{"id":1084,"date":"2014-10-04T13:52:12","date_gmt":"2014-10-04T13:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/?p=1084"},"modified":"2022-08-14T21:16:34","modified_gmt":"2022-08-14T21:16:34","slug":"grave-of-amelia-b-edwards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/?p=1084","title":{"rendered":"Grave of Amelia B. Edwards"},"content":{"rendered":"

St Mary’s Church,\u00a0Church Close, Henbury, BS10 7QF <\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl>
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\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl>
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\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl>
<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n

The grave of Amelia Blanford Edwards — traveller, Egyptologist, and writer — to whom Symonds dedicated his poetry collection Old and New. ((The American edition making the common mistake of\u00a0mixing\u00a0her middle name with that of her cousin, Matilda Betham Edwards. Edwards on her part misremembered\u00a0the dedication\u00a0as being\u00a0in ‘Many Moods’.)) \u00a0Symonds shared many\u00a0poetic works with Edwards, and his poem “To a Friend Leaving England in September” is originally dedicated “To A.B.E.”<\/p>\n

Discussing the\u00a0collaboration on Sexual Inversion, Symonds told\u00a0Havelock\u00a0Ellis that Edwards “made no secret to me of her Lesbian tendencies”, and formed\u00a0a menage with an “English lady”\u00a0and her clergyman\/school inspector husband.\u00a0“Miss Edwards told me that one day the husband married her to his wife at the altar of his church – having full knowledge of the state of affairs.” ((Sean Brady, \u00a0John Addington Symonds (1840-1893) and Homosexuality: A critical edition of sources (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan., 2012) p.240 )) \u00a0These were probably\u00a0Mr and Mrs Byrne – a clergyman and his wife, whose departure from the area was “like a death-blow” to Edwards. ((Joan Rees,\u00a0Amelia Edwards: traveller, novelist & Egyptologist (Rubicon Press, 1998) p. 22 )) Local census records show\u00a0Ellen Gertrude Byrne living at 7 Cambridge Park, with her husband John Rice Byrne, a clergyman and school inspector. [2022 ETA: Margaret C. Jones’ 2022 book “The Adventurous Life of Amelia B. Edwards” (Bloomsbury, 2022) provides more information on the relationship that Edwards described to Symonds.]<\/p>\n

Among Edwards’ close\u00a0friends and companions was\u00a0Symonds’ sister-in-law, the artist and traveller Marianne North. The pair were frequent correspondents, and some of Edwards’ letters apparently ardent enough for North to respond\u00a0 “What love letters you do write, what a pity you waste them on a woman!” ((Rees, p. 34-35 )) \u00a0The two remained\u00a0close friends for several decades, sharing news of North’s travels and Edwards’ literary career.<\/p>\n

Edwards is buried together with Ellen Drew Braysher (1804 – 1892), with whom she shared a home at The Larches<\/a>. Braysher’s daughter had been buried in the same grave twenty-eight years earlier, and on Edwards’ death their grave was covered\u00a0a large Egyptian ankh. More information on the monument can be found in\u00a0the August 2011 newsletter of the Egypt Society of Bristol<\/a>. [Note: The newsletter’s gravestone transcript has some errors. See images below for my best attempt at transcription.]<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\"Amelia<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl>
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\"Grave<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl>
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\"Grave<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl>
<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n

Some resources on Edwards:<\/strong><\/p>\n

My Home Life<\/a> in Arena, 1891, describing Edwards and Braysher’s Westbury-on-Trym home.<\/p>\n

Amelia Edwards’ novels and travel writing at archive.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Amelia Edwards Collection at Somerville College.<\/a><\/p>\n

Egypt Exploration Society Library & Archive<\/a><\/p>\n

2022 ETA:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Margaret C. Jones’ 2022 book “The Adventurous Life of Amelia B. Edwards” (Bloomsbury, 2022) is a new biography of Edwards that includes discussion of Edwards relationships with women, her connections with Symonds and Marianne North, and her life in Bristol including her relationship with Ellen Byrne.<\/p>\n

Edwards and Braysher’s grave was listed on the 23rd of September 2016.<\/p>\n

…on Ellen Braysher:<\/p>\n

The Archival Gossip project includes letters from Charlotte Cushman to Grace Greenwood<\/a> about dealing with Mrs Braysher, in the course of her love affair with Matilda Hays.<\/p>\n

Carol Jones Carlisle’s “Helen Faucit: Fire and Ice on the Victorian Stage” (Society for Theatre Research, 2000) also contains some interesting details about Ellen Drew Braysher as an admirer and companion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St Mary’s Church,\u00a0Church Close, Henbury, BS10 7QF The grave of Amelia Blanford Edwards — traveller, Egyptologist, and writer — to whom Symonds dedicated his poetry collection Old and New. ((The American edition making the common mistake of\u00a0mixing\u00a0her middle name with that of her cousin, Matilda Betham Edwards. Edwards on her part misremembered\u00a0the dedication\u00a0as being\u00a0in ‘Many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1084"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"http:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1410,"href":"http:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1084\/revisions\/1410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}