Mary Shelley gets a plaque, why not David Ricardo?

This is something we've mentioned before as a desire but never quite been able to manage ourselves, given the plethora of things which can be attempted. But this story about Mary Shelley raises again the subject:

This year marks the bicentenary of the publication of that book, Frankenstein – famous in its day and ever since, interpreted in art, film, comics, ballet and music. The almost forgotten link between its creation and the city of Bath will be marked for the first time by a plaque to be unveiled on Tuesday.

Mary Godwin – child of the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, who died 10 days after her daughter’s birth, and the radical writer and campaigner William Godwin – wrote much of the book during months living in Bath while her life was scarred by traumatic events.

Bath being the sort of place where such things happened at the time. It's still entirely possible to walk past Nelson's house he had when a middle ranking officer, sidle by the one he had when richer and cross the road to the pub above which he earlier recovered from losing his arm for example. No more than 100 yards between the three.

Frankenstein was indeed a seminal work in the development of the novel and why not celebrate it with a plaque? But this brings us to our own little bonnet bee.

David Ricardo reading Adam Smith (in 1809 if memory serves) was also an epochal moment. We've no doubt that comparative advantage, the laws of rent and so on would have been explained by someone at some time but Ricardo has changed the world and very much for the better too. We also know that he read Smith while on holiday in Bath. What we don't know is in which house.

That is something though which it should be possible to discover. We've mentioned this before but never quite pursued the answer properly. We'd be very interested if someone did. We'd most certainly join forces to petition for a plaque when it is all worked out.

We even know, because we've met them at one of our dos, one of Ricardo's descendants, one who has the desk at which he wrote his seminal work. They would make a jolly addition to the unveiling, wouldn't they?