Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley (29 September 1851 – 28 May 1920) was an Anglican priest, poet, local politician and conservationist. He became nationally and internationally known as one of the three founders of the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty in the 1890s.
Rawnsley was descended from a line of Church of England vicars, and after briefly considering medicine as a career he graduated from Oxford and took holy orders. In the mid-1870s he worked with the urban poor in London and Bristol, before being appointed in 1877 to a rural parish in Westmorland in the English Lake District. He soon became a vigorous activist in the campaign to preserve the region from excessive industrial development.
In 1883 Rawnsley was appointed Vicar of Crosthwaite, Cumberland, in the north of the Lake District. He remained in the post for 34 years, becoming known locally and nationally for his energetic efforts to improve life for working people. He and his wife Edith founded the Keswick School of Industrial Art, and he led campaigns to make access to the countryside available for everyone. Concluding that protests and legislation were not enough to protect the environment, he joined Robert Hunter and Octavia Hill in 1893 to found the National Trust to own land on the public's behalf. It grew to become one of Britain's largest and most important landowners, holding land and buildings in trust for the people of Britain.
Rawnsley was a prolific writer, publishing more than 40 books, including verse, sermons, historical studies, travel accounts and biographies. He retired in 1917 and moved to the village of Grasmere, in the southern Lake District, where he died in 1920, aged 68.
Life and career
Early years
Hardwicke Rawnsley – known to his family and intimates as "Hardie"Richardson, p. 163; and Griffiths, p. 75 – was born at the rectory, Shiplake, Oxfordshire on 29 September 1851.Griffiths, p. 68 He was the second son and fourth of the ten children of the Rev Robert Drummond Burrell Rawnsley (1817–1882) and his wife, Catherine Ann, née Franklin (1818–1892)."Rawnsley, Rev. Hardwicke Drummond", Who's Who, 2020 and Who Was Who, Oxford University Press, December 2007. Retrieved 17 May 2009 In 1862 Drummond Rawnsley accepted the post of vicar of Halton Holegate in the fen district of Lincolnshire. According to Hardwicke Rawnsley's biographer Vivian Griffiths, "Observing the wildlife of the Fens, the construction of the Holbeach-to-Spilsby railway and watching the navvies building embankments were to be formative influences".
Later in 1862, aged eleven, Rawnsley enrolled at Uppingham School, where his godfather, Edward Thring, was headmaster.Richardson, p. xiv Thring became a major influence on him: Rawnsley excelled at athletics and gymnastics, but Thring encouraged his aesthetic side, particularly his budding gifts as a poet.Griffiths, pp. 68–69 The historian George Bott writes:
In 1869, Thring introduced Rawnsley to the Lake District, staying in Grasmere village, where William Wordsworth had lived. Rawnsley quickly came to share the enthusiasm shown by Wordsworth and others for the Lake District landscape.Griffiths, p. 69
In 1870, Rawnsley went up to Balliol College, Oxford, initially reading classics but switching after two years to natural sciences, with the intention of becoming a medical practitioner.Rawnsley (1923), pp. 23–24Griffiths, p. 70 He was at first an exuberant undergraduate, prominent in athletics and rowing, and not conspicuously conscientious about his studies. His outlook became more serious under the influence of the art critic and social campaigner John Ruskin. Rawnsley was one of a group of undergraduate volunteers – others were Oscar Wilde and Arnold Toynbee – who undertook manual labour under Ruskin's direction to improve the road and drainage between Oxford and the village of Hinksey.Murphy, p. 77 The project foundered after two months when Ruskin left for Venice, but for Rawnsley it was, in Griffiths's words, "life-changing, his social conscience awakened". He began to think that the Church rather than medicine was his vocation. In 1874 he graduated with a third class degree in natural sciences and the following year was awarded his Master of Arts degree."Church News", The Manchester Guardian, 4 June 1875, p. 5
London and Bristol
After leaving Oxford, Rawnsley went to work among the urban poor in London.Rawnsley (1923), p. 29 He was appointed lay-chaplain to the Newport Market Refuge, a hostel for the destitute, in the parish of St Mary's, Soho, an insalubrious part of London known for prostitution and poverty.Griffiths, p. 71 Ruskin introduced him to Octavia Hill, the pioneer of social housing, and Rawnsley added to his workload the role of rent-collector for Hill's colleague Emma Cons. Under the strain of his various activities he suffered a nervous breakdown. At Hill's suggestion he went to the Lake District to recuperate, staying first with his cousins at Wray Castle, Westmorland, and then with Thring at Grasmere and finally with Hill's friends the Fletcher family at their house near Ambleside.Rawnsley (1923), p. 30 The eldest daughter of his host and hostess was Edith Fletcher (1846–1916); she and Rawnsley were mutually attracted, with shared interests in art, literature and nature.Griffiths, p. 72
In December 1875, Rawnsley, his health restored, was ordained deacon.Rawnsley (1923), p. 31 On Thring's recommendation he was appointed to the new post of chaplain to the Clifton College mission, ministering to one of Bristol's poorest areas.Murphy, p. 78; and Griffiths, p. 73 At first there was no building in which services could be held, but Rawnsley secured a disused factory workshop and converted it into a chapel.Rawnsley (1923), p. 32 The ecclesiastical authorities felt that he went too far in his efforts to attract young locals, not confining himself to religious services but organising a temperance club, regular football matches and weekend country walks. He campaigned to save the disused 14th-century St Werburgh's Church from demolition. It was taken down stone by stone and re-erected on a new site."The Re-opening of St. Werburgh's Church", The Bristol Mercury and Daily Post, 1 October 1879, p. 3; and Murphy, p. 78 His enthusiasms did not endear him to the conservative hierarchy of the Bristol church, but when he left his post in 1877 he was presented with a testimonial to his work by the mayor and other leading citizens.Rawnsley (1923), p. 36
Vicar of Wray In 1877 Rawnsley and Edith Fletcher became engaged to be married and he began making plans for their life together.Griffiths, p. 74 His cousin Edward Rawnsley's estate at Wray Castle contained a parish church, St Margaret of Antioch, Low Wray. The post of vicar there became vacant and Edward offered it to Rawnsley, who was ordained priest in Carlisle Cathedral on 23 December 1877 and took up the appointment at Wray."Ordination in Carlisle Cathedral", The Westmorland Gazette, 29 December 1877, p. 8
Rawnsley and Edith were married in the Fletchers' local church at Brathay in January 1878, in a service conducted by Drummond Rawnsley."Marriages", The Lancaster Gazette, 9 February 1878, p. 5; and Griffiths, p. 74 The couple's only child, Noel, was born at Wray in December 1880.Griffiths, p. 75 According to the biographer Graham Murphy, "because of his parents' numerous activities and love of travel [Noel] suffered a somewhat solitary childhood".Murphy, Graham. "Rawnsley, Hardwicke Drummond (1851–1920)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved 25 January 2020
By this time, Ruskin had made his home in the Lake District; since 1873 he had lived at Brantwood on the shore of Coniston Water, 22 miles from Wray.Murphy, p. 56 He had already been involved in a conservation campaign, unsuccessfully opposing the damming of Thirlmere to create a reservoir for the city of Manchester, nearly 100 miles away. Rawnsley visited Ruskin frequently, and in 1880 they discussed "how to add happiness to the country labourer's lot".Rawnsley (1901), p. 115 The two agreed that "idle hands should have something found for them to do by other than the Devil … We must bring joy, the joy of eye and hand-skill to our cottage homes".Rawnsley (1901), p. 117 Ruskin suggested reviving the old craft of hand-spinning and weaving wool; Rawnsley, considering this infeasible, opted for wood carving.Albritton and Jonsson, p. 54 He recorded that "a lady was engaged to come down from South Kensington to give a course of lessons in the three villages, and our humble home industry in the lake district was set on foot." Instruction also included techniques for metal repoussé, taught by the Swiss butler from Edith Rawnsley's family home.Rawnsley (1901), pp. 118–119
The young Beatrix Potter holidayed at Wray Castle with her parents in 1882. They met Rawnsley, who became a firm friend, particularly of Beatrix. His views on preserving the natural beauty of the Lake District had a lasting effect on her. He was the first published author she had met, and he took a great interest in her drawings, supporting her in her determination to have them taken seriously and later encouraging her to publish her first book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit.Griffiths, pp. 75 and 88 They remained close for the rest of Rawnsley's lifetime, and Noel Rawnsley maintained in his later years that Potter had been the real love of his father's life.Murphy, p. 82
Campaigning against railway development
In 1883 parliamentary approval was given for a scheme to build a railway line through the Newlands Valley to carry slate from quarries; the valley was, and is, regarded as one of the most beautiful and tranquil in the Lake District.Welsh, pp. 205 and 212; Grant, p. 188; and Murphy, p. 86 A rival scheme was proposed, to run between Ennerdale Water and the coast. Rawnsley spearheaded a campaign to stop both. Ruskin gave his support, although after the failure of his Thirlmere campaign he was not optimistic about the outcome. Rawnsley held meetings, lobbied assiduously and wrote prolifically to legislators and newspapers. In a letter to The Standard he said:
Rawnsley founded the Derwentwater and Borrowdale Defence Committee and enlisted the support of the Commons Preservation Society and the Kyrle Society, two established campaigning conservation organisations headed by well-known figures including Octavia and Miranda Hill, George Shaw Lefevre, James Bryce and Robert Hunter.Ranlett, p. 202 The public paid heed, and protests became so widespread and so strong that the schemes were dropped. Griffiths writes that although by no means solely responsible for the successful outcome of the campaign, Rawnsley "became a local and national hero almost overnight, and a new awareness of landscape preservation came to the fore".Griffiths, p. 76