https://www.mellanyambrose.com/blogposts daily 0.75 2025-04-18 https://www.mellanyambrose.com/blogposts/keats-and-rome monthly 0.5 2025-04-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/a34ed6ab-c7a8-4441-aff3-95ec464efccb/IMG_8815+v+low+size.jpg Blog Posts - Keats and Rome - Make it stand out John Keats’s grave in Rome’s Protestant Cemetery https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/a6bdda0b-d065-4e9c-a267-2690824f7b2d/IMG_1384+crop+2.jpg Blog Posts - Keats and Rome - Keats disembarked in Naples on 31st October, his twenty-fifth birthday. He and Severn travelled to Rome and moved into lodgings on the second floor at 26 Piazza di Spagna. This house stands in a busy square alongside the marble steps (now known as the Spanish steps) leading up to a grand church, the Trinta dei Monti. In these small rooms Keats lived out his final days, dying from consumption on 23rd February 1821. He was buried in the protestant cemetery in Rome. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/1744896978048-BG9HUTQQCTY7V3R6GOOC/IMG_8789+v+low+size.jpg Blog Posts - Keats and Rome https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/1744897073222-1VJBGNT0RVWQY13EGUL2/IMG_8786+v+low+size.jpg Blog Posts - Keats and Rome https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/1744897088457-ZPO86V4I7LFMIAXAOCLX/IMG_8788+v+low+size.jpg Blog Posts - Keats and Rome https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/1744897126220-IEC42S52MD17F1IEXURA/IMG_8784+v+low+size.jpg Blog Posts - Keats and Rome https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/2c87d31e-08a8-4f4e-9e27-ac9ecd6178e7/IMG_8811+v+low+size.jpg Blog Posts - Keats and Rome - Make it stand out Keats’s grave in Rome’s protestant Cemetery https://www.mellanyambrose.com/blogposts/the-letters-of-john-keats monthly 0.5 2023-08-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/d38b3e76-6245-4bdb-a45f-761ed257ab44/IMG_7503+%283%29.jpg Blog Posts - The Letters of John Keats - Make it stand out John Keats from The Letters of John Keats Edited by Maurice Buxton Forman https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/d4d22fed-ce9f-44f8-abcb-94757cecc5ed/IMG_7510+%28002%29.jpg Blog Posts - The Letters of John Keats - I read the Letters of John Keats when I was writing my novel Mr Hammond and the Poetic Apprentice. A friend from my writing group kindly gave this me this beautiful book, edited by Maurice Buxton Forman, the Oxford University Press third edition, 1947. It was given by Helen Thomas, the wife of the poet Edward Thomas, to a family friend Terance, just before Helen died. Although only seven of the letters are written during the period my novel covers (1814-1817) I read them all. They gave me a feel for Keats’s personality and how he might have coped being an apprentice to an apothecary surgeon. I did find some of the language and literary references difficult to understand, so I would read a letter or two a day. If you’re tempted to read them I’d recommend reading one of the biographies, eg Keats by Andrew Motion, at the same time as it helps understand the context. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/1693248300280-H6DSSVNRN7VRNVVDLPNG/IMG_7505+%28002%29.jpg Blog Posts - The Letters of John Keats https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/1693248316521-NOW4QAX8SCIPAGRPN4KS/IMG_7504+%28002%29.jpg Blog Posts - The Letters of John Keats https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/1693248343204-E9SJ4XIU3VRRU0YDNI9C/IMG_7501.jpg Blog Posts - The Letters of John Keats https://www.mellanyambrose.com/blogposts/which-medicines-worked monthly 0.5 2023-08-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/fe3703e7-5b3f-4ac1-90c4-a8f83ccb57f1/IMG_6527+%28002%29.jpg Blog Posts - Which Medicines Worked? - Make it stand out Foxglove https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/6559f51f-86ca-4c71-af4f-c7e7c3abdf3f/IMG_7088+%28002%29.jpg Blog Posts - Which Medicines Worked? - Make it stand out Pansy https://www.mellanyambrose.com/blogposts/why-did-they-bleed-patients monthly 0.5 2023-06-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/87cbbb41-840f-49b4-a804-4dd0d502d07f/Resized+Leech+jar.jpg Blog Posts - Why did they bleed patients? - Make it stand out Jar to keep leeches in at the Old Operating Theatre Museum, Southwark https://www.mellanyambrose.com/blogposts/elephant monthly 0.5 2023-05-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/b4ca6082-9827-48a5-94ca-0c1636c09201/Elephant2jpegresized.jpg Blog Posts - Elephant - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.mellanyambrose.com/blogposts/john-keats-and-suffering monthly 0.5 2023-05-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/c91582a9-e178-4767-89bc-bec78abea405/Apothecary+Jars+Pharm+Society+resized.jpg Blog Posts - John Keats and Suffering - Make it stand out Apothecary Jars at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Museum https://www.mellanyambrose.com/blogposts/h823nfl7xq5o465xilb2jea3kgwf0z monthly 0.5 2023-04-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/edf6e48a-14f2-4c95-88aa-0055e11b7349/Clogs3jpegresized.jpg Blog Posts - Don’t Steal the Surgeon’s Clogs: Surgery Past and Present - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.mellanyambrose.com/blogposts/eejifsofbzdp5sz3czi0jhr6n17jww monthly 0.5 2023-08-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/80233ff4-3fa8-4890-a3e7-43faaceab343/NMHsignresizedjpeg.jpeg Blog Posts - John Keats and the North Middlesex Hospital At first my research was frustrating. It appeared much of this wasn’t strictly true! Biographies about Keats told me the apothecary surgeon Mr Hammond who trained Keats died in 1817. The Edmonton Union Workhouse was formed in 1842 so they couldn’t be the same person. I now think it must have been Thomas Hammond’s son Henry Samuel who was medical director of the workhouse. Also most biographers think Keats started his apprenticeship in 1810 not 1809. And he wasn’t famous in his lifetime. But the main essence was true. John Keats spent seven years studying medicine, nearly a third of his tragically short life as he died of consumption age 25. And five years of those were as an apprentice in Edmonton, London, a few miles up the road from where I was working. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/6826276c-3209-4936-b9a7-01c267b21ce2/NMHResizedjpeg.jpeg Blog Posts - John Keats and the North Middlesex Hospital - One day at the end of a busy GP surgery, I logged on to the North Middlesex Hospital website to find some referral details. My eye was caught by a history tab and after I’d sorted the referral I clicked on it. It told me The North Middlesex used to be a workhouse and its first medical director was Mr Hammond, who took on fourteen-year-old local boy John Keats as his apprentice in 1809. Keats later became a doctor at Guy’s hospital and found fame as a poet. I was astonished. I’d never known Keats trained as a doctor and wanted to discover more. Picture shows North Middlesex Hospital Former Administration Building built 1909, now trust headquarters. https://www.mellanyambrose.com/blogposts/xvo4nym969lo93sjg57mg34i2rsawj monthly 0.5 2023-04-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/ad6d0db9-460c-4f18-9aaa-dedf90642f49/P1030485.JPG Blog Posts - John Keats Becomes an Apprentice - His father had died after a fall from his horse when Keats was 8 years old. His mother Frances had remarried but then disappeared and the Keats children were looked after by Alice Jennings, their maternal grandmother, who lived at 3 Church Street, Edmonton. In 1809, when Keats was 13, his mother returned but she was ill. The local apothecary-surgeon, Thomas Hammond, who lived two doors down, attended her. In his school holidays John nursed her, cooked for her, read her novels and administered Mr Hammond’s medicines. Frances Keats’s health deteriorated and she died in March 1810 of a decline, probably tuberculosis, which later killed Tom, then John and even George years later. When he was told of her death John hid in a hollow under his teacher’s desk. (Picture of All Saint’s Church, Edmonton) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/855ef3b9-f1ae-4bd9-9a12-fa2b35476603/P1030476.JPG Blog Posts - John Keats Becomes an Apprentice - Make it stand out Blue Plaque on the site of Thomas Hammond’s House, Wilston, which stood at 7 Church Street, Edmonton https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/1680260291044-P2BM3LMS79P2ITOZ5OPA/P1030467.JPG Blog Posts - John Keats Becomes an Apprentice https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/1680260634507-IJ1AK5AAFFGHBRT66U1G/P1030478.JPG Blog Posts - John Keats Becomes an Apprentice https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/1680260674077-VOXCLWWSFPNWD8UAEFJ7/P1030473.JPG Blog Posts - John Keats Becomes an Apprentice https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/1680260687349-V78K9O3O6O48EW04XYS8/P1030490.JPG Blog Posts - John Keats Becomes an Apprentice https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/429e468a-5982-4e72-9631-893065d10211/P1030470+%282%29.JPG Blog Posts - John Keats Becomes an Apprentice - In the early 19th century many boys left school at 14 or earlier to start apprenticeships and Keats was no different. His family was middle class; his grandfather and father had run a coaching inn, the Swan and Hoop at Moorgate. Although he had a small inheritance, there wasn’t the money for him to continue boarding at the progressive Clarke’s school in Enfield studying the Latin, literature, geography, history and astronomy he loved, or attend university. He was an orphan and needed to be able to support himself and help his younger brothers George and Tom and sister Fanny. Picture of charity school for girls opposite Thomas Hammond’s house https://www.mellanyambrose.com/blogposts/keatss-early-life-in-moorgate monthly 0.5 2023-03-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/cdb592e8-f374-4faf-bdf5-1f39a6bf3ba8/P1030448+resized.JPG Blog Posts - Keats’s early life in Moorgate - Keats spent his early years living just north of the inn at Craven Street and his brothers George and Tom were born there. In 1802 John Jennings retired to Ponders End in Enfield (where apothecary surgeon Thomas Hammond attended him) and his son-in-law Thomas Keats took over the lease. The Keats family moved to the inn. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/8b850518-14a6-465c-8d98-49f58fd13d09/SAM_1299.JPG Blog Posts - Keats’s early life in Moorgate - Make it stand out Statues of Raving Madness and Melancholy Madness at The Bethlem Museum of the Mind, Beckenham, Kent https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/63498b37f86ea339cbdd503d/84e2846c-f295-45c8-b5b0-ca362be2457f/P1030457+%282%29+Resized.jpeg Blog Posts - Keats’s early life in Moorgate - His maternal grandfather, John Jennings, leased the Swan and Hoop, a stables and coaching inn at 22-24 The Pavement in Moorgate. The inn catered for people travelling into the city. Keats’s father Thomas worked as an ostler there and in 1794 married John’s daughter, Frances Jennings. Their first son, John Keats, was born on 31/10/1795, possibly at the inn or nearby. The Swan and Hoop was demolished but today the Globe Inn stands on the site. 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