Clare and Tennyson: A scenario for a novel

This afternoon at OPEN I heard a fascinating account of the links between the Suntrap and the Asylum at High Beach, Epping Forest which included the probable meeting of the poets John Clare and Alfred Tennyson at the asylum.

John Clare was admitted, in 1837, to Dr. Matthew Allen's asylum after years of struggling with alcoholism, neglect and depression. He stayed at the Leopard’s Hill Lodge and was free to work the fields and walk the Forest.

Alfred Tennyson lived at Beech Hill House, High Beach, from 1837 until 1840, where he wrote parts of In Memoriam (1850), on the death of Arthur Hallam, including 'Ring out, wild bells' inspired by hearing the bells of Waltham Abbey.

Suffering from depression, Tennyson stayed for two weeks as a guest of Allen’s asylum and would have encountered Clare at Leopard’s Hill (Lippitts Hill) Lodge or perhaps walking in the Forest. He reported that the mad people were ‘the most agreeable and most reasonable persons’ he had met.

I thought to myself as I heard this story what a great scenario it would provide for a novel and later, after googling John Clare and Tennyson, I found that the novel has already written - The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds, "where Tennyson’s transformation of private grief into public success is nicely contrasted with Clare’s public displays of delusional behaviour."

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Jonathan Dove - Ring Out, Wild Bells.