Sam Pope

Samuel Taylor Coleridge wanted to ‘bid farewell’ to writing at 22, letter reveals Young poet details low mood and disappointment in love in 1795 letter, written not long before he met Wordsworth

A fine S. T. Coleridge letter up for auction at £10,000. A bit depressed. Longing for greatness. Pantisocracy. Infatuated with Mary Evans. Hits all the right notes, really. 😉

Not the biggest fan of the named Coke bottles as I always feel I'm stealing someone else's but in France it's been fun to pretend I'm Anaïs.

Glad you found it, and in a gorgeous library, too!

Wonderful photo!

An alert to all creatives using #WeTransfer. Basically, stop immediately! As of August, they will begin scraping everything you send for AI purposes (see the new paragraph in their Terms and Conditions below).

If, like me, you’re a voice artist, they’ll clone your voice. Avoid at all costs.

My wonderful editing skills in PowerPoint 😂😂😂

Thank you so much Karin! It was wonderful having you in the audience, all the way from Vienna! I feel honoured. It was such a special event for me; to talk about Eleanor on her birthday x

Thank you so much, Minette! I'm sorry I didn't recognise you; I was spaced out a little afterwards! I really appreciated you coming and thanks for your patience with the questions at the end!

I will ask about it - I've given permission for it to be recorded/filmed so will let you know what they say

Thank you so much, Logan. Much appreciated. Apparently the talk will be available online too, I think, to members. Lovely close-up of Eleanor's eyes! x

Members' Lecture: Eleanor Anne Porden Uncover the often-forgotten life of John Franklin's first wife, Eleanor Anne Porden, with author Sam Pope

If you're a member of the Maritime Museum, please come to my talk tomorrow night, at 6.30pm, on the life of Eleanor Anne Porden! She's done much more than *just* being married to John Franklin - she was an acclaimed poet and fascinating person. Hope to see you there! www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/nat...

They definitely are. I felt sorry for poor Maria. A man's fickleness led to her being blamed for bringing her family into disgrace. Thank goodness we have moved on from those times!

I am sorry I am unable to attend this but transcribed a very interesting letter from Maria Longsdon who was very very upset (understandably) by being left unmarried by James, and she is living like a dog and fainting! It is the stuff of soap operas.

My beloved Captain is visiting us for a couple of days while he has dental work done and my lovely Anise is not thrilled. AT ALL.

I've signed up but I am teaching 10-1 tomorrow. Hoping I can make some of it.

I'm giving a masterclass on Revenge in Hamlet for visiting students next week and am creating a Powerpoint presentation. On the slide about Francis Bacon's essay on revenge, the design function has suggested, as an illustration, a picture of - you guessed it - bacon. 🤦‍♂️ #teaching #hamlet #bacon

Someone's happy it's the weekend. #cats #crazycats

Unfortunately, I don't have an image. I was transcribing Porden's travel journal, and he had written the words down in it as a way of remembering them, I suppose.

We are indebted to @nuitsdeyoung.bsky.social‬ for sharing this fascinating piece with us.

Gorgeous! I also love the shoes...

I remember being asked by a passport official in Barcelona airport to please smile for him, as he thought it was dreadful that we were all made to pose with serious faces!

I am sure this is not the case!

Looks like feeding time at my house...

Bonus question: how would you describe yourself in your passport?

William Porden’s passport identity revealed! While transcribing William Porden’s 1818 travel journal, I came across some details, in which he revealed how the officials at the customs house in Calais described him in his passport. I found it …

Passport photos are unflattering for most of us mortals. Perhaps a better form of identification is thro' written description. See how the French described William Porden in his passport in my latest post: eleanorporden.com/2025/04/10/w... & compare this to his portrait! @derbyshiredro.bsky.social

William Porden’s passport identity revealed!

While transcribing William Porden’s 1818 travel journal, I came across some details, in which he revealed how the officials at the customs house in Calais described him in his passport. I found it intriguing, not only because I gained a better idea of…

Apparently, this was a common occurrence in 1818: "...for in france and swisserland [sic] no place is sacred from ^the^ intrusion of persons of every description, male and female, who have or wish to have business with you."
Can you imagine your local taxi driver doing this?!

William Porden's #wotd: 'voiturier' - a coachman or driver. Porden describes being "besieged by Voituriers from the moment we entered Lausanne" - one of whom became such a wretched pest that "I was compelled the first night to drive him out of my Bed Room..." @derbyshiredro.bsky.social

...than he would have been had he trusted to his eye only." @DerbyshireDRO

...did not give me the satisfaction I had expected. The difficulty of seeing the point of the pencil while you were delineating the object did not appear to be removed. Mr Bond made a sketch of the tower of the Cathedral; but I thought he was longer about it ...