Originally Posted by
Colin Wilkinson
Just done a bit of Googling on Matthew Arnold, Apparently he had arrived in Liverpool the day before (Saturday) and was in high spirits, vaulting over a fence to show his fitness. The following day, after church, he collapsed from a heart attack on the walk home. A nearby doctor was called who, after pouring spirits down his throat (why not!) pronounced him dead. Apparently his grandfather and father (the famous Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby School) had both died prematurely from angina.
Here again is one of those strands. Charles Melly (of Liverpool Olympics fame) was also at Rugby School as was the famous Liverpool poet Arthur Hugh Clough. In fact Clough, who was four years his junior, became best friend of Arnold. Clough's sister Anne was one of the early feminists, assisting Florence Nightingale and later becoming Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge (there is a ceramic plaque outside the Clough's house at 11 Rodney Street).
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