Visit to Quaker Burial Ground
Winchmore Hill
21 March 2025
on the anniversary of Luke Howard's death

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe praised Luke Howard for:
bestowing form on the formless, and a system of
ordered change in a boundless world

“To find yourself in the infinite,
You must distinguish and then combine:
Therefore my winged song thanks
the man who distinguished cloud from cloud”

On a bright and sunny Friday afternoon, a small but dedicated group of admirers of Luke Howard, Namer of Clouds, met at his graveside in the Quaker Burial grounds in Winchmore Hill. The occasion was the anniversary of Luke Howard’s death, and the third of what is becoming an  annual  tradition. Led by Margaret Burr,  founder of Tottenham Clouds and Rachael Macdonald of the Edmonton Hundred Historical Society, the group stood at the grave of Luke and his wife Mariabella as the above extract from Goethe’s cloud poems  was read out along with an extract from Richard Hamblyn’s ‘The invention of Clouds’. Goethe had recognised the importance and greatness of Luke Howard’s classification for naming clouds. As well as his universal system for naming clouds, Howard made a significant contribution to meteorology and to the identification of the Urban Heat Island Effect . We were very fortunate to be joined by Liz Hodgkin, a direct descendant of Luke Howard and daughter of Dorothy Hodgkin winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

After a stroll around the beautifully kept burial grounds, which were full of birdsong and spring flowers,  tea and biscuits were served in the Small Hall as those present put their collective minds to ideas and suggestions for future events to share and promote awareness of the life and extremely important work of Luke Howard.

The notes from the discussion can be downloaded here

Lesley Mansbridge