WOMEN OF CHELSEA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21982, 13 December 1934, Page 21

WOMEN OF CHELSEA

FOUR FAMOUS PERSONS IGREATNESS and charm |{ COMMEMORATIVE TABLET Four women of Chelsea, each renowned in her day, were commemorated recently when a tablet to their memory was unveiled and dedicated in Chelsea Old Church. -The tablet, which is the gift of the eriduates of Crosby Hall and of the Qjglspa Society, bears the names of Mir&aret the favourite daughter of Sir Thomas More; of Magdalen Herbert mother of George Herbert, the •Jutland friend of John Donne; of Astell, a pioneer of women's fljnjftT&ipation; and of the herbalist, Elizabeth Blackwell. Three of these women certainly lie buried in the Old Church at Chelsea, and the fourth, Margaret Roper, is traditionally said to be buried there also. | The tablet, designed by Mrs. Mary Gillicls> has been placed on the eastern 'of the chapel rebuilt by Sir Jhoxaas More; on it is carved the head of Margaret Roper, and underneath are posies of different flowers emblematic of the women whom the tablet commemorates. Curious Coincidence jjj- Maude Royden, who gave the address, said that it was a curious coincidence that the thought of violence, of ungainliness and of lack of charm had been associated with those who waft the struggle to procure for ; women the right to do more than was j expected of their -sex. The actions of i these four women had that grace and . charin which made greatness so infinitely more attractive. Charm seemed to cling around Margaret Roper and her father, Sir Thomas More, and one could not help wondering whether the course of the Reformation might not have been a, little more gracious if it j had,followed the character of men like I Coletj Erasmus and' More rather than \ of Cr&nmer and Luther. i Magdalen Herbert was the friend of Donne, whoso prose haunted the mem- j ory like great and tragic music. He and many others gathered at her house in Chelsea. Chelsea had been a place hleaed with many artists, but this must have.'been one of the loveliest moments in Chelsea's life. Magdalen Herbert wts the inspirer of many of those who met at her home, and seemed 'to have had the power of making people happy. Conversation was not an art easily practised, by English people, who generally either listened or conducted a monologue. One had the impression, however, that in Magdalen Hefrbfert's circle it was' possible for everyone to speak with ease, and that that (ease Bowed from her. if' Fight lor Emancipation Of Mary Astell, -who died at Chelsea in 1731, Dr. Royden said that she was, more directly than the other two women, a pioneer. She was the author of that oddly entitled book, "A Serious Proposal to "the Ladies." She linked together/the ideas of education and emancipation and proposed to found a where women might fit themtelres for the emancipation which they dedref 1 . . Elizabeth Blackwell completed in 1737 her Herbal," in which she described 000 plants in the Chelsea i Physic Garden, opposite which she 2nwl. It was not always realised, Dr. fioyden said, that medicine used to be largely ii the hands of women in and before the Middle Ages. Then for a tigl|L, this tradition died, and when women tried to re-establish it by claiming the right to qualify as doctors, their claim was met by a violence of fury which surpassed perhaps the worst moments of the -suffragist campaign. That seemed strange to-day, for surely the art of healing might be expected to be found in the hands of the sex which bore the hurden of bringing life into the world.\ . . '.-y.', «—■———.———