Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton
Monckton Milnes, Richard
Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton (
June 19,
1809 -
August 11,
1885) was an
English poet and
politician.
The son of Robert Pemberton
Milnes, of Fryston Hall,
Yorkshire, and the Hon. Henrietta Monckton, daughter of the fourth Lord Galway, he was born in
London. He was educated privately, and entered
Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827. There he was drawn into a literary set, and became a member of the famous
Apostles Club, which then included
Alfred Lord Tennyson,
Henry Hallam,
Richard Chenevix Trench,
Joseph Williams Blakesley, and others. After taking his degree, Milnes travelled abroad, spending some time at the
University of Bonn. From there he went to
Italy and
Greece, and published in 1834 a volume of
Memorials of a Tour in some Parts of Greece, describing his experiences.
He returned to
London in
1837, and was elected to Parliament as member for
Pontefract in the
Conservative interest. His parliamentary career was marked by much strenuous activity. He interested himself particularly in the question of
copyright and the conditions of reformatory schools. He left
Prime Minister Sir
Robert Peel's party over the
Corn Law controversy, and was afterwards identified in politics with
Palmerston, who made him a peer in
1863.
His literary career was industrious and cultured, without being exceptionally distinguished. Church matters had always a claim upon him: he wrote a striking tract in
1841, which was praised by
Newman; and took part in the discussion about "Essays and Reviews," defending the
tractarian position in
One Tract More (1841). He published two volumes of verse in
1838,
Memorials of Residence upon the Continent and Poems of Many Years,
Poetry for the People in
1840 and
Palm Leaves in
1844. He also wrote a
Life and Letters of Keats in
1848, the material for which was largely provided by the poet's friend, Charles Armitage Brown.
Milnes' poetry is meditative and delicate; some of his
ballads were among the most popular of their day. His chief distinctions were his keen sense of literary merit in others, and the judgment and magnanimity with which he fostered it. He was surrounded by the most brilliant men of his time, many of whom he had been the first to acclaim. His reputation rests largely on the part he played, as a man of influence in society and in moulding public opinion on literary matters, in connexion with his large circle of talented friends. He secured a pension for Tennyson, helped to make
Ralph Waldo Emerson known in
Britain, and was one of the earliest champions of
Algernon Swinburne. He helped
David Gray by writing a preface for
The Luggie.
He was, in the traditional sense, a patron of literature, who never abused the privileges of his position. Milnes married in 1851 the Hon. Annabel Crewe (d.
1874). He died at
Vichy, and was buried at Fryston. His son,
Robert, was created Earl of Crewe in 1895.
Lord Houghton, as Monckton Milnes, was a persistent courtier of
Florence Nightingale (who finally refused to marry him), and one of her staunchest supporters along with the statesman
Sidney Herbert.
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Houghton, Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron
