ADAM LINDSAY GORDON

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 108, 6 April 1934, Page 12

ADAM LINDSAY GORDON

BUST FOR POETS’ CORNER. Lady Hilton Young, wife of Sir Edward Hilton Young, the Minister of Health, has shown a London correspondent, at her home in Bayswater, the bust of Adam Lindsay Gordon, the Australian poet, which is to be placed in the Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey in the first fortnight in May. Lady Hilton Young, who is England's foremost woman sculptor—she lias done busts of three Prime Ministers ot Britain, and her own monuments of her late husband, Captain Scott, the famous explorer, are in various parts on the country—was approached some time ago by the Dean of Westminster to undertake a bust of Adam Lindsay Gordon that would be suitable for inclusion among the great men in the Poets’ Corner in the Abbey, It was a request that was immediately responded to, and for months Lady Hilton Young studied the poetry of Gordon and his varied career so that she could get a proper insight into his character. Since then she has worked night and day on the memorial, and the result is a magnificent bust in bronze, more than life size, done in the style of the day, that is at the time of Gordon’s death in 1870. x „ The face shows a magnificent force and virility, and these characteristics are accompanied by the romantic expression of the_ poet, which intimate acquaintance with his life and work has shown his features to reveal. In many parts of England and in Scotland the Westminster Abbey ceremony is being looked forward to with intense interest by lovers of Adam Lindsay Gordon ill Britain. At one time it was thought that the bust would he ready in time for the centenary celebrations, which have already taken place, hut any disappointment which may then have been felt has disappeared in the knowledge that the coming ceremony in the Abbey will do full justice to the poet s m Poetry, literature, arts and Church all will be prominently represented when the bust is unveiled. No definite date has yet been fixed, but the ceremony will probably take place either on May 9 or 11. Mr Douglas Sladen, with whom the idea originated of thus honouring the Burns of Australia,” is engaged on another book of Adam Lindsay Gordon, and its publication will coincide with the ceremony in the Abbey.