There was nothing in the first 40 years of the life of the poet and traveller Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (1840-1922), who died 80 years ago today, to suggest that he would develop such a sympathy for Egyptian, Indian and Irish nationalism.
Born to a Catholic family who owned a large estate in Sussex, he entered the British diplomatic service at the age of 18. He had postings in Athens, Constantinople, Frankfurt, Madrid and Paris, where he met the woman he refers to as "Skittles".
She inspired the love poetry generally regarded as his best work - Sonnets and Songs of Proteus (1875, 1881, 1892) and Esther (1892). He left the diplomatic service when he married the wealthy Lady Anne King-Noel, Lord Byron's grand-daughter. He also inherited his family's great estate.
His travels in the Middle East led him to the unexpected conclusion that British rule wasn't always for the best. Blunt arrived in Egypt just as nationalist aspirations were coming to the fore and for the first time in his life he turned to political action. He supported Arabi Pasha, a peasant who had risen through the ranks in the army and who was dedicated to giving Egyptians greater control over their own country.
Lady Gregory
Blunt persuaded Sir William and Lady Gregory, whom he met in Cairo, that Arabi was right and the two landlords wrote letters to the Times in support of Egyptian nationalism. Lady Gregory took a shine to Blunt, while he saw her as "a quiet little woman of perhaps five and twenty, rather plain than pretty, but still attractive, with much good sense and a fair share of Irish wit". Having spent the winter of 1881 in Egypt, she visited his estate in Sussex on her way home. He had returned to England to arouse public opinion there on behalf of Egyptian nationalism.
When it appeared that the British were going to intervene militarily in Egypt, Sir William withdrew his support for Arabi and Blunt noted tersely in his diary: "Gregory has failed us." The British attacked Arabi's forces in Alexandria and after Blunt attended Queen Victoria's annual garden party at Marlborough, he wrote in his diary: "Her Majesty was looking beaming - I suppose elated at her bombardment."
Arabi's forces were defeated at Tel-el-Kebir and he was captured and faced trial for treason. Blunt sent lawyers to Egypt at his own expense to defend him and set up a defence fund in England, more to arouse public sympathy than accumulate money. The fund raised only £200 while the lawyers' fees reached £3,000 in no time (little has changed). A compromise was reached whereby Arabi agreed to plead guilty to treason and be exiled. Blunt deplored the admission of guilt where there was none, but couldn't afford to continue paying the lawyers indefinitely. When a friend complimented him on his costly defence of justice, he put things in perspective by replying sardonically: "And have I eaten a chop the less?"
Many affairs
Blunt had affairs with many women, including an eight-month liaison with Lady Gregory in 1883. Of the affair he wrote that "at the climax of the tragedy \, by a spontaneous impulse we found comfort in each other's arms. It was a consummation neither of us, I think, foresaw." Lady Gregory wrote 12 sonnets on the relationship.
Blunt applied the principles of nationalism he learned in Egypt to Ireland. Neither Sir William nor Lady Gregory was impressed by his support for Home Rule. Lady Gregory wrote to him: "I must send you United Ireland some day, Parnell's paper, to show you how vulgar and virulent it is - so unlike the Irish people, the poor who are so courteous and full of tact even in their discontent." He came to Ireland in 1885 to observe evictions, describing them as "a brutal and absurd spectacle - 250 armed men, soldiers in all but name, storming the cottages one after the other of half-starved tenants, faced by less than half their number of women and boys. The houses were ransacked, the furniture thrown out, the fires quenched, and a bit of thatch was taken possession of as a token in each case that the landlord had re-entered his rights. Then the inhabitants were turned adrift in the world. The sight made me so angry that I was positively ill, my heart hurting me."
He was disappointed when Gladstone's Home Rule Bill was defeated in parliament and thought about standing for an English constituency. He couldn't understand how Lady Gregory could support Egyptian nationalism and be blind to injustice nearer home. "But property blinds all eyes and it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for an Irish landlord to enter the kingdom of Home Rule."
Galway jail
In 1887 Blunt returned to Ireland to support the "Plan of Campaign" being waged on various estates. He attended evictions on the estate of the Gregorys' neighbour, Lord Clanricarde. When he addressed a banned meeting, he was arrested and sentenced to two months' hard labour in Galway jail. In November 1888, on his way to Greece and Egypt, he asked Lady Gregory to see the collection of poems based on his prison experiences, In Vinculis, through the press. For the next two decades his travels were mainly in the East, and he also championed the cause of Indian nationalism. The last part of his life was spent quietly on his English estate.
He had dallied for some time with Islam and atheism, but saw a priest and took Communion before he died. Lady Gregory recalled her late husband's prediction that "Wilfrid will die with the wafer in his mouth". In 1921 she had written the introduction to the American edition of his diaries. In this she discussed his long sympathy with nationalist causes in Ireland, Egypt and India, which she rightly described as "an unusual and gallant record for a Sussex gentleman of many acres, of inherited wealth and ease".