Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Ashe, Thomas (1836-1889)
ASHE, THOMAS (1836–1889), poet, was born at Stockport, Cheshire, in 1836. His father, John Ashe (d. 1879), originally a Manchester manufacturer and an amateur artist, resolved late in life to take holy orders, was prepared for ordination by his own son, and became vicar of St. Paul's at Crewe in 1869. Thomas was educated at Stockport grammar school and St. John's College, Cambridge, where he entered as a sizar in 1855 and graduated B. A. as senior optime in 1859. He took up scholastic work in Peterborough, was ordained deacon in 1859 and priest in 1860; at Easter 1860 he became curate of Silverstone, Northamptonshire. But clerical work proved distasteful, and he gave himself entirely to schoolmastering. In 1865 he became mathematical and modern form master at Leamington College, whence he moved to a similar post at Queen Elizabeth's school, Ipswich. He remained there nine years. After two years in Paris he finally settled in London in 1881. Here he was engaged in editing Coleridge's works. The poems appeared in the 'Aldine Series' of poets in 1885. Three volumes of prose were published in Bohn's 'Standard Library;' 'Lectures and Notes on Shakspere' in 1883, 'Table Talk and Omniana' in 1884, and 'Miscellanies, Æsthetic and Literary,' in 1885. Ashe died in London on 18 Dec. 1889, but was buried in St. James's churchyard, Sutton, Macclesfield; a portrait is given in the 'Illustrated London News' and in the 'Eagle' (xvi. 109).
Ashe was a poet of considerable charm. He wrote steadily from his college days to the end of his life; but, although his powers were recognised by some of the literary journals, his poems failed entirely to gain the ear of his generation. A lack of vigour and concentration impairs the permanent value of his larger poems; but the best of his shorter lyrics have a charm and grace of their own which should keep them alive. One or two are quoted in Mr. William Watson's anthology, 'Lyric Love' ('Golden Treasury Series'). His works are: 1. 'Poems,' 1859, 8vo. 2. 'Dryope and other Poems,' 1861, 8vo. 3. 'Pictures, and other Poems,' 1865, 8vo. 4. 'The Sorrows of Hypsipyle. A Poem,' 1867, 8vo. 5. 'Edith, or Love and Life in Cheshire. A Poem,' 1873, 8vo. 6. 'Songs of a Year,' 1888, 8vo. His work was collected in one volume in 'Poems' (complete edition), London, 1885, 8vo.
[A selection from Ashe's poetry is given in the Poets and the Poetry of the Century, vol. vi. (A. H. Miles). It is made by Mr. Havelock Ellis, who prefixes an Introduction, for which the facts were supplied by the poet himself. See also the same writer's article on Thomas Ashe's Poems in the Westminster Review, 1886; The Eagle (St. John's Coll. Cambr. Mag.), xvi. 109-34; Crockford's Clerical Directory.]