Some years ago I wrote a short piece in the Mark Twain Journal on the time
Twain spent in Guildford (England) at the end of his 'round-the-world'
lecture tour (when he learnt of Susy's death). Recently a local to Guildford
independent scholar, Mike Bennett, has also been working on this subject and
has sent me a series of notes and comments that effectively serve to flesh
out and add new detail to my previous findings. Thought this is an area
perhaps of minority interest to most Twain scholars, I am sure some of you
will be interested in this. Mike has kindly given me permission to put on
the
Forum. He also sent me appendices on the Southampton South Western hotel in
 which Twain stayed and other relevant Southampton material, and the spread
sheet to which he refers, giving a timeline plus letter and diary entries
etc from this time. Also photos of the Guildford house where Twain stayed. I
can forward these various bits and pieces to anyone who contacts me directly
(at [log in to unmask]). If anyone wishes to contact Mike with
further information or comment his e-mail is [log in to unmask] But my
own thanks to Mike for sharing this material with us. I have cut slightly to
fit list limit. Pete

Thoughts on Clemens in Guildford

I have been working intermittently on the stay of Mark Twain in Guildford,
assisted by your very thorough article of 1998 in the Mark Twain Journal. I
n short, I do not believe I have made any major breakthroughs or discovered
 any new material but do confirm many of your own findings and thoughts.
I am writing these thoughts out as a record of what I have gathered in read
ing all of the secondary sources I had access to - mostly photocopies of the
major articles from the well known biographies concerning the Guildford
interlude, located in the file you found in the Guildford Library. All this
material is now archived in the beautifully equipped, modern Surrey History
 Centre (SHC) in Woking. Some of the helpful SHC staff are from the
Guildford Library and remember your searches, particularly the photographic
search
. The following notes are in no particular order. My only offering is to
give a local, Guildford perspective on all this.

My central topic of research has been why (and how) Guildford? It was not
obvious from the published material how they ended up here - and I am not
completely clear even now but I have had a new thought that might supply the
missing link in the chain connecting the Clemens's to the Turner 'empire'

Photographs.

With the help of the SHC staff, I located the 1870 photo album that gave you
the photo in your article and was thrilled to find so many good condition
 prints of many photos that have been frequently reproduced in varying
quality in several books and postcards. It was a great find and as you know
provided us with a good view of Highfield House and its neighbours. I am
able
to identify all the houses shown, though this is only of local interest.
Looking through the SHC catalogue, I came across another photo album with
contents taken by the local, eminent, Victorian scientist, Rand Capron, who
lived just along the road. One of his pictures, believed to be from the
1870s, captures a very similar view but with more of the left hand side of
the
hill shown. Highfield House is the house cut in half at the edge of the
photo. [PM has copies]

Data Presentation.

Not being familiar with Clemens' life and events, I used a spreadsheet to
lay out the references to his stay in Guildford and put them in sequence. I
found it useful to focus on the practical, Guildford based aspects of the
quotations and build up a picture of where he was and what was happening
around him. It is no representation of what was important for Clemens but it
does help set dates and timings at a very busy time for them all. [PM has
copy]

The second page lays out all the references to the Turner family I could
find and it spans the period of interest.Turner Empire.
We are fortunate in Guildford to have had a Guide to all residential and
commercial properties from 1890 to the 1930s published by a local printer
and
publisher, Lasham's. These complement the usual Kelly and Post office guides
as they were published every two years as far as I can see. I looked up
the Turner entries for the relevant years and have added the family data
from the closest census records from 1891 and 1901.

I am in no doubt that Alex Henry Turner is the man who both ran the estate
agency business and lived in Highfield House from 1895 to at least 1913.
Prior to that he lived in a property in the centre of town, Somerset House
in
 Spital St. (now the Upper High St). This was very close to The County Club
 and the club may well have been one of Turner's haunts as he became a
successful figure in Guildford society. I will try to look this detail up on
the next 'open day' at the County Club.

Regarding Turners family, I note that his young son does not feature in the
1901 Guildford census but I found him packed away (probably at age 8) to a
boarding school in Hitchin. He has three daughters with him in Highfield
House. His staff are different at the two premises but I do not see the
'Emily' that Clemens refers to at Highfield House. I noted that there is a
cook called Emily in both neighbouring houses in the 1901 census but I do
not think we should read too much into this.

I do not know what the conventions were concerning servants but if 'good
staff are hard to find' then I would have thought that Turner would have
taken some Somerset House staff with him to Highfield but this does not seem
to have happened. There will have been several agencies supplying domestic
staff to local houses and it is quite possible that the staff looking after
Clemens were recruited for the let only.

The only other route that suggests itself is for me to find Turners will an
d see what his estate consisted of when he died. It will probably list all
of his properties and may shed some light on the houses in Guildford. I
shall look into this when I am next at the SHC.

Business premises

In Guildford, Turner's business was conducted from an office adjacent to the
station. It changed its address over the years but it was an office that
would have been alongside or in the main station building and in the station
yard.

In Weybridge, Lasham's Guide tells us that the Turner office was also
located in the Station Yard, close to the station. It would have been easy
to find for railway travellers. The Weybridge office is certainly there over
the period in question. It seems to me that the Highfield rental was
arranged through this office, and probably by Clara and Olivia, if she was
up and about at this time (ankle injury). Clara's note from Weybridge to
Chatto is central to this thought.

It could well have been written immediately after Clara or her companion
completed the rental arrangement in Weybridge, posting it from there. The
larger question is how did Clara become aware of the Turner Office in
Weybridge? If this link can be identified, everything else follows.

The note from the assistant Guildford librarian in the Twain File (now at t
he SHC) draws attention to the houses in Guildford and an advertisement for
 Turners business in the 1897 Guildford Lasham's Guide. This advert states
'Offices at Guildford, Weybridge and Reading. Head office 199 Piccadilly W.'

The Piccadilly Link I suggested in my earlier note to you that Clemens was
intent on moving to London on arrival at Southampton. Having read more of
his
life, I can see I was wrong and that he was set upon spending some serious
time in a quiet E nglish village, with his family, to write his new book. He
may earlier have been anticipating lecturing in London (from Powers) but by
the time he arr ived, he seems only to have wished for a less public life.
His
first base was the SouthWestern Hotel in Southampton but he was in early
contact with Chatto on where to live. He rejected Chatto's offer of
something
near the Isle of Wight, indicating that this was an area that Chatto knew
well. If Clemens wished to be based closer to London, help would be needed
in
finding suitable accommodation. In view of the fact that it was Chatto who
spent much time advising Clemens on where to live in London at the end of
the
Guildford rental, it seems mo re than likely that Chatto would have been
helpful in getting the Clemens' established in their English village.
Because
I had been reading the Clemens papers all day at the SHC, I came across two
references that might be significant and connected them in my mind . The
note
from the librarian included the reference to Turner's Piccadilly Office in
the
advert for Turner in the 1897 Lasham's guide. On looking this up, I was
struck
by the grandiose addition of a 'Head Office in London'. Things were going
well
for him! I also read of the transfer of offices of Chatto and Windus from
Piccadilly to St Martins Lane on the 1st of September, that later caught
Clemens out. This meant that Chatto had his offices in Piccadilly when the
Clemens's arrived in England. I wondered whether the Pi ccadilly coincidence
could offer a means of explaining the link to Turner a nd his houses for
rent.
It is possible that, to help in the house-hunting, Chatto or one of his
staff
(perhaps Spalding) knew of the Turner Piccadilly office because of its
proximity to C&W and went in, or possibly summoned a Turner employee to C&W,
to
obtain recommendations and suggestions on Clemens' behalf. They may even
have
been acquainted by working in the same part of town. It is easy to imagine a
conversation running along the lines of, 'Ah yes, sir, we have number of
suitable properties available in the charming old village/small town of
Guildford for example, far away from the madding.....etc. All you have to do
is ask your friends to call in at our large Weybridge Office and have a look
at the descriptions we have and see for themselves. We have a range of quiet
houses to suit all pockets and tastes etc. The Weybridge office is easy to
get
to as it is on the main line from Southampton to London - in fact the office
is just outside the station entrance.....The Railway Aspect. Turner's
offices
were all based in locations that could easily be reached by the expanded and
efficient rail network that included Guildford. Incident ally, it has been
suggested by local historians that the railway link to Reading and Oxford
gave
Dodgson the means to travel between Guildford and Oxf ord in his later
years.
In fact he spent most of his time living in Christc hurch, Oxford. He was in
poor health in 1896. He died in Guildford in 1898 following a Xmas visit. As
I
have alluded, Weybridge lies on the main London to Southampton line as part
of
the London and South Western Railway, opened in 1840. Three stops back down
the line is Woking station and from here there were (and still are) frequent
trains to Guildford. By staying in Guildford, there were good rail
connections
to London directly (from 1845 by changing at Woking and from 1885 by direct
line) and by changing at Woking, to many cities South, including
Southampton.
Of course, it would never have crossed Clemens' mind that they would be
making
quite as much use of this convenience as they did o n receipt of the bad
news
barely a week after they moved in to the Guildford house but the good access
to London alone would have been a recommendation.Things that don't quite
fit.
The decision to go for a short term (1 month) let on the Guildford house is
curious unless it was proving difficult to find something to Clemens liking.
I
believe that renting was quite a well established method of obtaining
accommodation at that time, witness the number of adverts in the local
papers.
Clemens desired to find something large and tranquil for a few months but
one
can imagine considerable pressures on him to find something in a hurry.
Firstly came the cost and undesirability of remaining any longer in the
SouthWestern Hotel and secondly the need to find somewhere for Livy to get
some rest and allow her ankle to heal - house-hunting actually working
against
this aim. He probably also wished for some stability himself. Given all of
this, it still seems odd that they elected to knowingly take Highfield for a
definite month only. There seems to be a clear indication that they would
have
to move out, even before the house became associated wit h the tragic news.
The
reference to table-ware arriving suggests the house was not fully in use
prior
to their arrival. It may even have been table-ware from the Turner family
that
was being delivered prior to the return of the Turners themselves. One can
only guess at what the position was with Turner, as he was certainly the
occupier in general terms from 1895 but there is no suggestion of any
contact
or relationship between them, only that the house was available for a month,
for reasons we can only guess at. Perhaps the Turner family were travelling
abroad or were resident elsewhere but ha d signalled their intent to return
to
Highfield in September. The letting w as probably organised by the offices
of
Turner in the normal course of business. The availability of servants
suggests
that the house was in general use. (I also agree that the house in the
Surrey
Advertiser is considerably grander than Highfield and we must put the timing
down to coincidence. If Turner was away from Guildford, the lacuna in the
advert sequence could also be explained.) The Clemens may have chosen to use
it as a base for the general area, upon recommendation from Turners staff,
perhaps, giving themselves a breathing s pace to seek something more
desirable
and available nearby. The not too serious reference to Clemens injuring his
leg suggests he had walked to and from Guildford earlier in the week to get
a
feel of the place. His later description of his long walks show he was quite
taken with the general area. The second area of discomfort concerns the
Piccadilly link. The advert appears only in the 1897 edition and there is no
direct evidence that Turner ha d any presence in Piccadilly in 1896 - but he
could have. Its consistent with the evidence. I tried to locate the relative
positioning of the two offices to see if the calling-in for advice
proposition
was plausible from a geographical perspective - were they near to each
other?
The advert helpfully places 199 Piccadilly as 'opposite St James Hall' which
held the street number 28 in 1900. Chatto and Windus were located at 214.
This
suggests they may have been at opposite ends and sides of Piccadilly but I
cannot confirm this without a stroll down Piccadilly itself. (I believe that
the street numbers were revised at some time in the 20th century so care
must
be taken when looking at modern building numbers.)The Note from Clara to
Chatto. This note is central to the whole early letting question. Your first
footnote in the Twain Journal notes that Clara wrote from Weybridge and not
from the Guildford house, as suggested by Welland and perhaps Tenney. I am
sure you are correct in this and it fits well with my suggested chain of
events. I would very much like to see the contents of this note but find
there
are various references. (See the spreadsheet entry). Unfortunately the
photocopies of pages from MTIE with the full reference to the Clara note are
missing
and I am doubly handicapped. Do you have a copy of the full contents to
hand?
Are all the references in fact to just one document? I have not seen any
parts
of Clara's work, 'My father, Mark Twain' but take your footnote 7 to be the
only reference to the practicalities of the period. Is there a date for her
dismal description? It must surely fit somewhere in the week of the 7th to
14th August unless it was written afterwards. I t seems the weather was
pretty
terrible in the time they were in Guildford though I am surprised at the
reference to fog in August! Perhaps it was just a retrospective reflection.

Surrey Advertiser Article
At first glance I supposed that an intrepid Surrey Advertiser reporter had
in fact interviewed Twain but when I looked at the sequence chart, this see
med extremely unlikely in the light of what had happened to Clemens in the
previous week. A second reading of the article suggests to me that the
article may be no more than a regurgitation of an article from the Daily
Chronicle, updated by the Surrey Ad reporter from his knowledge that Susy
had die
d, gained from the larger circulation papers. The Chronicle interview could
 have been conducted any time after Clemens moved to Guildford on 17th but
it does seem that Chatto was attempting to restrain the reporter from
further interruptions in his note of the 19th Aug.
In fact, another look at this article suggests that maybe Chatto may have
been completely successful in keeping the press away from Clemens and that
the Chronicle reporter could have obtained all the contents of the article
from Chatto alone at their meeting. The date of Chatto's note (19th) suggest
s that he could not have been aware of Susy's death so this comment was
probably added by the local reporter. This could explain the rather
circumspect tone of the comment about Susy's death on Clemens and the
emphasis on publishing, combined with the mistaken comment about progress on
the book: its
 just what a publisher would say in the circumstances!Smythe father or son.
I can add nothing to your detailed examination of the Smythe identity but
note that in Powers biography, there is a pretty strong suggestion that it i
s Carlyle Smythe who is Clemens companion in Guildford. Powers gives
detailed accounts of Smythe accompanying Clemens from Sydney, Australia
(p565 in
paperback ed - 'his ardent billiards rival'); to Ceylon, p572; India and
South Africa p574, leaving for England together on July 15th (p576). If the
father had been around in Guildford as well, it is likely that Clemens would
 have mentioned it.
While in Guildford, Clemens spent long hours playing billiards and clearly
went for long walks with Smythe. This may suggest the son rather than the
father, in terms of staying power and energy, but Robert may have had enough
 energy to keep up with Clemens, who was himself 60. On the other hand, the
re are several references to Smythe being tired (see chart) - so perhaps it
 is Smythe senior....
I leave it for you, Powers and others to resolve.

The terrible Miss Hawdon

I have not found any other direct reference. A search of the 1891 and 1901
census for Hawdon (female) living in Surrey has found a Miss Rose Hawdon
living in a property named 'Ridgway' in Thursley, Haslemere in 1891 as a
visitor. This is not too far from Guildford. This 23 year old (in 1891) was
born in Panama and is the niece of the head of household, the widowed Mrs
Emma
 Lewis (56) living on her own means. Rose's mother, Mary Hawdon (56), is Em
ma's sister and is also visiting there. They share a common birthplace,
Gainford, Durham.
There is no obvious connection unless we find that Turner also owned and
rented out this property. He could have possibly introduced Miss Hawdon to
the Clemens as a possible companion to Clara but there is no reason other
than the unusual surname, to link the families. The 1891 visit may have only
lasted a few days! They have disappeared by 1901.The choice of Guildford.
Essentially my main question remains unanswered. If we assume that the
Clemens family did meet with representatives of Turner at Weybridge (or
possibly even Turner himself), then a reasonable explanation presents itself
as Guildford was a indeed a place that could be described in such a way that
it
met several of the needs of the Clemens family. It had good railway
connections, particularly to London, it had a range of houses to let in
quiet conditions and the town offered some attractions. It is true it was a
good base
 for walking in a very attractive area, as Clemens found. The house was very
near to the River Wey or the North Downs, both of which are particularly
suited to walking. One can imagine that Turner was a strong advocate for
Guildford, as suggested in his advertisements.
It was hardly a village though. The population in 1896 was heading towards
20,000 and was growing rapidly. It could better have been described as a
small to medium sized market town with some local light industry in the
print
ers, brewers, glass and metal works sited close to the River. The railway
was a major local employer. The bulk grain trade was in decline but
commercial enterprises were thriving and there was a busy High Street with
many shops. A weekly, live cattle market was a feature.
The area in which Highfield House was located was one of a few areas of
Guildford being developed for the growing, relatively wealthy, middle class,
particularly in retirement, as can be seen from the census. Neighbours would
 have been from what are now known as the professional classes (solicitors,
 doctors etc) and especially retired senior ranks from the Civil service and
armed forces. Powers reference to the cottage (p 578 - probably from Clemens
reference to the village) does not really capture the feel of the property
or the neighbourhood. The medium sized house, although relatively small, had
a number of rooms and a number of servants, probably living in.Guildford and
Music
In your article, in footnote 4, you properly show that Clara met her later
husband, Gabrilowitsch, in Vienna in 1897. You suggest that Williamson
incorrectly links the music study and 'Gabrilowitch' with Guildford but
another
 explanation could be that Guildford did in fact offer music tuition to
Clara and was another factor in Samuel's choice of location (or even Clara's
choice if she was hearing of the possibility from Turner), but that she then
 met and married Gabrilowitsch later in an unconnected way. The reason I
suggest this is that from my day researching the Lasham's Guildford Guides,
I
 noticed several advertisements for music tuition by eminent tutors from
premises in the centre of town. I have not recorded the details but could
easily find them again should you wish to go deeper into this.

Mike Bennett July 2007