would have
been entitled to if the 'explanatory contract' had only been executed.
The country letters increased to £17,464 4s. 11d. per annum at the end
of fourteen years. He now appointed surveyors, and stated his plans
for suppressing irregularities. Lord Lovell and Mr. Carteret having
expressed their approval of these plans, etc., he agreed to another
contract for seven years, and proposed an extension and quickening of
the correspondence in 1741 by an 'every-day post' to several places;
this contract was renewed in 1748, 1755, and 1760. It details the
communications by cross-roads, etc.; and it was found that the revenue,
by computation, had increased one and a half millions.
Some fine quarries on Combe Down, from which most of the best houses
in Bath were built, having become his property, Allen invented an
ingenious contrivance for conveying the huge blocks of stone from the
quarries on the hill down to the canal which runs by the city. In
his capacity of quarry-owner he amassed still more wealth, became a
large employer of labour, and a man of such influence in Bath, that
although he was mayor once only (in 1742), he practically guided
the affairs of that city as it pleased him best, a circumstance
which gave rise to a caricature, long popular at Bath, entitled 'The
One-headed Corporation.' It need hardly be added whose head that was.
A bust of him in the Drawing-room or Council Chamber of the Guildhall
commemorates the year of his mayoralty, and there is also a portrait of
him in the Mayor's Room.
Probably his energies as a man of business were exerted in many other
directions, which it would now be difficult to trace. But, be this as
it may, he now determined on leaving his old residence in the city,
situated between York Street and Liliput Alley, and which, I believe,
still stands, though obscured by surrounding buildings. The site he
chose for his long-planned new residence is one of the finest in the
kingdom. It is three or four miles out of Bath, on the south-east
side, and stands near the Combe Down quarries, 400 feet above the sea,
commanding fine views over many a mile around. Here at Prior Park,
originally the seat of an old monastic establishment, which, Leland
says, 'belonged to the prior of Bathe,'[7] Ralph Allen determined
on building a large and stately mansion, which should enable him to
exercise a princely hospitality towards almost every stranger of
rank, learning, or distinction who visited 'The Bath.' Hither came,
for instance, Thomson and Swift and Gay, Arbuthnot and Pope, Sterne
and Smollett, Garrick and Quin; Graves, the author of the 'Spiritual
Quixote'; and Charles Yorke, afterwards Solicitor-General--all
probably known to Allen through meeting him in the literary circles
of London, which Allen frequented when he went to town. Nor was he
unvisited by royalty: the Princess Amelia stayed there in 1752, and
the Duke of York, 'on his own motion,' as Allen is careful to say,
on 26th December, 1761. Here, too, might often be found reckless,
delightful, generous Henry Fielding, who avowedly not only drew one
phase of his munificent friend's portrait as the somewhat too feeble
Squire Allworthy in 'Tom Jones,' and described the mansion at Prior
Park in the same novel, but also dedicated to him that other story
which Dr. Johnson read with such avidity--'Amelia.' No doubt, too, it
is to Allen that Fielding refers in the well-known passage in 'Joseph
Andrews,' comparing him to the 'Man of Ross:' 'One Al--Al---- I forget
his name.' And Allen's generosity towards Fielding did not end with
cheery welcomes to Prior Park and timely loans--should we not rather
say gifts?--to the jolly novelist when he was in need of them, for
Lawrence tells us that he sent Fielding a present of 200 guineas, in
admiration of his genius, before they were personally acquainted; and
on Fielding's death Allen took charge of his family, provided for their
education, and left £100 a year between them.
Pope,[8] whose acquaintance with Allen dated from 1736, brought
Warburton. Sitting one day at dinner, at Prior Park, the poet had a
letter handed to him, which he read apparently with some disappointment
on finding that he should probably miss an opportunity of meeting his
friend. Allen, however, on hearing the cause of Pope's trouble, with
characteristic native politeness begged him to ask Warburton to the
house--a pleasant task which Pope, who used to say that his host's
friendship was 'one of the chief satisfactions of his life,'performed
in the following letter, which I insert as giving us a peep at the
sort of life led in those days by Allen and his friends, and also as
affording us a glimpse of the house itself:
'My third motive of now troubling you is my own proper interest and
pleasure. I am here in more leisure than I can possibly enjoy, even
in my own house, _vacare Literis_. It is at this place that your
exhortations may be most effectual to make me resume the studies I
had almost laid aside by perpetual avocations and dissipations. If it
were practicable for you to pass a month or six weeks from home, it
is here I could wish to be with you; and if you would attend to the
continuation of your own noble work, or unbend to the idle amusement
of commenting upon a poet, who has no other merit than that of aiming,
by his moral strokes, to merit some regard from such men as advance
truth and virtue in a more effectual way; in either case this place
and this house would be an inviolable asylum to you from all you would
desire to avoid in so public a scene as Bath. The worthy man who is
the master of it invites you in the strongest terms, and is one who
would treat you with love and veneration, rather than with what the
world calls civility and regard. He is sincerer and plainer than
almost any man now in this world, _antiquis moribus_. If the waters
of the Bath may be serviceable to your complaints (as I believe from
what you have told me of them), no opportunity can ever be better.
It is just the best season. We are told the Bishop of Salisbury (Dr.
Sherlock) is expected here daily, who, I know, is your friend--at
least, though a bishop, is too much a man of learning to be your
enemy. You see, I omit nothing to add weight in the balance, in which,
however, I will not think _myself_ light, since I have known your
partiality. You will want no servant here. Your room will be next to
mine, and one man will serve us. Here is a library, and a gallery
ninety feet long to walk in, and a coach whenever you would take the
air with me. Mr. Allen tells me you might, on horseback, be here in
three days. It is less than 100 miles from Newark, the road through
Leicester, Stowe-in-the-Wolds, Gloucestershire, and Cirencester, by
Lord Bathurst's. I could engage to carry you to London from hence, and
I would accommodate my time and journey to your conveniency.'
The long gallery referred to above was a very favourite part of the
house with Pope, and here he used to walk up and down in 'a morning
dishabille consisting of a dark grey waistcoat, a green dressing-gown,
and a blue cap,' as he is represented in the well-known portrait by
Hoare.
A pleasant glance at the friendly terms on which the trio used to
live at Prior Park is afforded to us in Kilvert's 'Selections from
Warburton,' which has for its frontispiece a lithograph from a picture,
formerly at Prior Park, of Pope, Allen, and Warburton ('Wit, Worth,
and Wisdom'), in a room together. Allen is seated in the centre of the
group; on his left is Warburton, bringing into the room a ponderous
folio; and, seated at a table at the opposite side of the picture,
the little poet is seen writing; in the background, through a window,
is disclosed a view of Bath. It is difficult to understand how Pope,
after all this friendly intimacy, could quarrel with Allen, and call
Warburton 'a sneaking parson.'
Hurd also, successively Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, and of
Worcester, was a frequent visitor to Prior Park, and after his friendly
host's decease commemorated his worth by an inscription (now effaced)
on a look-out tower in the park:
'Memoriæ optimi viri, RADULPHI ALLEN, positum,
Qui virtutem veram simplicemque colis, venerare hoc saxum.'
I do not know whether General Wade was ever entertained here by Allen;
but that the latter did not forget his early patron he showed by
erecting the General's statue in front of the house. Pitt, who sat
for Bath, certainly came here, and each held the other in the highest
regard. Allen left him £1,000 by his will, as 'the best of friends as
well as the most upright and ablest of Ministers that has adorned our
country.' Nor did 'the heaven-born Minister' fail to appreciate the
Cornishman's virtues, or to extend to others, for his sake, friendly
offices; for to Pitt, Warburton (who had married Allen's favourite
niece, Gertrude Tucker, a lady to whom he left Prior Park for life)
was indebted for his bishopric. At one time, indeed, there was a
slight coolness between Pitt and Allen, owing to the introduction of
the word 'adequate' into an address from the men of Bath in a memorial
to the King, referring to the Peace of 1763. Pitt thought the Peace
extremely '_in_adequate,' and so much resented the use of the word that
he refused to join his colleague, Sir John Seabright, in presenting
the memorial; and whilst he vowed he would never again stand for
Bath, Allen from that time avowed his intention of withdrawing from
all public affairs. In the correspondence which ensued, Ralph Allen
magnanimously took upon himself the entire responsibility for the
insertion of the obnoxious word; and he adds in a letter to Pitt, which
will be found in the _Royal Magazine_ for 1763, that the communication
of Pitt's unalterable decision in the matter to the Corporation of Bath
was 'the most painful commission he ever received.' That this event,
however, did not affect the high regard in which the two held each
other is evinced, on the one hand, by the manner in which (as we have
seen) Allen expressed himself regarding Pitt, in his will; and on the
other by a letter which Pitt wrote during the unfortunate controversy,
in which he says:
'I cannot conclude my letter without expressing my sensible concern
at Mr. Allen's uneasiness. No incident can make the least change in
the honour and love I bear him, or in the justice my heart does to his
humane and benevolent virtues.'
And Pitt wrote in a similar strain to Mrs. Allen[9] on her husband's
death, saying, 'I fear not all the example of his virtues will have
power to raise up to the world his like again.'
That Pitt had good reason thus to write of his deceased friend is
abundantly clear from the following letter, preserved amongst the
Egerton MSS. in the British Museum:
'St. James's Square, Dec. 16, 1760.
'DEAR SIR,
'The very affecting token of esteem and affection which you put into
my hands last night at parting, has left impressions on my heart which
I can neither express nor conceal. If the approbation of the good
and wise be our wish, how must I feel the sanction of applause and
friendship accompany'd with such an endearing act of kindness from
the best of men? True Gratitude is ever the justest of Sentiments,
and Pride too, which I indulge on this occasion, may, I trust, not
be disclaim'd by Virtue. May the gracious Heaven long continue to
_lend_ you to mankind, and particularly to the happiness of him who is
unceasingly, with the warmest gratitude, respect, and affection,
'My dear Sir,
'Your most faithfull Friend and
most obliged humble Servant,
'W. PITT.'
Very different from this noble passage in the lives of these two
illustrious men was that which, for a while at least, disturbed the
friendly feelings of Allen towards Pope. The equivocal relations which
existed between the poet and Martha Blount are well known;--'the fiend,
a woman fiend, God help me! with whom I have spent three or four hours
a day these fifteen years.' She seems, nevertheless, to have been
tolerated at Allen's house at Bathampton hard by; but when she demanded
the use of Mr. Allen's chariot to attend a Roman Catholic Chapel at
Bath, Allen being a staunch Protestant and Hanoverian,[10] the line
was drawn, and a coolness, if not a quarrel, ensued. Pope used to deny
the whole story. At any rate the breach was patched up, and intimacy
between him and Allen was resumed; but the waspish little man never,
in my opinion, either forgot or forgave what happened, and to this the
following extract from his will,--a will, as Johnson said, 'polluted
with female resentment,'--suave though the passage reads at first, I
think bears witness:
'I give and advise my library of printed books to Ralph Allen, of
Widcombe, Esq., and to the Reverend Mr. William Warburton, or to
the survivor of them (when those belonging to Lord Bolingbroke are
taken out, and when Mrs. Martha Blount has chosen threescore out of
the number). I also give and bequeath to the said Mr. Warburton the
property of all such of my works already printed, as he hath written,
or shall write, commentaries or notes upon, and which I have not
otherwise disposed of, or alienated; and all the profits which shall
arise after my death from such editions as he shall publish without
future alterations.
'Item.--In case Ralph Allen, Esq., abovesaid, shall survive me,
I order my executors to pay him the sum of one hundred and fifty
pounds, being, to the best of my calculation, the account of what I
have received from him; _partly for my own, and partly for charitable
uses_. If he refuses to take this himself, I desire him to employ
it in a way, I am persuaded, he will not dislike, to the benefit of
the Bath Hospital.'--Extract from the Will of Pope (p. clxi., Pope's
Works, vol. i., Bell and Daldy's Aldine edition).
When the passage was read to Ralph Allen, he, of course, ordered that
the money should be handed over to the hospital (an institution in
which it may be observed he always took a deep interest, providing the
stone, and giving £1,000 besides: a ward is named after him, where
his portrait[11] is preserved, and also a bust by William Hoare of
Bath, dated 1757); but he drily added, in allusion to the extent of
the obligations which Pope had received from him, 'He forgot to add
the other 0 to the £150,'--a quiet, but perhaps as keen a stab as Pope
himself had ever dealt with his own malevolent stiletto. And Allen
was a man who could afford to say so much, for he used to spend about
£1,000 a year in private charities alone.
Many of the letters of Pope to be found among the Egerton MSS. have
endorsements by Allen in his own handwriting. On one of them is written
'The last;' and Pope concludes it--evidently, from the change in the
handwriting, in great pain--thus: 'I must just set my hand to my
heart.' It is dated 'Chelsea College, 7th May, 1741.' The letters also
comprise some correspondence from Gertrude Warburton (_née_ Tucker),
Allen's favourite niece; from Warburton himself; and from many other
distinguished persons.
Besides Prior Park, Allen had a house in London; and another at
Weymouth--a place where he often resided for three months annually, and
whose decaying fortunes he took a chief share in reviving, about the
year 1763[12]--and I rather think he had another house at Maidenhead,
near the west end of the bridge, to which house he added a room with a
bow-window, and another room over it.
He certainly had a pleasant little retreat at Bathampton; for in a
characteristic letter from Pope to Arbuthnot (the roughly humorous
physician, strong Tory, and High Churchman), dated 23rd July, 1793,
Pope explains how Allen would not let the two friends stay at his villa
at Bathampton, but insisted upon having them both up at Prior Park;
because, Pope observes, 'I suspect that he has an apprehension in his
head that if he lends that house to us, others hereabouts may try to
borrow it, which would be disagreeable to him, he making it a kind of
villa to change to, and pass now and then a day at it, in private.'
But Prior Park was Ralph Allen's historic abode; and one object which
he had in view in building it was to demonstrate the excellent quality
of the stone[13] in his Combe Down Quarries. The whole building,
which is in the Corinthian style, with its wings and arcades and fine
hexastyle portico has a frontage of 1,250 feet; the house itself being
150 feet. We have seen from Pope's letter to Warburton what spacious
corridors it contained, admirably adapted for literary disquisitions
on a wet day. The mansion also comprised its chapel, in which was kept
the Bible given to Pope by Atterbury when the Bishop went into exile.
Everything was built in the most solid style. Even the pigeon-houses
were of stone throughout; and, strange as it may seem, roofs were
composed of the same material. The house was commenced in 1736 and
finished in 1743; nor did Allen forget to add to the charms of the
demesne by judiciously arranged plantations.
Building, indeed, seems to have been, naturally enough with such
magnificent quarries at his disposal, a favourite occupation of
Allen's. He even crowned the hill which looks down upon the city
of Bath from the south-east with a large and somewhat picturesque
structure,--a mere shell, now known as 'Sham Castle;' but which,
especially when lit up by the setting sun, is a not unwelcome
addition to the panoramic view of the hills as seen from the east
end of Pulteney Street. A short time ago, whilst walking along this
street, I asked a man, lounging there, who built the castle on the
hill? and (alas! such is fame!) he told me that it was 'a Mr. Nash,
a gentleman that had done a power of good to the city.' And here it
may conveniently be observed that Beau Nash, to whom Dr. Oliver says
Ralph Allen was 'very generous' (as he was, indeed, to everyone who
had the slightest claim upon his notice), generally superintended the
amusements _within_ the walls of Prior Park. On the occasion of one of
these entertainments--a masked ball--the solemn Warburton, who thought
it beneath the dignity of his cloth to wear a mask, was nevertheless
dressed up in a military uniform by his sprightly wife, and was
introduced to the company as 'Brigadier-General Moses!' in allusion, I
suppose, to Warburton's authorship of the 'Divine Legation.'
The following local tradition respecting the building of Prior Park
was communicated to Mr. Kilvert by the late Mr. H. V. Lansdown, of
Bath, the well-known artist, a gentleman who had accumulated a large
collection of reminiscences of Bath, and its Worthies of the olden time:
'When Mr. Allen had determined to build the present mansion at Prior
Park, he sent for John Wood, the architect,[14] who waited upon him
at the old post-office in Liliput Alley, where Allen then resided.
'"I want you," said Allen, "to build me a country house on the Prior's
estate at Widcombe."
'Allen then described the sort of place he wished erected; but when
he entered into the details, and talked about a private chapel, with
a tribune for the family; a portico of gigantic dimensions; a grand
entrance-hall, and wings of offices for coach-houses, stables, etc.,
the astonished architect began to think the postmaster had taken leave
of his senses.
'"Have you, sir, sat down and counted the cost of building such a
place?"
'"I have," replied Allen; "and for some time past have been laying by
money for the purpose."
'"But," said Wood, "the place you are talking about would be a palace,
and not a house; you have not the least idea of the money 'twould take
to complete it."
'"Well," rejoined Allen, "come this way."
'He then took Wood into the next room, and, opening a closet-door,
showed him a strong box.
'"That box is full of guineas!"
'The architect shook his head. Allen opened another closet, and
pointed to a second and a third. Wood still hesitated.
'"Well," said Allen, "come into this room." 'A fourth and fifth are
discovered. The architect now began to open his eyes with wonder.
'"If we have not money enough--here, come into this bedroom."
'A sixth, a seventh, and lo! an eighth appears. John Wood might well
have exclaimed:
'"I'll see no more.
For perhaps, like Banquo's ghosts, you'll show a score."
'Chuckling in his turn at the astonishment of the architect, Allen now
inquired if the house _could_ be built.
'"I'll begin the plans immediately," replied Wood. "I see there is
money enough to erect even a palace, and I'll build you a palace that
shall be the admiration of all beholders."'
But we must hasten to a close; a close to which the next allusion
to the building propensities of the generous subject of this memoir
naturally leads us. In 1754, Ralph Allen rebuilt the south aisle of
Bathampton Church, and 'beautified the whole structure.' Appropriately
enough, in that aisle has been placed an oval mural tablet, of white
and Sienna marble, to his memory; and his son Philip, who became
Comptroller of the 'Bye-letter' department in the London Post Office,
was, I believe, actually buried there.
But the remains of Ralph Allen were interred in the neighbouring
quiet and lovely little churchyard at Claverton. He was on his way to
London, but feeling ill, probably from asthma, a complaint which often
troubled him, halted at Maidenhead, and was induced to return thence to
Bath, where he expired at a good old age, which the pyramidal monument
erected at Claverton to his memory thus records:
'Beneath this monument lieth entombed the body of Ralph Allen, Esq.,
of Prior Park, who departed this life the 29th day of June, 1764, in
the 71st year of his age; in full hopes of everlasting happiness in
another state, through the infinite merit and mediation of our blessed
Redeemer, Jesus Christ.'
Derrick has thus described Allen's personal appearance shortly before
his death: 'He is a very grave, well-looking man, plain in his dress,
resembling that of a Quaker, and courteous in his behaviour. I suppose
he cannot be much under seventy. His wife is low, with grey hair, and
of a very pleasing address.' Kilvert says that he was rather above
the middle size, and stoutly built; and that he was not altogether
averse to a little state, as he often used to drive into Bath in a
coach-and-four. His handwriting was very curious; he evidently wrote
quickly and fluently, but it is so overloaded with curls and flourishes
as to be sometimes scarcely legible.
The lack of all show about his garb seems to have somewhat annoyed
Philip Thicknesse, the well-known author of one of the Bath Guides;
for he speaks of Allen's 'plain linen shirt-sleeves, with only a
chitterling up the slit.' Ralph Allen's claims to a niche in our
Cornish Valhalla do not, however, depend upon costume, but upon his
talents and his philanthropy.
Writing to Dr. Doddridge on 14th February, 1742-43, Warburton thus
refers to his genial host:
'I got home a little before Christmas, after a charming philosophical
retirement in a palace with Mr. Pope and Mr. Allen for two or three
months. The gentleman I last mentioned is, I verily believe, the
greatest private character in any age of the world. You see his
munificence to the Bath Hospital. This is but a small part of his
charities, and charity but a small part of his virtues. I have studied
his character even maliciously, to find where his weakness lies, but
have studied in vain. When I know it, the world shall know it too, for
the consolation of the envious; especially as I suspect it will prove
to be only a partiality he has entertained for me. In a word, I firmly
believe him to have been sent by Providence into the world to teach
men what blessings they might expect from heaven, would they study to
deserve them.'
In Bishop Hurd's 'Life of Warburton,' the following passage occurs, and
upon this 'the Man of Bath's' fame might securely rest:
'Mr. Allen was of that generous composition, that his mind enlarged
with his fortune; and the wealth he so honourably acquired he spent in
a splendid hospitality and the most extensive charities. His house,
in so public a scene as that of Bath, was open to all men of rank and
worth, and especially to men of distinguished parts and learning,
whom he honoured and encouraged, and whose respective merits he was
enabled to appreciate by a natural discernment and superior good sense
rather than by any acquired use and knowledge of letters. His domestic
virtues were beyond all praise; and with these qualities he drew to
himself an universal respect.'
It would be easy, if necessary, to multiply passages of this sort,
but one more shall suffice, as illustrating the almost universal
recognition of what Mr. Leslie Stephen has well termed Allen's
'princely benevolence and sterling worth.' Mrs. Delany (iii. 608),
writing from Bath, 2nd November, 1760, mentions that the house on the
South Parade where she was then lodging had been bought by Ralph Allen,
furniture and all, in order that he might settle it on Mrs. Davis, a
poor clergyman's widow. 'How well does _that man_,' she adds, 'deserve
the prosperous fortune he has met with!' And behind all this there
doubtless remained, in the case of our modest hero:
'That best portion of a good man's life,
His little, _nameless_, _unremembered_ acts
Of kindness and of love.'
A notice of this remarkable man would be incomplete without some
reference to two of his connexions, whose names are still honoured
and remembered in the West country: Thomas Daniell, who married Ralph
Allen's niece, Elizabeth Elliott; and Ralph Allen Daniell, Thomas's
son. Of the last-named, it may be shortly stated that he inherited a
full share of his grand-uncle's and namesake's good qualities; was
a prosperous merchant; and that he became, in 1800, the possessor of
Trelissick estate, and the builder of the exquisitely situated mansion
of that name, which overlooks the placid waters of Falmouth Haven. Here
Davies Gilbert, P.R.S., resided; and it is now the country seat of his
son's widow, the Honourable Mrs. Gilbert.
The Thomas Daniell mentioned above appears to have started in life as a
clerk to Mr. Lemon, who then lived at the Quay, Truro, in the house now
known as the Britannia Inn. Here, too, once lived Dr. Wolcot, better
known as 'Peter Pindar;' and, in the middle of the present century,
the writer's father, John Tabois Tregellas, well-known throughout the
county as a writer on the Cornish dialect. Mr. Daniell succeeded to
Mr. Lemon's business as a merchant, and to his residence. He was also
associated with the well-known old Cornish family of Michell,[15] in
the Calenick Smelting Works, near Truro, which are still in active
operation. Thomas Daniell was a great and successful adventurer in
mines, and was at one time M.P. for Looe. He left his mark upon the
little Cornish metropolis by building, as already mentioned, in
Prince's Street, the handsomest mansion which the city contains, the
front of which is an excellent specimen of the famous Bath stone.[16]