1ST

BARON

See also:

• RICHARD
• RICHARD (d. 1184)
• RICHARD, FRANCOIS MARIE BENJAMIN (18,9-1908)
• RICHARD, HENRY (1812-1888)
• RICHARD, ST

RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES

See also:

• 1ST BARON RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES HOUGHTON (1809—1885)

HOUGHTON (1809—1885)  , English poet and man of letters, son of Robert Pemberton Milnes, of Fryston Hall, Yorkshire, and the Hon . Henrietta Monckton, daughter of the fourth Lord Galway, was born in London on the 19th of June 1809 . He was educated privately, and entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827 . There he was at once drawn into a literary set, and became a member of the famous " Apostles " Club, which then included Tennyson, Hallam, Trench, J . W . Blakesley, afterwards dean of Lincoln, and others . After taking his degree, Milnes travelled abroad, spending some time at Bonn University . Thence he went to Italy and Greece, and published in 1834 a volume of Memorials of a Tour in some Parts of Greece, describing his experiences . He returned to London in 1837, and was in that year elected to Parliament as member for Pontefract . His parliamentary career was marked by much strenuous activity . He interested himself particularly in the question of copyright and the conditions of reformatory schools . He left Peel's party over the Corn Law controversy, and was afterwards identified in politics with Palmerston, at whose instance he was made a peer in 1863 .

His literary career was industrious and cultured, without being exceptionally distinguished .

Church matters had always a claim upon him: he wrote a striking tract in 1841, which was praised by Newman; and took part in the discussion about " Essays and Reviews," defending the tractarian position in One Tract More (1841) . He published two volumes of verse in 1838, Memorials of Residence upon the Continent and Poems of Many Years, Poetry for the People in 184o and Palm Leaves in 1844 . He also wrote a Life and Letters of Keats in 1848, the material for which was largely provided by the poet's friend, Charles Armitage Brown . Milnes also contributed largely to the reviews . His poetry is meditative and delicate; some of his ballads were among the most popular of their day, and all his work was marked by refinement . But his chief distinctions were his keen sense of literary merit.in others, and the judgment and magnanimity with which he fostered it . He was surrounded by the most brilliant men of his time, many of whom he had been the first to acclaim . His chief title to remembrance rests on the part he played, as a man of influence in society and in moulding public opinion on literary matters, in connexion with his large circle of talented friends . He secured a pension for Tennyson, helped to make Emerson known in Great Britain, and was one of the earliest champions of Swinburne . He helped David Gray and wrote a preface for The Luggie . He was, in the old sense of the word, a patron of letters, and one who never abused the privileges of his position .

Milnes married in 1851 the Hon . Annabel

Crewe (d . 1874) . He died at Vichy on the 11th of August 1885, and was buried at Fryston . His son, the second Baron Houghton, was created Earl of Crewe (q.v.) in 1895 . See The Life, Letters and Friendships of Richard Monckton Milnes, first Lord Houghton (189o), by Sir T . Wemyss Reid . HOUGHTON-LE-SPRING, an urban district in the Houghtonle-Spring parliamentary division of Durham, England, 6 m . N.E. of the city of Durham . Pop . (Tool) 7858 . It is well situated at the head of a small valley branching from that of the Wear .

St

Michael's church is a cruciform Early English and Decorated building, with a picturesque embattled rectory adjoining . Bernard Gilpin, " the Apostle of the North," was rector of this parish from 1556 to 1583, and the founder of the grammar school . The principal public buildings are a town hall, market house and church institute . Houghton Hall is a fine mansion of the late 16th century . In the orchard stands a tomb, that of the puritan Sir Robert Hutton (d . 168o), of whom a curious tradition states that he desired burial beside his war-horse, the body of which was denied interment in consecrated ground . The main road from Durham to Sunderland here passes through a remark-able cutting in the limestone 8o ft. deep . The district affords frequent evidence of ice activity in the glacial period . The town is the centre of a large system of electric tramways . The population is mainly dependent on the neighbouring collieries, but limestone quarrying is carried on to some extent .