Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/143

 and buoyancy of spirits, especially in his earlier years, together with a trenchant style, powers of sarcasm and humour, and keen sympathies. His political views, which were deemed by many Englishmen the 'soundest' and 'sanest' in America, were those of a philosophic radical, though in later and more pessimistic years 'a disillusioned radical' (Life and Letters, ii. 238). He belonged to the school, without sharing the pedantry, of the early Benthamites, and he remained to the end of his life an advanced liberal in the sense which would have been given to that term between 1848 and 1870. He was not so much a man of original ideas as original in the strength and constancy with which he held by his principles and beliefs. By the mere force of his convictions and the ability with which he illustrated them he evoked a fervent enthusiasm for the commonplaces of good government and honest administration.



GODWIN, GEORGE NELSON (1846–1907), Hampshire antiquary, only surviving son of Edward Godwin, a draper of Winchester, and afterwards a farmer of Melksham, by his wife Mary Tugwell, was born at Winchester on 4 July 1846. With an only sister, Sarah Louisa, he was brought up at Winchester, and was educated there at a private school. After engaging in private tuition, and qualifying in 1868 at the London College of Divinity, he was ordained deacon in 1869 and priest in 1870. He subsequently proceeded to Trinity College, Dublin, where he gained the Cluff memorial prize in 1882, and graduated B.A. in 1884 and B.D. in 1887. After filling curacies at Heanor (1869–72), East Bergholt (1873–6), and Capel St. Mary (1876–7), he was appointed chaplain of the forces in 1877, and continued in the army until 1890, serving at Malta, Cairo, Dublin, the Curragh, and Netley Hospital. From 1890 to 1893 he was vicar of East Boldre, and after holding other parochial appointments, became curate in charge of Stokesby, Great Yarmouth, in 1904.

Godwin was best known as an antiquary and local historian. He was one of the founders of the Hampshire Field Club and Archæological Society, and was a leading authority on the history of Hampshire and neighbouring counties. His 'Civil War in Hampshire, 1642-45, and the Story of Basing House' (1882; new edit. 1904) embodies exhaustive researches into original authorities. He also wrote, amongst other topographical works, 'The Green Lanes of Hampshire, Surrey, and Sussex' (1882), and (with H. M. Gilbert) 'Bibliotheca Hantoniensis' (1891). He was editor of 'Hampshire Notes and Queries' 1896–9. His special knowledge was freely placed at the service of antiquarian and scientific societies. He died suddenly of heart failure while staying for the night at an inn in Little Walsingham on 10 Jan. 1907, and was buried in the churchyard of that village. Godwin was twice married: (1) on 13 Feb. 1870 to Mary Godwin (of a different family), by whom he had one daughter; (2) on 8 Aug. 1899 to Rose Elizabeth, daughter of George Jay of Camden Town, who survived him without issue.

In addition to the works mentioned, Godwin published: # 'A Guide to the Maltese Islands,' 1880. # 'Materials for English Church History, 1625-49,' 1895. He left unpublished 'French Prisoners of War at Rye and Winchester.'



GOLDSCHMIDT, OTTO (1829–1907), pianist and composer, was born of Jewish parents on 21 Aug. 1829 in the 'free city' of Hamburg, where Mendelssohn was born in 1809. His grandfather and father were Hamburg merchants, with an English connection, their firm having branches in Glasgow and Manchester. In early youth Otto was given pianoforte lessons by Jakob Schmitt (younger brother of Aloys), and harmony lessons by Fried. W. Grud. Mendelssohn opened the Leipzig Conservatorium on 3 April 1843, and Goldschmidt entered it in the following autumn. He studied there assiduously for three years, attending Mendelssohn's select class for pianoforte phrasing, and learning pianoforte technique from Plaidy and counterpoint from Hauptmann. He came to know Joachim, while [q. v.] was a fellow-student. [q. v.] appeared at the Gewandhaus at Leipzig on 4 Dec. 1845. From 1846 to 1848 Goldschmidt taught and played in Hamburg. In 1848 he was sent to Paris to study under Chopin, but the revolution drove him to England before he could fulfil his