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seen, early in the morning, descending the hills, and emerging from the valleys, on stout horses, which were laden with bales of cloth. The roads were rough and bad, and the modern usage of horse and cart was impracticable in their case. In course of time the roads were mended, factories sprung up and centralised the operations of manufactures and commerce, until at last a commodious Cloth Hall was built, and it became evident that Huddersfield was to have a civil history. Money, however, was then very scarce, and it frequently happened that an entire company of manufacturers, although comparatively rich in the goods they had brought to market, were unable, when all their pockets were ransacked, to muster the fees necessary for their

bourhood abounds with wealthy men, who could very well afford to buy the Cloth Hall for their stable.

occupation of the people, both of Huddersfield and the I have heard the ancient men of the place say that, in scattered district around, was the manufacture of cloth. the early times we have spoken of, all the dealings of Every house had its loom and its spinning-wheel, and the manufacturers were transacted in the open air, and the entire fabrics were wrought by hand labour. There that their goods were placed upon the low wall of the were no factories then in existence. The river, now parish church, which was then their place both of dyed black with woad and minerals, ran clear and beau-market and exchange. These good men might be tiful, singing a musical song, all the way upon its course seaward, to the woods and valleys which it passed by in its long, joyous meanderings. John o' the Brook, and Will o' the Moor House, might be seen, in the fine summer evenings, among the bearded rocks and the woods overhanging the river, fishing for trout in the rapids and rushing eddies of the shallows, or hunting the otter with their merry dogs. The whole country round was wild and barren, the population sparse, often ill fed and ill clad; and no sign of the present prosperity gleamed through the darkness of that time. The enchanted palaces, by which name we may truly call the existing factories, were all asleep in the future. No whirling of water-wheels, nor thunder of steam-engines, nor mid-day smoke of mighty chim-admission into the Cloth Hall. Now, the whole neighneys, darkening the sunshine and the blue of heaven, were heard or seen. No working magii directed their wondrously intelligent machines, and compelled them, The scenery around Huddersfield is bold and romanas I have elsewhere said, to do the work of men with- tic; and my partiality for the place makes me think it out hands or feet, and weave garments for the naked || worthy of so grand a framework. Some parts of the backs of the world. The true empire of magic, and town are more elevated than others, and the streets romance of the actual, had yet to be broken up, and no form a kind of vistas, through which beautiful glimpses man could have imagined that the period of its accom- of the surrounding landscape are visible. I live in so plishment was so nigh at hand. But already in this favoured a spot, that from my study windows I look wild people were deposited the seeds of a great manu- over the roofs of half the town, and take in at a glance facturing community. Huddersfield Proper, to use a several miles of prospect. Nor am I altogether singugeographical expression, was to grow out of them.lar in this respect; for some houses, even of the opeThey were to acquire the skill necessary to build a ratives, command a more extensive view of wood, mountown, wherein they might weave broad cloths and em-tain, and moorland, than is to be seen from the Gothic broidered fabrics, the fame of which should reach to the very ends of the civilized world-and they have done so. Seventy years have changed the face of this vast district; for during that time heads and hands have been at work, conquering the wild dominion of nature, and making all her elements serve them. Thus, the river has been converted into artificial beds, and the waters arrested in their course by weirs, and compelled to turn the wheels and supply the steam-engines of the hundreds of factories which are built upon the river's banks. Man could scarcely have achieved a greater triumph than that which shews itself in the work he has done in this town and neighbourhood. Go where you will-east, west, north, or south-the signs of his triumph are around you. The savage moorland has been cultivated, and parcelled into cornfields and pastures. The hills, in many cases, wave, even to their stony summits, with rich herbage; and from the wildest glens and ravines rise the chimneys of noble factories, sending their black smoke through the green foliage of the trees, every one of them the centre of a little working community-for, wherever a factory springs up, there, likewise, spring up the elements of towns and civilization. Thus Huddersfield has grown into im-northern scenery and climate in his person as there portance; and, what is more, she has fostered towns are marks of Teutonic blood in his character. We and villages in her immediate neighbourhood, and made absorb without our knowledge the physical attributes them also important; so that, within six miles of her, of the country we live in. We are the mirrors of there are, as I learn, some hundred and thirty thousand || Nature, and reflect in moral aspects the external feasouls engaged in manufactures, and in the commerce tures which she shews us. We are, no doubt, into which these manufactures give birth. Few towns debted to the sea-pirates of the north for the handcan boast of such rapid growth and prosperity as this. || some bodies we inherit, and for much of the manly

windows of many old ancestral mansions. I have often been pleased to witness the enjoyment of the factory workers, when, in the twilight of the summer evenings, they sat smoking their pipes at the doorsteds, gazing over the dim and distant hills, and watching the silent muster of the starry hosts, whilst their wives were gossipping in twos and threes, and the little children were playing around them. I take it to be a high compliment paid to Nature when men stop at home to woo her in the presence of their wives; and I prefer this semi-infidelity to the downright atheism of the pothouse. I attribute much of the bland and cheerful demeanour, the bravery and independence of our operatives, to the silent influences of our hills and skies. Tell, who loved the freedom of his native mountains, and the noble Swiss who fought with him for the liberty of their country, had more of the rock and waterfall, the pine forest, and the trumpet spirit of the mighty winds in them than they knew of. Climate and scenery have much to do in the formation of human character. The god Thor, with his wild humour and prodigious strength and valour, was the type of all the Scandinavian people; and I discover as many features of the

time is consumed in receiving orders for work, and in carrying it back completed, so that the former sum I have mentioned may be taken as the average of their

abilities which distinguish us as a nation; but what culture we have is our own. I do not say we owe nothing to the world in this respect, for we are all debtors and creditors alike, bound together in one im-earnings. In some of my walks I have seen strong measurable electric chain of thought and sympathy, men, about the middle age, employed in washing the which reaches from the beginning, and will extend to apparel, and performing all the servile drudgery of the the very end of time. What we owe to Adam and household; and asking the reason for this strange rehis sons, however, we pay in our own coin, and do not version of domestic usage, I have received this answersteal from the coffers of other people. Our die is de-"I can get no work at the factories. What I once cidedly British, and cannot be mistaken for that of our || did, my children now do; their fingers are nimbler neighbours. Nay, the very form of modern civilization || than mine, and can do the work better, for a less wage. has been largely fashioned with British tools. The Norse fire still burns in our blood, and flames in our smithies. It makes steam-engines, electric telegraphs, and railroads, power-looms and spinning-jennies, weaves broad cloths and cotton fabrics, and establishes commerce over all the coasts and islands of the planet. Commerce prepares the way, like John the Baptist of old, for Christianity; Christianity for letters, science, art, government-until there is no end of this great business.

My wife, who ought to be here, is gone there too, and I'm obliged to subinit, because it ain't good to starve." The influence of such occupation, however, upon the character must be deteriorating in the lowest degree; and I have marked with pain the sense of humiliation which evinced itself in the averted eyes and quivering lips of the men who were exposed to it.

The independence and moral courage of the working classes in this neighbourhood are most strongly manifested in seasons of commercial depression. I have To return to our Huddersfield people, however, in known many families reduced to a state bordering upon the West Riding of Yorkshire, I repeat that they par-starvation, and yet too proud to ask alms, or to solicit take a good deal of the character of the surrounding parish relief. My position here throws me into conscenery. They have been bred and nurtured amongst tact with five or six hundred families during the the hills, and have ate so much oatmeal porridge that year, and, although I have witnessed much distress, I they are as strong and bold as the hills themselves; and have rarely heard any murmurings, nor seen that sullen have, moreover, a proud mountain-look about them, spirit of dissatisfaction and defiance which has lately giving you very clearly to understand that they are moved so many populations into rebellion and bloodnot to be trampled upon. They are certainly rude and shed. Hope and fortitude have carried our people uncouth in their manners; but underneath this rough through two years of extraordinary depression and exterior there are strong fountains of affection, and deep calamity without the least sign of public disturbance. mines of undeveloped intelligence. If I were called A great change has come over them in this respect upon to characterize them generally, I should say that during the last ten years, and I attribute it mainly to rugged nobility and manliness were their distinguishing the facilities which this town affords for popular edumarks. They lack the notorious Yorkshire cunning, cation in the classes, library, reading-room, and lectures although they are shrewd enough, and make up for of the Mechanics' Institution; to the general spread of this welcome deficiency by brave and open-handed || sound knowledge and healthy literature; and last, dealing. They are full of broad humour, generosity, although not least, perhaps, to the experience which and hard work. From morning to night you may hear the people have received of the duplicity and villany the noise of looms and shuttles, all over the hills and of some of their charlatan leaders. valleys, mingled with the merry songs of the weavers ; Whatever may have been the causes of this change, for Huddersfield, being the centre of the fancy manu- however, it is certain that the character of the people facture of England, employs hundreds of hands in their is higher, and that their habits are more moral and cottage homes, besides those who are engaged in the domestic than they were before education was made factories. These cottages are all built of white stone, so accessible to them. I like to watch the straws which abounds in this district, and some of them are which indicate the direction of the popular current; very mean and inferior dwellings. The better sort and, for this purpose, I now and then visit the cheap have two stories, and three or four rooms in them. print-shops, and buy up samples of what literary wares The largest of the upper rooms is generally occupied I find there, inquiring at the same time into the staas a workshop, and here the looms are put up. The tistics of their circulation, and the classes amongst room on the ground floor is called the house, where whom they circulate. A few years ago, Lloyd used to the domestic operations are performed, and the rest sell his penny works by thousands amongst the lower are sleeping apartments. A little garden is generally orders of the people; and had so spiced the palates of attached to these cottages, which is always well culti-his readers, that a healthy writer, no matter how clever vated, and the occupier prides himself upon his store and interesting his compositions, had no chance of suc. of potatoes, peas, mint, thyme, and gooseberry trees. cess in the presence of this common sewerage. In the The most chaste and beautiful designs are executed by meanwhile the Mechanics' Institution was absorbing these persons, who are all hand-loom weavers. It is by the rising generation; thousands and thousands of their skill and cunning that our brave gentlemen are de-young men were passing through its classes; their corated; and I wish their reward were equal to their minds were not only stored with knowledge, but had merit. I am often very sorrowful to think there should || a high direction given to them in the lecture-room; be such disparity between work and wages as that which exists in the instance of these poor weavers, who, even when they have full employment, cannot realise more than eight or ten shillings per week. Much of their

they were aided in their choice of books from the library, taught to write down upon paper their own thoughts and reflections upon the subject they had read, and to regard themselves accountable for the

use they made of their faculties, and responsible for|| 1400 volumes, there is a yearly issue of about 16,000, their conduct and actions. The total abstinence society was growing up with this institution, likewise, side by side; and a more healthy tone gradually manifested itself amongst the adult as well as the junior population. The Sunday-schools were filled with scholars; these again filled the institution, and the institution the churches. The cycle was complete. Every sacred and secular influence was brought in its turn to bear upon the people; and hence the improvement in their general character. Lloyd has been nearly driven out of the literary market by the noble brothers Chambers, by the "People's Journal," the "Family Magazine," and other periodicals of a like stamp. The readers of this man Lloyd are now indeed confined, for the most part, to the Castlegate; although I regret to learn that Reynolds is occupying his vacant place amongst a certain class both of the middle and lower ranks of life.

This last fact makes me thankful for the police and the guardianship which the laws exercise over the public morals. Confirmed readers of corrupt books are always of an unclean nature, and are only restrained from an open and profligate violation of the decencies and sanctities of society by the fear of punishment. Remove these judicial barriers, and we should have gangs of the dissolute in our streets; and Love herself would restore the rule of force, by taking up the cudgels to brain them. In the most virtuous and refined communities, however, there are always bad men hidden in the holes and dens; and in a population like that of Huddersfield, which is in a transition state between village and town, crude and immature as a society, we must expect to find more or less of these unwelcome troglodytes.

Still, it is worth while for the readers of Reynolds to inquire whether he is the best leader they can follow. The literary talent of this person is certainly higher than that of the driveller he has superseded; but there is no intrinsic difference between these two panders: Lloyd is Reynolds naked, and Reynolds is Lloyd dressed. Have not the best of us enough to do to keep the devil at our heel, enough temptations to withstand, without the aid of any man to rouse these enemies against us, by exciting our lowest passions, and so turning the great sanctuary of our nature into a hell of infamous orgies? I do not set myself up for a purist, and, above all other things, I hate cant, whether religious or literary; but I am the foe of this impudent system, which, in the garb of fiction, and with the pretence of setting forth life as it is, and things as they are, strikes at the root of morals and chastity, and coolly pockets the wages of its iniquity.

I will say no more upon this subject, however; and congratulate myself that these remarks apply to but a small and very low section of Huddersfield society. The set-offs to this gross account are large and encouraging. It is true there are many circulating novel libraries in the town, to each of which there is a numerous tail of readers; but these are mainly supported by the middle classes, and contain the works of our best writers of fiction, and those likewise of the worst. The Mechanics' Institution possesses the only public library accessible to the working classes. The books in it are mostly of a standard character, and, though so well read that out of a catalogue of

their number is quite inadequate to the necessities and demands of the town. Strenuous efforts have been made to increase this store of books, and turn its hundreds into thousands of volumes, but with small success. The rich do not sufficiently estimate the moral power and influence of these silent and beautiful teachers over the character and habits of the people, or they would see to it that the funds should not be wanting to purchase them. Books are the largest educators, when we have said all we can for our schools and universities. I would have the home of every man, therefore, made sacred by the presence of these venerable worthies, whose names are the glory of literature and the pride of Christendom. If the heroic deeds, celebrated in the Iliad of Homer, gave spurs to the ambition, and stimulated the fiery zeal of Alexander in his career of conquest, will the wisdom and poetic beauty of Shakespeare, the divine contemplations of Isaac Barrow and Jeremy Taylor, the manly sentiments and the splendid eloquence of Milton, in his prose writings, have no influence upon the heart and conduct of those who read them? The poorest "Mother-Goose story" is not so poor as to leave no seed behind it. There is an endless, measureless germination in everything that touches the human mind; evil and good are alike prolific of offspring, and I prefer to breed for the latter, and so occupy the ground, that the former may have as little chance as possible of fathering the world with an illegitimate progeny. There should be a good public library in every town and village of the kingdom. I would make it binding upon all communities to see this good done; and cannot understand why so patriotic an institution should not be supported by taxation as well as the army and the police. I think, for my own part, that it is as much the duty of Government to educate as it is to punish the people; and I am persuaded we should save our pockets, to the tune of some hundreds of thousands per annum, by this course; and, what is higher and better still, we should build up a nobler commonwealth in Britain than Cromwell saw or Milton thought of. In the meanwhile, are there no men who have good books they never read, which they can very well spare, therefore, as gifts to the public libraries of the town wherein they reside? It is a hint to the generosity and justice of men, which whoso takes shall have my fair word for the brave example. It would be thought a little Utopian, perhaps, in these stern days of iron and steel, were I to suggest that all the private libraries in a town might be merged into a public one, with the exception of such books as are really our friends and counsellors. But in reality, there is nothing so bad in the face of this suggestion, after all; for, generally speaking, a large library is but an expensive idol, set up more for show than worship. Let us avoid this foolish seeking, this hereditary love of displaying the extensiveness of our means, and try what we can do to supply the moral wants and intellectual cravings of

man.

We have neglected the working classes so long that now they have increased in number and importance, we begin to find them rather an unwieldy element to deal with. I have no space here to enter upon the organization of labour question, which, nevertheless,

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affects the vital interests of this realm; but I can urge||to the classes, for every guinea subscribed. There is

the plea of popular education as a matter of no less moment; as a thing that may be done, not only without danger to political institutions, but with the sure and certain prospect of strengthening, by this means, the foundations of the state. As a mere matter of|| social prudence, without alluding to higher considerations and sanctions, it is the blindest folly a government can commit to suffer an ignorant populace to remain in the very heart of its civilization. A horrid vulture gnawing for ever at the vitals of Prometheus is no pleasant companion for him, and should be driven off at all hazards. Why not tame the vulture, at all events, by clipping his talons, and dipping his wings in the heavenly fire ? This is a national question, though put forth in metaphor, and the sooner it is answered the better it will be for us all.

a fortnightly loss of about £7, between the expenses of the institution and the income derived from the classes; which is made up by the annual subscribers, and by occasional soirees, &c. A weekly lecture is given in the saloon, and the last Saturday evening of every month is devoted to a soiree of all the members, when a short lecture is delivered upon some subject connected with literature, science, or art, enlivened by subsequent musical entertainments and recitations.

The influence of this institution upon the working classes is, as I have already said, of a large and salutary nature. The members belong almost entirely to the workshops and the factories, and, on account of their low earnings, they could not afford to buy education at a dearer rate than it is here afforded them. All their days are spent at work, and all their evenings are devoted to the pursuit of knowledge. This noble marriage of mental and manual labour-this union of the two mighty dignities that sway the world-cannot fail to exalt the character, and increase thereby the comfort and self-respect of the population. It is an example worthy of universal imitation, and has all that I can give it, viz.-my services and my blessing.

I confess to have a strong attachment to the voluntary principle in all things; but I think it is not sufficiently active for national purposes. If all men were alike liberal, it would be easy enough to drive the plough through the mental fallows of England, and make them yield abundant harvests. But the burden of this husbandry lies on the few generous men whose hands are always open; whilst the many, however rich, grudge It is worthy of remark, as a proof of the growing to tax themselves for the public benefit. I hate to taste of the people, that two reading clubs have been force the nature of a churlish and niggardly man; and established in the town, where all the quarterly remy conscience smites me for asking largess after lar-views, monthly magazines, and serials of note and gess from the bountiful heart. No doubt it is very blessed to give, but it is very miserable to beg; and I do not like that a noble enterprise should be at the mercy of selfish men.

standing, are provided, at the rate of 2s. a quarter to each member. It is the better class of workpeople alone, however, who avail themselves of these privileges.

I am much struck with the intelligence and the general knowledge manifested by the operative classes of this neighbourhood. It is true they have, as a body, received no regular systematic education; but they are learned in politics, and have read something of the history and literature of our country: they can talk sensibly upon all ordinary subjects, which is more than the rhetoricians can do. They have likewise a keen eye to the merits of a question, and are not easily carried away by declamation. I have, more than once, heard a speaker at our public meetings laughed out of his windy nonsense, and compelled to leave his

I have little to complain of, however, so far as Huddersfield is concerned, with respect to the voluntary principle, in the matter of popular education. The merchants and manufacturers of this town, though drained in all sorts of ways, contrive to support one of the largest educational institutions in the kingdom, and have borne it bravely through the dull times of distress and peril. I allude to the Mechanics' Institution, which is under the presidency of F. Schwarr, Esq., and is entirely devoted, with all its machinery and means, to the education of the working classes. Properly speaking, it is a misnomer to call it a mechanics' institution, for it is essentially a people's col-figures of speech, and deal once more with the argulege, numbering between 600 and 700 students, who are divided into 52 classes, and taught by 45 paid and voluntary teachers. The fee of membership is 3d. week, and this entitles the member to all the privileges of the classes, library, reading-room, and lectures. The course of instruction is liberal enough, as will be seen from the subjoined extract, taken from the report of the last year's proceedings of the committee :

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ment of his discourse. Richard Oastler has still sway
here, but the people are preparing themselves for a
wiser man. They are mostly Chartists in political
principle, and Nonconformists, of the latitudinarian
sort, in religion. An attempt has lately been made to
provide them with a higher kind of instruction than
they have been used to, by means of public lectures;
and although I heartily wish success to the effort, it
is desirable that the range of subjects should be wider,
and not so exclusively ethic in its character. Lectures
on the whole duty of man" might very well be varied
by others upon the chief epochs of English history,
upon science, art, and literature.
A course of lec-
tures on the literature of England, if the subject were,
skilfully handled, would stimulate many persons to
read and think, who at present are not much troubled
with propensities in that direction. Our elder writers,
both of poetry and prose, are very little known; and
the more modern men of the Commonwealth are not
read by one in a thousand of the population. The
noble sentiments of these writers, often uttered with

extraordinary eloquence and power, would tell in all a library of several hundred volumes, and occasional ways upon the auditory, if they were quoted by a lectures are delivered to them. They pay 2d. a week competent lecturer; and I am persuaded that religion, for these privileges. The ladies of the town assist the morals, and intellect, would gain much by the ex-paid masters in conducting the classes, and form a part amples.

Now that the Ten Hours Factory Bill has come into full operation, there is leisure enough for the working classes to get wisdom and understanding. It is, moreover, certain that they will do this, or something else not so creditable to them. Hence, I am for affording them every facility in the great business of self-instruction. It is better to fill the lecture-room than the tavern. Neither would I forbid, but encourage, all rational amusements, in connection with educational endeavours.

One great want existing everywhere amongst the working classes has been attempted to be supplied in Huddersfield, with more or less success. I allude to the education of females; and it is important that the example set by a private gentleman of this place in founding an institution for these young persons should be generally followed. I feel no little pleasure, and some pain, in the reflection that this town of yesterday should be the first in England to found a college for women. It is true that Tennyson's ideal of such an institution, as revealed in his "Medley," is not realised here; but there are endless possibilities in a beginning; and we may safely leave the issues to time. Why should we not have our "girl graduates," even if we exclude our "dowagers" from the "deaneries ?" Why should so much attention be paid to the educational wants of men, and so little to those of women? I have always had a notion that women are something more than beautiful, or even than useful animals; and although I have no chivalry in me for what are called the "rights of women," as this phrase is ordinarily understood, I would break a lance or two in defence of their right to be educated. No cultivated man would like to marry a woman who could not open her mouth without murdering the Queen's English, and whose mind was empty of everything but vanity. "blue stocking "—that is, a female literary pedantis certainly no desirable person to know either in private or public; but there is no necessity to manufacture this kind of hosiery in our educational looms. For the rest, I do not see why a woman should not be as good a housewife, and as prudent, virtuous, and honourable in all her relations with a furnished as with an unfurnished mind. I have a reverence for beauty amounting almost to idolatry-and, moreover, beauty is the highest symbol which God employs in His divinest initiations-but, wherever I find an ignorant and profane soul in the sanctuary, I lose my faith, and can worship no longer.

A

In all large manufacturing towns, there are thousands of young girls who are left pretty much to follow their own inclinations, and whose moral and social condition is deplorably low. Few of them have received even the commonest rudiments of education, and their resources of enjoyment are confiued, therefore, to the mere animal sphere. Now, it is precisely this class of females who most need to be cared for; and it is for them that the female educational institution has been established in this town. Instruction is afforded them in needlework, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, grammar, and history. They have

VOL. XVII. NO, CLXXXIV.

of the committee of management. So much for the educational means which are provided for the people of Huddersfield; and such has been the effect of this beneficial example upon the neighbourhood, that there is scarcely a town, village, or hamlet, within six miles of it, which does not possess a mechanics' institution. The holidays of the working people are chiefly confined to Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas; although they generally manage to have a day or two of it at Honley Feast. This feast is remarkable, and embraces a circuit of nearly eight miles. Beef, pickled cabbage, and ale, are the staple provisions of each household; and on the evening of the first day of the feast, Huddersfield, Lockwood, and all the adjoining hamlets, are in a state of commotion. Carriages rattle along the streets, filled with merry men and women, who scent the good things afar off, and hasten to enjoy them. The roads are fairly blocked up, and darkened with the long lines of foot-passengers, drawn by the same attraction. The feast lasts for a full week; and the usual quantity of sins are committed there, to the satisfaction of all parties concerned.

To give the rising generation a distaste for these large feudal orgies, the committee of the Mechanics' Institution provide their members with a "gala" once a-year, and occasionally with a cheap trip to York, the Isle of Man, or the beautiful lake districts of Cumberland and Westmoreland. The "gala" is generally celebrated amongst the neighbouring hills and valleys. Last year, through the kindness of H. W. Wickham, Esq., it was held in the park and grounds of Kirklees,* where

* Kirklees Hall is the property of Sir George Armitage, although it is occupied by the gentleman whose name I have stated above. It stands on a high platform of hills, and overlooks the vale of the Calder and the Backbone Mountains of England. Kirklees is remarkable in a historical and traditional point of view, as containing the grave of Robin Hood, and the ruins of the nunnery, in the lodge chamber of which poor Robin died. The following extracts from a poem, written in celebration of the " Kirklees gala" of the Mechanics' Institution, which I have alluded to above, will be read, I think, with interest by those who care for the memory of the noble outlaw. I may just add that the poem in question, though printed last year, was confined exclusively in its circulation to the members of the institution. The writer begins with some previous recollections of Sherwood:

"I well remember, when with reverent foot
I made my first historic pilgrimage
Unto the outlaw's grave. Oft had I heard
In Sherwood Forest, by the cottage hearths
Of Edwinstone, on many a winter's night,
Traditions of his death and burial.

And all the scenes which Robin loved so well,
From Cresswell's savage crags, where Wollen rolls,
And Budby's heath, and Birkland's faery realm
Of silver birches, to the ruined oaks
Of Bilhagh lone and desolate, I know.
And, standing there, beside his mouldering bones,
The dews of Sherwood I that morn had brushed
From the dark ling, scarce dry upon my feet,
I seemed to bring the forest to his manes
With all its wailing memories and trees.
"Who now will come with me and pay once more
Sad homage at the brave old hero's grave?

I know the spot which yonder pine-trees hide
Under their sunless gloom; and we will go

T

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