In a previous blog post (on May 11) Cerys Williams wrote about finding the letters of Bishop Mandell Creighton and discovering in them a more personal side of the historical figure.
Here, our front of house volunteer Susan Richards responds to a quite spooky photograph of the Creighton couple, Mandell and Louise. Read on for a sweet story of their romance.
The Creighton family in the Porteus library. These photographs certainly remind us of how steeped in history the Palace is!
I loved the ghostly photograph of the Creighton family at home sent by Elowyn. It reminded me of something I read in a biography of Mrs Humphry Ward, written by Professor John Sutherland, about the competition between Humphry Ward and Mandell Creighton for Louise’s favour.
Louise van Glehn, the youngest daughter of a rich German banker from the Baltic provinces, came to Oxford on the 9th February, 1871. There, she attended a lecture by the Victorian art critic John Ruskin on the virtues of monochrome in art.
Louise was beautiful, cultured and rich! Her beauty comes through from a picture we have of her. She is enhanced by a Pre-Raphaelite setting of a trellis covered in roses. This style was very fashionable at the time but Louise was actually no wistful Pre-Raphaelite goddess. She had very strong opinions which she expressed forcefully! Humphry Ward had his eye on her as a possible wife but when Mandell Creighton saw her talking to Humphry, he was instantly smitten! He was particularly struck by a bright yellow scarf she was wearing: yellow was his favourite colour. Quite ironic considering the subject of the lecture! The story famously goes that Mandell asked after her, “Who is that girl who has the courage to wear yellow?”
Louise depicted in a floral, Pre-Raphaelite setting.
Mandell was not good looking but was considered to be the cleverest young man in Oxford. Humphry was probably better looking but didn’t have Mandell’s future prospects. Louise visited Mandell’s rather opulent college rooms and was charmed by his collection of photographs and blue willow pattern china! Even when he lectured her about something called “entsagung”, which meant denial and was a fashionable idea at the time, she wasn’t put off! She liked his self-confidence and brilliant witty conversation. She wrote to a friend “How dull everyone else has seemed to me in comparison!” Their relationship was passionate, though known for being stormy at times.
So Humphry Ward didn’t really stand a chance! He ended up marrying Mary Arnold, who became a fashionable novelist and founder of the Mary Ward Centre and Somerville College. Though the two took opposite sides on the issue of women’s suffrage, Mary and Louise remained friends for the rest of their lives.