Information
Holiday at Ramsgate
Although chiefly remembered now as a writer of comic and satiric verses which depended heavily for their effect on his impressive gift for pun making, Thomas Hood was also admired by literary contemporaries such as Dickens, for his serious poems. Of these, ‘The Song of the Shirt’(1843) with its biting attack on worker exploitation, received immediate widespread acclaim. Throughout his short life he was associated with magazines as contributor, founder, editor and producer – ‘The Comic Annual’, ‘Hood’s Own’, ‘Hood’s Magazine’ – and briefly as editor of ‘The New Monthly Magazine’. This heavy workload, as well as a precarious financial situation, was a strain on his health, and he often sought recuperation at the seaside, staying at least twice at Ramsgate.
The touchingly affectionate letter Hood wrote on 26th May 1833 from Ramsgate to his infant daughter gives a delightful ‘child’s-eye’ view of the place:
Quotations
Ever since Pa and Ma have been at Ramsgate they have wished all day long for their own little Bobe, - for the little children run about the sands & ride upon donkeys & seem as happy & as merry as larks. There are a great many ships & boats sailing about & splashing through the waves & great smoking steamers paddling along, - when Toby is a little older & bigger she shall go to Ramsgate in a steamer too & we will have fine fun with the waves & the donkeys & the boats. – Every morning Pa & Ma go down the sands to pick up shells for our Fanny & we have got some very pretty ones which we will bring home in a little basket. There are some like cups which Toby will like very much. Pa will bring her too some of the curious leaves & flowers that grow in the sea under the water but the waves come jumping one after another & throw the shells and seaweeds onto the ground for little Bobe. As today is Sunday all the ships and boats have got their flags flying of all manner of colours - & they are very pretty indeed.
During the same stay Hood also wrote to a friend, encouraging him to take a trip to Ramsgate. The letter shows Hood’s unabashed use of puns on every possible occasion and also gives an insight into what it was like to travel to Thanet by steamer in those days.
The weather is so fine you will be a great Pump if you do not come here sooner than you propose. When you talk of the middle of the week you may as well embrace the waste of the week & come down here at once by Tuesday’s Margate steamer. Every hour will do you good – so don’t stick Thursday, obstinately, on your back like an ass ridden by Day . Seriously I shall look for you - & my doctor says all disappointments will throw me back. Mind, - while you are on board have a crust & good cheshire and bottled porter2 for a lunch. … even Annie Porter3 is improved by crossing the channel. Don’t forget the pigtail – that is the porter - & sit, not with your back to the bulwark, on acct of the tremor of the engine. The sound is as of a perpetual gallopade, performed by sea-horses. – just go to the chimney & listen. – There was no illness whatever when I came down, at least human sickness. The only symptom I saw was the heaving of the lead.4
1.The name of a jockey in the Derby.
2. Kind of ale.
3. Friend of theirs.
4. Nautical term for measuring the depth of the water.
Place | Extract |
| Ramsgate | Of these, ‘The Song of the Shirt’(1843) with its biting attack on worker exploitation, received immediate widespread acclaim... |
| Ramsgate | Hood’s memories of Ramsgate
Even ten years after what was probably his last visit to Ramsgate, Hood retained a very clear impression of the place when writing to John Leech, an illustrator and fellow contributor to Punch, who was holidaying there... |
