button to main menu  Gents Mag 1850 part 2 p.44

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Gentleman's Magazine 1850 part 2 p.44
to mention the existence of this ancient memorial of people of his name who had lived in the parish to which his family traced its origin, when he expressed a strong desire to know more respecting it, and particulary whether it was still in existence, in whose possession it then was, and whether there might not be a possibilty that he, a descendant of the family, might become the possessor of it. To none of these questions was I then able to return an answer, but I promised that I would institute the necessary inquiries, and report to him the result. I did so, and by the assistance of an old friend, the late Mr. Gamaliel Milner, of Thurlston, a hamlet of Peniston, it was ascertained that the oak press had remained at Peniston, in possession of persons, either Wordsworths or descended from the family, but in reduced circumstances, till the period from 1780 to 1790, when it was sold by them to Sir Thomas Blackett, Bart. of Bretton Hall, and removed by him to that house. On further inquiry it was ascertained that it was then at Bretton, where it had descended to Mrs. Beaumont, and her son, the late Mr. Beaumont, who was then the owner of it.
Some correspondence, I believe, passed between Mr. Wordsworth, or some one on his behalf, and Mr. Beaumont. Mr. Beaumont, I have heard indirectly, expressed his sense of the reasonableness of Mr. Wordsworth's claim, and of the satisfaction which it would give him to render in any proper way homage to so distinguished a man, but intimated, at the same time, the high pecuniary value in the Wardour-street markets of works of this rare and curious class.
The affair was then laid to rest for several years; but Mr. Wordsworth's wishes having been made known to a friend and neighbour of Mr. Beaumont, a lady of whom Dr. Dibdin, in his Northern Tour, says that her eloquence was so persuasive that in half an hour she could turn any Whig into a Tory, she undertook to prevail with Mr. Beaumont, and managed the affair so successfully that in 1840 the press was removed to Rydal Mount, and received with great satisfaction by Mr. Wordsworth.
Yours &c. JOSEPH HUNTER.
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