Story Behind The Song

ANY DETAILED ACCOUNT OF PROBY would be out of place in a volume which is concerned only with his connection with Lear, but a few words may be added here about his early life and the circumstances which led up to his meeting Lear in Rome in 1847. The principal sources of information are family letters, letters from Oxford friends, a family Chronicle compiled by Lady Claud Hamilton to which I have already referred, and a Memorial of a Nobleman, contributed by the Rev. T. F. Hartford Battersby, to the Skiddaw Spring an Evangelical periodical, in 1859, a few months after Proby 's death. Battersby was an Oxford friend of Proby's and had been with him in Rome during his illness in the winter of 1846 and visited him during the last weeks of his life. The object of the Memorial is to prove that Proby only found salvation through the disappointment of all his earthly hopes and ambitions and the long, disabling and often painful illness which ended in his early death. All that is said in the Memorial about the closing days of Proby's life is fully borne out by family letters written at the time, but it seems probable that the worldliness and ambition imputed to him, before illness overtook him, have been exaggerated. Knight's Principal Shairp and his friends contains some references to Proby, who was a friend of Shairp's at Oxford. John Joshua Proby, eldest son of Granville Leveson Proby, afterwards 3rd Earl of Carysfort, by his wife Isabella, daughter of Colonel the Hon. Hugh Howard, was born, with a twin sister Kitty, who died 4 years later, on April 3, 1823. The other children of his parents were: Frances (Fanny), b. 1819, d. unmarried 1863; Elizabeth Emma, b. 1821, married 1844 Lord Claud Hamilton, d. 1900; Granville, {13} afterwards 4th Earl of Carysfort, b. 1825, d. 1872 ; Hugh, b. 1828, d. 1852; Isabella, b. 1830, d. unmarried 1866; Theodosia Gertrude, b. 1833, married 1859 W. M. Baillie, d. 1902; and William.

Song Description

ANY DETAILED ACCOUNT OF PROBY would be out of place in a volume which is concerned only with his connection with Lear, but a few words may be added here about his early life and the circumstances which led up to his meeting Lear in Rome in 1847. The principal sources of information are family letters, letters from Oxford friends, a family Chronicle compiled by Lady Claud Hamilton to which I have already referred, and a Memorial of a Nobleman, contributed by the Rev. T. F. Hartford Battersby, to the Skiddaw Spring an Evangelical periodical, in 1859, a few months after Proby 's death. Battersby was an Oxford friend of Proby's and had been with him in Rome during his illness in the winter of 1846 and visited him during the last weeks of his life. The object of the Memorial is to prove that Proby only found salvation through the disappointment of all his earthly hopes and ambitions and the long, disabling and often painful illness which ended in his early death. All that is said in the Memorial about the closing days of Proby's life is fully borne out by family letters written at the time, but it seems probable that the worldliness and ambition imputed to him, before illness overtook him, have been exaggerated. Knight's Principal Shairp and his friends contains some references to Proby, who was a friend of Shairp's at Oxford. John Joshua Proby, eldest son of Granville Leveson Proby, afterwards 3rd Earl of Carysfort, by his wife Isabella, daughter of Colonel the Hon. Hugh Howard, was born, with a twin sister Kitty, who died 4 years later, on April 3, 1823. The other children of his parents were: Frances (Fanny), b. 1819, d. unmarried 1863; Elizabeth Emma, b. 1821, married 1844 Lord Claud Hamilton, d. 1900; Granville, {13} afterwards 4th Earl of Carysfort, b. 1825, d. 1872 ; Hugh, b. 1828, d. 1852; Isabella, b. 1830, d. unmarried 1866; Theodosia Gertrude, b. 1833, married 1859 W. M. Baillie, d. 1902; and William.

Playlist Creator	Playlist Name	Date Added
Brian Cunningham	Electronic	6/24/2010
These Metal Days	My Top Songs	11/17/2008