1851

Hardwicke and his twin sister, Frances Anna, born at Shiplake-on-Thames Parsonage (28 September). His father, Robert Drummond Burrell Rawnsley, is Vicar of St Peter and St Paul, the parish church in Shiplake. Baptised on 26 October.

1861

Hardwicke’s grandfather, Rev. Thomas Hardwicke Rawnsley, Vicar of Halton Holgate, Lincolnshire, dies (2 July). His son, Robert Drummond, is instituted to the living at Halton Holgate by the Bishop of Lincoln (November).

1862

The Rawnsley family leave Shiplake-on-Thames and move to Halton Holgate (March).

Hardwicke’s earliest surviving poem, ‘Ode to Shiplake’, is written. It is dedicated to his twin sister.

Hardwicke starts as a boarder at Uppingham School (October). The headmaster is Edward Thring, Hardwicke’s godfather.

1865

Hardwicke wins an Open Scholarship at Uppingham (April).

1869

Hardwicke’s poem, ‘Today’, wins the English Prize at Uppingham.

‘Sonnet on Chatterton’ is the first sonnet to be written by Hardwicke (August).

Hardwicke’s first visit to the Lake District when invited by Thring to spend part of his summer holidays at Ben Place, near Grasmere, the house that Thring rented for many years.

1870

‘The Wooing of the North Wind’ is published in the Uppingham School Magazine. This is Hardwicke’s first poem to be printed.

Hardwicke leaves Uppingham (September). Enters Balliol College, Oxford, initially studying Classics (October).

1872

Gains a Third Class in Classical Moderations and takes up Natural Science.

1874

Hardwicke joins John Ruskin’s ‘Hinksey Diggers’ (March-October).

He is awarded a degree in Natural Sciences, Class III (December).

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