Charles Larcom Graves

“ TOWNSEND, MEREDITH WHITE (1831–1911) , editor of the 'Friend of India' and the 'Spectator,' born in London on 1 April 1831, was the only son (in the family of three children) of William Townsend, one of the sixteen children of Charles Townsend of Ferriers, Bures St. Mary, on the borders of Essex and Suffolk. The family had been long settled in North Essex, both at Coggeshall and Bures, and William Townsend inherited a few hundred acres, which he farmed himself. His wife Alicia was daughter of John Sparrowe of 'The Ancient House' or 'Sparrowe House,' Ipswich. ”

“ His habitual indulgence in prophecy occasionally led him astray. Thus his accurate prediction of the danger to Cavagnari's mission to Kabul in 1879 was neutralised by his unfounded pessimism— which he frankly owned afterwards — in regard to the expedition of Lord Roberts. ”

“ Townsend expresses the view that the Indian peoples will almost certainly become Mohammedan, and the general drift of his conclusions is summed up in the sentence 'The fusion of the continents has never occurred, and in the author's best judgment will never occur.' His only non-political essay out-side the 'Spectator' was an appreciative study in the 'Cornhill' of the novels of Mrs. ”