Evening star., 1923-03-07
Relics of Percy Bysshe Shelley
Now Treasured by Crandnephew

! Thomas Moore, Lord Byron and other
intimates of Shelley. as recorded by
Prof. Bowden in his almost Canonical
| Life Of shelley" and as also related
Natural Biography" The Cor Cor
Gium" epitaph on the memorial at Rome
must, therefore. be regarded as a bit of
! roeticdl license On the part Of Leigh
! Hunt.
| In this connection, ! may add that
just before the war there was pub
lishcd in Berlin an autograph letter
Of the poet Heine, In which he relates
that the death of the poet in July, 1922,
in the Gulf of Spezzia. was not due
To accident nor to storm nor to
tempest. but to murder and robbery
by some Leghorn fishermen.
This letter confirms the deathbed
confession OF an aged seaman at
Gombo in 1873, to the effect that he
was one of the crew of a feluCca that
had purpoSely run down Shelley's
schooner Ariel in a fog and had
robbed Shelley in the belief that he
was Lord Byron and very wealthy,
and had then murdered him and his
companion. This statement was
borne out by Miss Trelawny. sister
iof ShcIley's friend. Edward John
IeIdWlN, ana WHO, ultll hpOuL ten
years ago. was living at ii very ad-
vanced age at Rome. She had sew
eral relics of Shelley. which years
after his death she had purchased
from Lcghorn fishermen. and whose
possession thereof could only be cx-
planned by the fact that they CON
Stituted part of the booty of those
who murdered him.
Trelawny himself relates the in
cineration of Shelley's remains on
. y och, ut t.r ,.e5s -I1,-. !,
had been cast up III a terribly
mangled condition. and cXpatiates on
the circumstance that Shelley should
have met with his death-by drown
ing, as it was at first believed-when
his two most intimate friends, Byron
and Trelawny, should have been such
strong swimmers. For Byron swan
the Hellespont, while Trclawny, years
later, swan the Niagara
He also tells how Byron endeavorcd
to preserve the greater portion Of the
skull, and how he had prevented it. re
membering how the skull of a former
abbott of Newstead Abbey, the ances-
trail home of the Byrons, had been con-
verted into a sAver-mounte cd drinking
cup and used by Lord Byron for the
purpose. Trelawny was determined
that Shclley's skull, or what there re-
mained OF il, should never be thus pro-
famed.
Sir John Shelley-RollS preserves,
among other relics of the poet, a bat
tered and water stained copy of Sopho-
cles. which. evidently a favorte com
panion of the poet, since it was full of
annotations in his handwriting, was
found in the pocket of his coat when
his remains We're cast up by the sea-
1t had apparently been regarded as
worthless by his murderers.
1t is scarcely necessary to add that
there is no truth whatsoever in the
story widely printed in the United
States and in the American press, to
the effect that the poets grandfather
Bysshe Shelley, the husband of Johanna
Plum, was native of America, and
that he owed his name of Bysshe to an
American mother of that name. While
Sir Bysshe Sherry, the first baronet.
was born of an American mother, Jo-
hanna Plum. and of her marriage 10
Timothy Shelley, the latter was the son
of John Shelley of Fen Place, Il country
seat in Sussex which he had acquired
by marriage to Helen. heiresS of Roger
BySshe, head of one of the old county
families of Sussex. Moreover. the Shell
leys trace their descent from Thomas
Shelley, who was lord of the manor OF
Shelley and member of parliament for
Sandwich in AID. 14t7.