This wax bust of the founder was given by the poet William Wordsworth as a gift to his nephews John and Christopher, who were pupils at Winchester. The central part of the inscription on the reverse of the frame is in the poet’s hand and reads ‘To the Wintonians / J + Christopher Wordsworth / from / their very affectionate Uncle / Wm Wordsworth / Rydal Mount / September 1822’.

John and Christopher were the sons of William Wordsworth’s youngest brother, also Christopher, the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. In the College Archives is a letter from Christopher to his sons at Winchester, which mentions a visit to his brother at Rydal Mount in September 1822. It must have been on this occasion that William gave Christopher a gift for his nephews.

Both boys had joined the school as Commoners (fee-paying pupils) in 1820, and both went on to study at their father’s college in Cambridge. John became a distinguished classical scholar before his early death in 1839. Christopher was Second Master at Winchester from 1836 until 1844, when he became Headmaster of Harrow. He then entered the church and was appointed Bishop of Lincoln in 1869, a post he held until his death in 1884. Christopher’s son and grandson were both Wykehamists.

The wax profile belonged to Christopher until 1874 when he gave it to another young Wykehamist, Martin White Benson (1860-1878), the son of Edward White Benson (1829-1896), Chancellor of Lincoln Cathedral and later Archbishop of Canterbury. Tragically, Benson died of tubercular meningitis at the age of seventeen. The wax must have been left among his possessions in College.

 

Literature: The Wykehamist, No. 1016 (December 1954), p. 164; Winchester College Collections, 2019-20 (Winchester, 2020), p. 8

Provenance: Given by William Wordsworth (1770-1850) to his nephews John Wordsworth (1805-1839) and Christopher Wordsworth (1807-1885) in 1822, when both were pupils at Winchester. In 1874, given by Christopher Wordsworth to Martin White Benson (1860-78) who died as a pupil at Winchester, when presumably it passed into the College’s possession.

Location: Fellows’ Library, Long Galley