In late 2019, the Ward Library was contacted by sisters, Nicole Swengley and Kristian Perry, asking if we would be interested in receiving three largely-handwritten music books, dating from the 1860s onwards, that had belonged to their great-grandmother, Hilda Routh, (née Airy). The books offered a fascinating insight into Hilda’s interests and, after meeting with the sisters, we were delighted to receive further personal artefacts and correspondence to enhance the picture of Hilda’s life and the social world she moved in.
Hilda Airy (1840–1916) was the daughter of Sir George Biddell Airy (1801-1892), the seventh Astronomer Royal and former Plumian professor of astronomy in Cambridge. Sir George’s accomplishments as a mathematician and astronomer included measuring the mean density of the Earth and establishing the Greenwich Meridian (Greenwich Mean Time).
The Peterhouse connection comes via Hilda’s marriage in 1864 to Dr Edward John Routh FRS (1831-1907), Fellow of Peterhouse.
Like Hilda’s father, Edward J. Routh was a mathematician. In 1854 Routh graduated from Cambridge as Senior Wrangler in the Mathematical Tripos examinations (ranked first among those with First Class degrees) just ahead of James Clerk Maxwell, who had attended Peterhouse for a term before transferring to Trinity College. The prestigious Smith Prize was awarded jointly for the first time, shared between Routh and Maxwell. In 1855 Routh was elected a Fellow of Peterhouse and appointed as a lecturer and coach in Mathematics. Of the almost 700 pupils he taught in his Cambridge career, around 480 were Wranglers (gained First Class degrees). In all, he coached 27 Senior Wranglers, 19 Second Wranglers and 41 Smith’s Prizemen.
Given Routh’s successes at Cambridge, it is no surprise that in 1857 Sir George Airy attempted to persuade him to join the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. Although Routh did not accept the job offer, it was at Greenwich that he met Hilda.
The most personal part of the collection is the courtship correspondence from Edward to Hilda. The letters, complete in the original envelopes, are housed in a decorative leather box, a gift to Hilda from three of her sons in 1899.
The courtship letters are steeped in Victorian sentimentality, revealing the romantic side of Routh the mathematician. The first of these letters, dated March 1864, was sent from Edward to Hilda by care of her father, and includes a heartfelt offer of marriage. In the follow-up letter, he has found out from Sir George that Hilda has agreed to marry him, and is overjoyed to now be able to call her by her “dear Christian name”. Another letter describes the ring he has bought for Hilda, and how pleased he was to have been accompanied by two of her brothers to help advise him as he chose.
Probably the most charming item in the box is a Valentine’s Day card from 1864. This was a month before Edward proposed marriage. Routh has disguised his handwriting on the envelope, although the Cambridge postmark would likely have hinted at the sender. The card itself is highly intricate, featuring embossed gold, lace paper and cut-outs.
Another item that highlights the Victorian passion for mementos and collectables is a photographic carte de visite featuring the Times notice of the birth of Routh’s and Hilda’s son Arthur Lionel in 1877. The CdV was a type of small photograph mounted on thick card, about the size of a traditional visiting card. They were first patented in Paris by the photographer Andre Adolphe Eugene Disdéri in 1854 and grew in popularity in Britain in the 1860s following the publication of carte portraits of Queen Victoria (Harding, 2013). The Rouths’ carte de visite was produced by R. V. Harman (established 1863) in Bromley, Kent.
The case also contains a miniature Book of Common Prayer (1862), given to Hilda by her youngest brother Osmund for her wedding in 1864. These pocket prayer books were popular gifts for new brides well into the 20th century. The book has ivory panels edged in polished bronze, together with a bronze fastening, and sits in its original leather slip-case.
At the time Edward and Hilda married, the University of Cambridge had a celibacy requirement, which meant Routh had to resign his fellowship and move out of Peterhouse. In 1883, a year after the celibacy requirements were removed from the College statutes, Routh was the first person elected to an honorary fellowship by Peterhouse.
Routh was described as a “kindly man and a good conversationalist with friends, but with strangers he was shy and reserved” (Fuller, 2004). Hilda, on the other hand, was reported to be a keen social hostess. Her love of entertaining is evident from the curation of songs in her music books; these songs would likely have been performed in social gatherings. The book inscribed with “Mrs Routh” on the cover contains handwritten music for piano and handwritten verse throughout. Nicole Swengley believes that the copperplate italic is Hilda’s writing and the rest were probably written by her son, Arthur Lionel Routh (1877-1945), who served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Artillery. Indeed, one of the volumes contains handwritten lyrics traditional to the Royal Artillery, including ‘Five bob and seven a day’, which uses music from ‘The hunting day’ by W. Williams, and ‘Screw guns’, the poem by Rudyard Kipling, set to the tune of the Eton Boating Song. The earliest marked date in the books is 1862.
Accompanying the donation of the music books was a wooden stand, a gift to Hilda from a thankful guest. The engraved silver plate reads: “Mrs Routh. In memory of many a happy dance. 10th Feb. 1902.”
The collection of books, letters and artefacts from Hilda Routh’s life is an important balance to the male-dominated world of Cambridge in the nineteenth century. She presented to the College several hundred volumes from her husband’s library upon his death in 1907; it is fitting that we now hold some of her most treasured possessions.
Edward and Hilda had five sons and a daughter. Nicole Swengley and Kristian Perry have donated this collection in memory of their mother, Charmian Swengley (née Routh), Edward and Hilda’s second granddaughter.
By Sarah Anderson
Bibliography
Fuller, A. T. ‘Routh, Edward John’. Oxford DNB, 2004. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/35850 (accessed 29th October 2021)
Harding, C. ‘How to spot a carte de visite (late 1850s-c.1910)’. Science Museum, 2013. https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/find-out-when-a-photo-was-taken-identify-a-carte-de-visite/ (accessed 9th November 2021)
L., J. Dr. Edward John Routh, F.R.S.. Nature 76, 200–202 (1907). https://doi.org/10.1038/076200b0
Warwick, A. Masters of theory: Cambridge and the rise of mathematical physics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.
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