Poet Shelley's Short Life.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 99, 22 October 1915, Page 2 (Supplement)

Poet Shelley's Short Life.

On Saturday August 4. 1792, Percy Bvsshe Shelley was born tit Warnham, near Horsham, in Sussex, eldest son of Sir Timothv Shelley, second baronet. The poet would Rave succeeded as third baronet (as his son did), with Fiela Place, the poet's birthplace, as one of the family residences. But on July 9, 1822, as Shelley, with his friend lidward Elliker Williams. was sailing in a boat from Leghorn for Spezzia, off the north-west coast of Italy, a squall of wind burst forth, and the boat and its occupants were capsized. Months afterwards the boat was dredged up from the bottom of the sea, and Shelley's bodv was identified by some books which were in his pocket. His corpse was cremated and the ashes interred in the Protestant cemetery at Rome. Two monuments have been erected to him in England—a marble one in the Minster of Christchurch, in Hampshire, by his son, who succeeded to the baronetcy and lived till 1889: the other a remarkable and most surprising and impressive statue of him. the gift of this son's widow, who lived till 1899, and the work of Mr. Onslow Ford. This ,e in University College. Oxford, whi-m Shelley entered as an undergnliute on April 10 1310, but from whicsn he was expelled when summoned before the University authorities on March lMll, for writing a printed pamphlet to show "The Necessity of Atheism. This monument is rendered very attractive in the City of Oxford through being sheltered by a dome-roofed structure which can be seen by those passing along High Street.