LONDON'S ONE CHAUCER.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 781, 2 April 1910, Page 9

LONDON'S ONE CHAUCER.

According to the Post Office Directory, (says a London paper) there is only one man in London named Chaucer.- This fact suggests the possibility—a very remote one, ,somc may think—of tho owner of * the name being a descendant of the great poet;, and the Poetry ,Recital Society have set themselves to ascertain whether there, is any record which' a . entitles him to the distinction. If their investigations prove the affirmative, Mr. Chaucer,.-who.is a.toy, seller in v.the Stroud r.:Green..-.;Road,..and..pos-sesses ■the,.-Christian. ;name of: .Henry, will be invited,-to ..take his placo among ;tho S.hakespeares, the Wordswor.ths, and 'the Tennysons.at the banquet which tho society is .giving to: descendants of the great poets. : ', "'.'•.■ ' This function promises to be one of the most interesting events of the year. In conversation with Mr. Kyle, the secrotary of the society, a press represent tative learned that considerably over a hundred; applications liad been received from people who claim to be descended from more or less famous poets. Shakespeare, Burns, Spenser, Coleridge, Southey, Waller, ■'.Tennyson, Percy, Wordsworth,' Byron, Matthew Arnold— all these .apparently, have-living descendants, either direct or indirect. ,

: A gentleman ; who hails: from Streatham Common claims! to ; 'be related on his mother's side to Robert Burns'. Mr. Maginn,. a gentleman of -Belfast, can trace his descent from Edmund Spenser. Matter of-fact: Surbiton' can. produce a granddaughter,' and Sidmouth;- : -Devon, ■a grand-niece, of Southey. "■ / ..■•■':

. From Ambloside,- Cumberland, Mr. Gordon. Wordsworth • writes to say that he is a grandson of tho poet, while an-, other, grandson of Wordsworth is the Wordsworth, vicar of Mealsgate, i, Cumberland. And a . Captain Trevanion sends advice to Mr. Kyle to search the Peerage, when he will dis-. cover that tlie gallant captain is a direct- descendant of Lord Byron.

Ono applicant to grace the festive hoard claims to be descended from no fewer than three poets —Spenser, William Somerville, an Elizabethan poet who was related to Shakespeare; and John Fountain, a dramatic poet of the same period. The gentleman's name is Fountain.

"Mr. Will. G. Shakespeare dbes-.not claim to be a descendant of:-§hakei-peare," said Mr. Kyley J "b / ut'he ; ; ! ststes that his family are. the nearest 'descendants of Shakespeare's grandfathef.'l'During the life of the Shakespeare .'Society, in the nineteenth century 'a literary gentleman left a sum of money to be divided amongst those, who could claim nearest connection with the-poet. 'My grandfather, , writes Mr. Shakespeare, 'was awarded £100-. He was the Rev. Benjamin. Shakespeare.,.!' It that this generation bf.'.th'o'fatnily is the.first to.i.live;,in Londonj.a.s pur ancestors lived - at Henloy-in-Ardeh;-'. Miss Rose Walton,, a Bournemouth lady, has written to say.that siie is.the ninth r m. idesqeht. from *Sliakesp.eare':s. sister Joan, who' was his next-of r kin.'''; ; '.. ,".' • '■■:■