Bailey, Thomas, and Philip James

(1785-1902)

   Thomas, the father, 1785-1856 He was born at Nottingham and educated mainly at Gilling, North Yorkshire. His main occupation was as a silk-hosier at Nottingham. From 1836 to 1843 he served on the town council, then from 1845 he was proprietor and editor of the Nottingham Mercury, one of the chief papers of the town. This venture folded in 1852 because of his liberal views on the 1851 Ecclesiastical Titles Bill (which barred Catholics from holding ecclesiastical titles, and the land that went with them). He died at his mansion in the village of Basford, near Nottingham, where he had lived for many years, engaged in literary pursuits and in the formation of a choice collection of books and engravings. Some of his poetry publications: What is Life? and Other Poems, 1820. The Carnival of Death, 1822. Ireton, 1827. Recreations in Retirement, 1836. The Advent of Charity and Other Poems, 1851. Some of his other publications: Annals of Nottinghamshire: A New and Popular History of the County of Nottingham, Including the Borough, 1852-1855 (4 volumes). Handbook to Nottingham Castle, 1854. Handbook to Newstead Abbey, 1855. Records of Longevity, 1857. Philip James, the son, 1816-1902 He attended Glasgow University but left without graduating, and in 1835 moved to London and was called to the bar in 1840. At a young age he learned Byron's "Childe Harold" by heart. In 1836 he returned to Basford to work on his own translation of Goethe's Faust, published in 1839. It was an immediate success and was praised by many poets, including Tennyson. The influence of Byron is apparent in its 22 scenes and 8103 lines. It passed through several editions, both in England and America, where thirty unauthorized editions appeared before 1889. By 1889 the final version reached nearly 40,000 lines, with an introduction and 52 scenes. He died after an attack of influenza and was buried in Nottingham Cemetery. Some of his other publications: The Angel World, and Other Poems, 1850. The Mystic, and Other Poems, 1855. The Universal Hymn, 1867. Festus Birthday Book, 1882. Beauties of Festus, 1884. Causa Britannica, a Poem in Latin Hexameters with English Paraphrase, 1883. Some of his other poems: "Helen's Song," "I Loved Her for That She Was Beautiful," "Nottingham Castle, an Ode," "We Live in Deeds."

   Sources: Poems That Touch the Heart. A.L. Alexander, ed. Doubleday, 1956. An extract of Festus can be found at (http://www.fullbooks.com/Library-of-the-Worlds-BestLiteraturex23537.html). Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Great Books Online (www.bartleby.com). The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). New Catholic Dictionary: Ecclesiastical Titles Act (http://www.catholic-forum.com/ saints/ncd02922.htm). Oldpoetry (www.oldpoetry.com). The New Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. Christopher Ricks, ed. Oxford University Press, 2002. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse, 13th-20th Centuries. D.H.S. Nicholson and A.H. Lee, eds. Oxford University Press, 1916. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia).