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Question
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I have heard that Samuel Taylor Coleridge once stayed in Calne. Is this true?
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Question asked on
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27 July 2004
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Answer
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Samuel Taylor Coleridge stayed in Calne for some months in 1815. In 1814, at the lowest point in his life, he was staying in Bristol before moving to Ashley in September to stay with his friend John Morgan and his family. In March 1815 he moved with the Morgans to Calne where they stayed in rooms rented from a local surgeon, Mr Page. During this time the Morgans continued to help hin reduce his use of opium and encouraged him to continue writing. John Morgan acted as his amanuensis and Coleridge found it easier to dictate than to write. While at Calne Coleridge wrote much of Autobiographia literaria and was able to send the manuscript to the printer on September 19th. George Page's property in Calne has been identified. It was in Church Street, just opposite the entrance to the churchyard.
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Bibliography
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The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia Literaria, edited by James Engell and W. Jackson Bate. Routledge & Kegan Paul.
