Wonderful to see Maggi Hambling’s soaring, striking, remarkable tribute to Mary Wollstonecraft on Newington Green (Mary Wollstonecraft finally honoured with statue after 200 years, 10 October). By contrast, Wollstonecraft’s tombstone at St Pancras Old Church is sadly neglected: covered in moss, the capstone flaking away, the dedication fading. I’ve often thought it would be appropriate to renovate it; perhaps now is the time to honour her memory. Mary’s remains were removed to Bournemouth in 1851 to be buried with her daughter, Mary Shelley. But the tombstone stands witness to a life cut tragically short, in the graveyard of the church where she and William Godwin married. I’m thinking of starting a fundraiser. Is anyone else interested?
Kathy Graham-Harrison
Combe, Berkshire
• There’s a very good reason why most statues celebrating notable figures have the man (in this context, always a man) sitting in uniform on a horse (‘Insulting to her’: Mary Wollstonecraft sculpture sparks backlash, 10 November). Horses and helmets are big and interesting. Men standing around in trousers are not. Women in clothes are even harder to portray in bronze or stone – skirts look stiff at best, ridiculous at worst. Think of the Thatcher statue in the Commons, or some of the recent attempts at suffragettes: Emmeline Pankhurst standing on a chair; or Millicent Fawcett holding what looks like her washing, presumably an attempt to add life to the solid mass of petticoats. Maggi Hambling’s sculpture of Mary Wollstonecraft may or may not be great art, but at least it commemorates her ideas, rather than her clothes.
Linda Fairbrother
Cambridge
• Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett explains “Why I hate the Mary Wollstonecraft statue” and asks “would a man be ‘honoured’ with his schlong out?” (11 November). I don’t think I can judge the statue from photographs, but to answer the question we need look no further than her son-in-law’s memorial in University College, Oxford. Shelley is there, his schlong very much out.
David Gouldstone
Cambridge
• What a pity the statue of Mary Wollstonecraft was not made from John Opie’s beautiful portrait of her, which does her justice.
Claire Tomalin
Richmond, London
