HENRY GODWIN
THE LATE MR. GODWIN
Our obituary of this week records the death of Mr. Godwin, and we cannot allow the sad event to pass without a few remarks on our late fellow-townsman, who will always hold, in the estimation of those who knew him, so high a place amongst those he loved to think and write of – the “Worthies of Newbury.”
Although not actually born in Newbury, Mr. Godwin had been an inhabitant of it, or rather of its immediate vicinity, from boyhood, and since his settling in it, and closely identified himself with its interests.
Among the schemes and improvements with which he was particularly connected we may mention the “Literary Institution,” of which, in connection with his valued friend and contemporary, Mr. Barnes, he may almost be said to have been the originator: the railway project from Didcot to Andover, of which he was a warm advocate before its importance to the town was generally acknowledged; and the Newbury Cemetery, the chapels of which were the result of a subscription to which he lent all his energy and support, and in which, to the last, he took a personal interest worthy of imitation. He may also be said to have initiated the restoration of the Parish Church, the cost of the east window having been entirely defrayed from his own purse and the contributions of those personal friends he interested in the work.
But if Mr. Godwin’s habits were those of a busy professional man, his tastes and pursuits were those of a man of letters, and, though none of his works have attained to great distinction- a matter which in these days probably rests as much with publisher as author- they are all such as only a good scholar, and we think we might add a good man, could have written: and with regard to two of them we will venture to predict that their reputations will increase: we allude to “Sunday Chimes” and “The English Archaeologist’ Handbook.” Of the former of these we may say that many of its poems, or hymns, will compare favourably with those in more widely known collections, and that one of its greatest merits, the entire absence of controversial allusions, would partly explain the comparatively small number of its readers. The other, and very different, work, the “Handbook,” on additions to which Mr. Godwin was engaged until interrupted by his last illness, has been recognised by the literary journals as a worthy record of the author’s knowledge of the antiquities of his country, and a very valuable and almost indispensable aid to students of history and archaeology.
Mr. Godwin was an accomplished linguist – his library being, indeed, his Elysium – and though possibly the classic authors stood highest in his esteem, he had read in the original, and had annotated and appreciated, the writings of nearly every Continental author, from Petrarch and Cervantes to Goethe and De Stael.
Henry Godwin continued
Of late years he had given considerable attention to the antiquities of Newbury and its neighbourhood, and many of our readers will remember the part he took at the Meeting of the British Archaeological Association in 1859, and in the more recent proceedings of the Field Club.
Of Mr. Godwin’s professional and private life, as it was familiar to a large proportion of our readers we forbear to say more than that as he was always a “lover of good men,” so he was known to, and beloved by, a large and increasing circle of friends and correspondents; few who came in contact with them could resist the influence of his sterling qualities and genial manner.
It is now nearly seven months since Mr. Godwin had the attack which, though seeming at times to loosen its grasp, prepared himself and his family for the end which has come; and we shall not be accused of invading the sacredness of sorrow and bereavement in stating that his last days were in a high degree peaceful, and cheered by the consolation of religion -
“Only longing for that shore,
Where the storms of Time are o’er.”
-a fitting close, indeed, to a life which had been eminently innocent and useful.
The funeral took place on Wednesday afternoon at Newbury Cemetery, and was strictly of a private character, but many of the shops along the streets had shutters up in token of respect to the deceased.
Newbury Weekly News 25 June 1874
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