Charles Kingsley

Westward Ho! . Charles Kingsley

In 1869 Kingsley resigned his Cambridge professorship and 1870-1873 served as a canon of Chester Cathedral. While there, he founded the Chester Society for Natural Science, Literature and Art, which was prominent in the establishment of the Grosvenor Museum. In 1872 he agreed to become the 19th President of the Birmingham and Midland Institute.[8] In 1873 he was made a canon of Westminster AbbeyWestward Ho! is an 1855 British historical novel by Charles Kingsley. The novel was based on the adventures of Elizabethan corsair Amyas Preston (Amyas Leigh in the novel), who sets sail with Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh and other privateers to the New World, namely the Preston Somers Expedition and Raleigh's El Dorado Expedition where they battle with the Spanish. Set initially in Bideford in North Devon during the reign of Elizabeth I, Westward Ho! follows the adventures of Amyas Leigh (Amyas Preston), an unruly child who as a young man follows Francis Drake to sea. Amyas loves local beauty Rose Salterne, as does nearly everyone else; much of the novel involves the kidnap of Rose by a Spaniard.