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River Duddon A Series of Sonnets - William Wordsworth · Walden

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  Speaker 1: Part one of The River Duddon by William Wordsworth. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. The River Duddon rises upon Rhino's Fell,
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  Speaker 1: on the confines of Westmuland, Cumberland and Lancashire, and serving
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  Speaker 1: as a boundary to the two latter counties. For the
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  Speaker 1: space of about twenty five miles, enters the Irish Sea
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  Speaker 1: between the Isle of Walney and the Lordship of millam One,
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  Speaker 1: not envying shades which haply yet may throw a grateful
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  Speaker 1: coolness round that rocky spring Bandusia, once responsive to the
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  Speaker 1: string of the Horatian lyre, with babbling flow, careless of
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  Speaker 1: flowers that in perennial blow round the moist marge of
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  Speaker 1: Persian fountains, cling, heedless of alpine torrents, thundering through icy portals,
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  Speaker 1: radiant as head Heavan's bow. I seek the birthplace of
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  Speaker 1: a native stream. All hail y mountains, hail thy morning light.
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  Speaker 1: Better to breathe upon this airy height than pass in
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  Speaker 1: needless sleep from dream to dream, pure flow, the verse, pure,
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  Speaker 1: vigorous free and bright for Duddon. Long love Duddon is
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  Speaker 1: my theme. Two, Child of the clouds, remote from every
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  Speaker 1: taint of sordid industry, Thy lot is caste. Thine are
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  Speaker 1: the honors of the lofty waste. Not seldom when with
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  Speaker 1: heat the valley's faint, Thy handmade frost with spangled tissue,
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  Speaker 1: quaint thy cradle decks to chaunt thy birth. Thou hast
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  Speaker 1: no meaner poet than the whistling blast, and desolation is
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  Speaker 1: thy patron saint. She guards thee ruthless power who would
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  Speaker 1: not spare these mighty forests. Once the bison's screen, where
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  Speaker 1: stalk the huge deer to his shaggy lair through paths and aura,
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  Speaker 1: is roofed with somber green, thousands of years before the
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  Speaker 1: silent air was pierced by whizzing shaft of hunter keen.
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  Speaker 1: Note the deer alluded to as the lee, a gigantic
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  Speaker 1: species long since extinct. Three, How shall I paint thee
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  Speaker 1: be this naked stone my seat? While I give way
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  Speaker 1: to such intent? Please, could my verse a speaking monument,
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  Speaker 1: make to the eyes of men thy features known? But
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  Speaker 1: as of all those tripping lambs, not one out runs
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  Speaker 1: his fellows. So hath nature lent to thy beginning, naught
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  Speaker 1: that doth present peculiar grounds for hope to build upon,
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  Speaker 1: to dignify the spot that gives thee birth. No sign
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  Speaker 1: of hoar antiquities esteem appears, and none of modern fortune's care.
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  Speaker 1: Yet thou thyself hast round thee shared a gleam of
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  Speaker 1: brilliant moss, instinct with freshness, rare prompt offering to thy
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  Speaker 1: foster mother Earth. Four Take cradled nursling of the mountain.
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  Speaker 1: Take this parting glance, no negligent adieu. A protian chain
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  Speaker 1: seems wrought while I pursue. The curves are loosely scattered.
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  Speaker 1: Chain doth make, or rather thou appierst a glistering snake
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  Speaker 1: silent and to the gazer's eye untrue. Thridding with sinuous laps,
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  Speaker 1: the rushes through dwarf willows, gliding and by ferny break
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  Speaker 1: starts from a dizzy steep. The undaunted rill, robed instantly
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  Speaker 1: in garb of snow white foam, and laughing, dares the adventurer, who,
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  Speaker 1: with clumb so high a rival purpose to fulfill. Else,
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  Speaker 1: let the dastard backward wind and roam seeking less bold
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  Speaker 1: achievement where he will five So listener duddon to the
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  Speaker 1: breeze that played with thy clear voice. I caught the
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  Speaker 1: fitful sound wafted or sullen moss and craggy mound and
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  Speaker 1: fruit solitudes that seemed to upbraid the sun in heaven,
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  Speaker 1: but now to form a shade for thee green alders
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  Speaker 1: have together wound their foliage ashes, flung their arms around,
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  Speaker 1: and birch trees risen in silver colonnade. And thou hast
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  Speaker 1: also tempted here to rise mid sheltering pines. This cottage
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  Speaker 1: rude and gray, whose ruddy children, by the mother's eyes,
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  Speaker 1: carelessly watched spot through the summer day. Thy pleased associates
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  Speaker 1: light as endless may on infant Bosom's lonely nature lies
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  Speaker 1: six ere. Yet our course was graced with social trees.
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  Speaker 1: It lacked not old remains of hawthorn bowers, where small
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  Speaker 1: birds warbled to their paramours, and earlier still was heard
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  Speaker 1: the hum of bees. I saw them ply their harmless robberies,
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  Speaker 1: and caught the fragrance which the sundry flowers fed by
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  Speaker 1: the stream with soft, perpetual shad plenteously yielded to the
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  Speaker 1: vagrant breeze. There bloomed the strawberry of the wilderness. The
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  Speaker 1: trembling eyebright showed her sapphire blue the time, her purple
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  Speaker 1: like the blush of even And if the breath of
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  Speaker 1: sun to no caress invited forth, they peeped so fair
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  Speaker 1: to view all kinds alike, seemed favorites of heaven. Seven.
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  Speaker 1: Change me some God into that breathing rose, the love
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  Speaker 1: sick stripling fancifully sighs the envied flower, beholding as it
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  Speaker 1: lies on Laura's breast in exquisite repose. Or he would
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  Speaker 1: pass into her bird that throws the darts of song
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  Speaker 1: from out its wiry cage. Enraptured, Could he for himself
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  Speaker 1: engage the thousandth part of what the nymph bestows and
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  Speaker 1: what the little careless, innocent ungraciously receives. Too daring choice,
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  Speaker 1: There are those whose armor mind it would content to
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  Speaker 1: be an uncalled flowert of the glen, fearless of plow
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  Speaker 1: and scythe or darkling wren that tunes on Duddon's banks
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  Speaker 1: her slender voice. Eight What aspect bore the man who
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  Speaker 1: roved or fled first of his tribe to this dark dell,
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  Speaker 1: who first, in this pellucid current slaked his thirst. What
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  Speaker 1: hopes came with him? What designs were spread along his
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  Speaker 1: path his unprotected bed, what dreams encompassed? Was the intruder,
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  Speaker 1: nursed in hideous usages and rites, accursed that thinned the
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  Speaker 1: living and disturbed the dead. No voice replies the earth.
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  Speaker 1: The air is mute, and thou blue streamlet murmuring yields
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  Speaker 1: no more than a soft record that whatever fruit of
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  Speaker 1: ignorance thou mightest witness, Heretofore. Thy function was to heal
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  Speaker 1: and to restore, to soothe and cleanse, not madden and polite.
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  Speaker 1: Nine the stepping stones, and ten the same subject. The
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  Speaker 1: struggling rill insensibly is grown into a brook of loud
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  Speaker 1: and stately march, crossed ever and anon by plank and arch,
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  Speaker 1: And for like use lo what might seem a zone
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  Speaker 1: chosen for ornament, stone matched with stone in studied symmetry,
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  Speaker 1: with interspace for the clear waters to pursue their race
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  Speaker 1: without restraint. How swiftly have they flown, succeeding, still succeeding.
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  Speaker 1: Here the child puts, when the high swollen flood runs
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  Speaker 1: fierce and wild, his bud encourage to the proof, and
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  Speaker 1: here declining manhood learns to note the sly and sure
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  Speaker 1: encroachments of infirmity, thinking how fast time runs, life's end,
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  Speaker 1: How near? Not so that pair whose youthful spirits dance
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  Speaker 1: with prompt emotion, urging them to pass. Her sweet confusion
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  Speaker 1: checks the shepherd lass. Blushing, she eyes the dizzy flood,
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  Speaker 1: askance to stop. Ashamed, too timid to advance, she ventures
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  Speaker 1: once again another pause. His outstretched hand, he tauntingly withdraws.
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  Speaker 1: She sues for help with piteous utterance. Chidden, she chides
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  Speaker 1: again the thrilling touch both feel when he renews the
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  Speaker 1: wished for aid ah. If their fluttering heart should stir
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  Speaker 1: too much, should beat too strongly, both may be betrayed.
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  Speaker 1: The frolic loves who from yon high Rock see the struggle,
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  Speaker 1: clap their wings for victory. Eleven. The Fairy Chasm no fiction,
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  Speaker 1: was it of the antique age. A sky blue stone
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  Speaker 1: within this sunless cleft is of the very footmarks and
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  Speaker 1: bereft which tiny elves impressed on that smooth stage, dancing
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  Speaker 1: with all their brilliant equipage in secret revels haply after
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  Speaker 1: theft of some sweet babe flower stolen and coarse weed
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  Speaker 1: left for the distracted mother to assuage her grief with
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  Speaker 1: as she might. But where or where is traceable a
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  Speaker 1: vestige of the notes that rule those dances wild in character,
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  Speaker 1: deep underground or in the upper air, on the shrill
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  Speaker 1: wind of midnight, or where floats or twilight fields. The
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  Speaker 1: autumnal gossamer twelve hints for the fancy on loitering muse.
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  Speaker 1: The swift stream chides us on albeit his deep worn
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  Speaker 1: channel dothymure objects immense portrayed in miniature wild shapes for
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  Speaker 1: many a strange comparison niagaras, alpine passes and anon abodes
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  Speaker 1: of naiads, calm abysses, pure bright liquid mansions fashion to endure.
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  Speaker 1: When the broad oak drops a leafless skeleton, and the
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  Speaker 1: solidities of mortal pride, pallace and tower are crumbled into dust,
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  Speaker 1: the bard who walks with Dudham for his guide, shall
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  Speaker 1: find such toys of fancy thickly set. Turn from the
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  Speaker 1: sight enamored muse. We must leave them, and if thou
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  Speaker 1: canst without regret, thirteen open prospect, hail to the fields
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  Speaker 1: with dwelling sprinkled oar and one small hamlet under a
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  Speaker 1: green hill, clustered with barn and byre and spouting mill
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  Speaker 1: a glance suffices. Should we wish for more? Gay June
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  Speaker 1: would scorn us. But when bleak winds roar through the
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  Speaker 1: stiff lance, like shoots of pollardash dread swell of sound,
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  Speaker 1: loud as the gusts that lash the matted forests of
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  Speaker 1: Ontario's shore by wasteful steel and smitten, then would I
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  Speaker 1: turn into port and reckless of the gale, reckless of
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  Speaker 1: angry duddens sweeping by, while the warm hearth exalts the
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  Speaker 1: mantling ale, laugh with the generous household, heartily at all
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  Speaker 1: the merry pranks of Donnedale fourteen all mountain stream. The
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  Speaker 1: shepherd and his cot are privileged inmates of deep solitude.
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  Speaker 1: Nor would the nicest anchorite exclude a field or two
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  Speaker 1: of brighter green, or plot of tillage ground that seemeth
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  Speaker 1: like a spot of stationary sunshine. Thou hast viewed these
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  Speaker 1: only dudden, with their paths renewed by fits and starts.
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  Speaker 1: Yet this contents thee. Not thee hath some awful spirit
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  Speaker 1: impelled to leave utterly to desert the haunts of men,
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  Speaker 1: though simple, thy companions were and few, And through this
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  Speaker 1: wilderness a passage cleave, attended but by thy own voice,
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  Speaker 1: save when the clouds and fowls of the air thy
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  Speaker 1: way pursue. Fifteen From this deep chasm, where quivering sunbeams
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  Speaker 1: play upon its loftiest crags, mine eyes behold a gloomy niche, capacious,
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  Speaker 1: blank and cold, a concave free from shrubs and mosses,
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  Speaker 1: gray in semblance, fresh, as if with dire afray. Some
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  Speaker 1: statue placed amid these regions, old for tutulary service, thence
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  Speaker 1: had rolled startling the flight of timid yesterday. Was it
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  Speaker 1: by mortals sculptured weary slaves of slow endeavor, or abruptly
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  Speaker 1: cast into rude shape by fire with roaring blast, tempestuously
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  Speaker 1: let loose from central caves, or fashioned by the turbulence
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  Speaker 1: of waves. Then when o'er highest hills the deluge passed
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  Speaker 1: sixteen American tradition, Such fruitless questions may not long beguile
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  Speaker 1: or plague the fancy mid the sculptured shows conspicuous, Yet
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  Speaker 1: where orinoco flows? There would the Indian answer with a
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  Speaker 1: smile aimed at the white man's ignorance, the while of
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  Speaker 1: the great waters, telling how they rose, covered the plains
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  Speaker 1: and wandering where they chose, mounted through every intricate defile,
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  Speaker 1: triumphant inundation, wide and deep o'er which his fathers urged
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  Speaker 1: to ridge and steep else unapproachable their buoyant way, and
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  Speaker 1: carved on mural cliffs, on dreaded side, sun, moon and stars,
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  Speaker 1: and beast of chase or prey, whate'er they sought, shunned,
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  Speaker 1: love or daified Note see Humboldt's personal narrative seventeen Return.
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  Speaker 1: A dark plume fetched me from yon, blasted ye, perched
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  Speaker 1: on whose top the Danish raven croaks aloft. The Imperial
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  Speaker 1: bird of Rome invokes departed ages, shedding where he flew
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  Speaker 1: loose fragments of wild wailing that bestrew the clouds and
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  Speaker 1: thrilled the chambers of the rocks, and into silence hushed
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  Speaker 1: the timorous flocks that slept so calmly, while the nightly
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  Speaker 1: dew moistened each fleece beneath the twinkling stars. These couched
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  Speaker 1: mid that lone camp on hard knot's height, whose guardians
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  Speaker 1: bent the knee to Jove and Mars. These near that
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  Speaker 1: mystic round of druid frame, tardily sinking by its proper weight,
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  Speaker 1: deep into patient earth, from whose smooth breast it came.
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  Speaker 1: Eighteen seeth Waite Chapel, Sacred religion, Mother of form and fear, dread,
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  Speaker 1: arbitrous of mutable respect, new rites, ordaining when the old
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  Speaker 1: erect or ceased to please the fickle worshiper. If one
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  Speaker 1: strong wish may be embosomed here, Mother of love, for
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  Speaker 1: this deep veil, protect truth, holy lamp, pure source of
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  Speaker 1: bright effect, gifted to purge the vapory atmosphere that seeks
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  Speaker 1: to stifle it, as in those days when this low
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  Speaker 1: pile a gospel teacher knew whose good works formed an
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  Speaker 1: endless retinue. Such priest as Chaucer sang in fervent lays
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  Speaker 1: such as the heaven taught skill of Herbert Drew and
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  Speaker 1: Tender Goldsmith crowned with deathless praise nineteen Tributary stream my
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  Speaker 1: frame hath often trembled with delight when hope presented some
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  Speaker 1: far distant good that seemed from Heaven, descending like the
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  Speaker 1: flood of yon pure waters from their airy height, hurrying
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  Speaker 1: with lordly duddon to unite, whom, in a world of images,
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  Speaker 1: impressed on the calm depth of his transparent breast, appears
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  Speaker 1: to cherish most that torrent white, the fairest, softest, liveliest
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  Speaker 1: of them all, And seldom hath ear listened to a
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  Speaker 1: tune more lulling than the busy hum of Neon, swollen
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  Speaker 1: by that voice whose murmur musical announces to the thirsty
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  Speaker 1: fields a boon, dewy and fresh till showers again shall
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  Speaker 1: fall twenty the plain of Donnedale. The old inventive poets,
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  Speaker 1: had they seen, or rather felt, the entrancement that detains
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  Speaker 1: thy waters dudden mid these flowery plains, the still repose
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  Speaker 1: the liquid lapse serene transferred to bowers imperishably green had
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  Speaker 1: beautified elysium. But these chains will soon be broken. A
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  Speaker 1: rough course remains rough as the past, where thou havet
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  Speaker 1: placid mien, innocuous as a first ling of a flock
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  Speaker 1: and countenance like a soft cerulean sky, shalt change thy temper,
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  Speaker 1: and with many a shock given and received in mutual
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  Speaker 1: jeopardy dance like a bacchanal from rock to rock, tossing
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  Speaker 1: her frantic thesis wide and high. Twenty one. Whence that
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  Speaker 1: low voice, a whisper from the heart, that told of
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  Speaker 1: days long past, when here I roved with friends and kindred,
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  Speaker 1: tenderly beloved, some who had early mandates to depart, yet
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  Speaker 1: are still allowed to steal my path of thwart by
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  Speaker 1: Dudon's side. Once more, do we unite, once more, beneath
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  Speaker 1: the kind Earth's tranquil light and smothered joys into new being.
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  Speaker 1: Start from her unworthy seat. The cloudy stall of time
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  Speaker 1: breaks forth triumphant memory, her glistening tresses, bound yet light
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  Speaker 1: and free, as golden locks of birch that rise and
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  Speaker 1: fall on gales that breathe too gently to recall aught
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  Speaker 1: of the fading years. In Clemency twenty two tradition, a
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  Speaker 1: lovelorn maid, at some far distant time came to this
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  Speaker 1: hidden pool, whose depths surpassed in crystal clearness Diane's looking glass,
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  Speaker 1: and gazing saw that rose, which from the prime derives
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  Speaker 1: its name. Reflected as the chime of echo, doth reverberates
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  Speaker 1: some sweet sound, the starry treasure from the blue profound
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  Speaker 1: she longed to ravish. Shall she plunge or climb the
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  Speaker 1: humid precipice and seize the guest of April, smiling high
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  Speaker 1: in upper air. Desperate alternative, What fiend could dare to
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  Speaker 1: prompt the thought upon the steep rock's breast. The lonely
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  Speaker 1: primrose yet renews its bloom and touched memento of her
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  Speaker 1: hapless doom. Twenty three sheepwashing sad thoughts of vaunt, the
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  Speaker 1: fervor of the year poured on the fleece encumbered flock
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  Speaker 1: invites to laving currents for prelusive rites, duly performed before
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  Speaker 1: the dalesmen shear their panting charge the distant mountains. Here
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  Speaker 1: hear and repeat the turmoil that unites clamor of boys
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  Speaker 1: with innocent despites of barking dogs and bleatings from strange fear. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: if dud and spotless breasts receive unwelcome mixtures, as the
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  Speaker 1: uncouth noise thickens, the pastoral river will forgive such wrong.
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  Speaker 1: Nor need we blame the licensed joys, though false to
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  Speaker 1: nature's quiet equipoise, frank are the sports, the stains are fugitive.
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  Speaker 1: Twenty four The resting place mid noon is past upon
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  Speaker 1: the sultry mead. No zephyr breathes no cloud its shadow throws.
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  Speaker 1: If we advance on strengthen by repose, farewell the solace
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  Speaker 1: of the vagrant reed this nook with woodbine, hung and
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  Speaker 1: straggling weed, tempting recess, as ever pilgrim chose half grot,
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  Speaker 1: half harbor, proffers to enclose body and mind from molestation,
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  Speaker 1: freed in narrow campass, narrow as itself. Or if the
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  Speaker 1: fancy to indus for yourself beloath that we should breathe
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  Speaker 1: awhile exempt from new incitements friendly to our tasks, there
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  Speaker 1: want not stealthy prospects that may tempt loose idless to
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  Speaker 1: forego her wily mask. Twenty five methinks to a no
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  Speaker 1: unprecedented feat. Should some benignant minister of air lift and
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  Speaker 1: encircle with a cloudy chair the one for whom my
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  Speaker 1: heart shall ever beat with tenderest love, Or if a
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  Speaker 1: safer seat between his downy wings be furnished, there would
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  Speaker 1: lodge her and the cherished burden bear o'er hill and
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  Speaker 1: valley to this dim retreat. Rough ways my steps of
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  Speaker 1: trod too rough and long for her companionship. Here dwell
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  Speaker 1: soft ease with sweets which she partakes, not some distaste
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  Speaker 1: mingles and lurking consciousness of wrong languish the flowers. The
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  Speaker 1: waters seem to waste their vocal charm, their sparklings ceased
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  Speaker 1: to please. Twenty six return content for fondly I pursued,
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  Speaker 1: even when a child. The streams unheard, unseen through tangled woods,
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  Speaker 1: impending rocks between, or free as air, with flying inquest
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  Speaker 1: viewed the sullen reservoirs. Whence their bold brood, pure as
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  Speaker 1: the morning, fretful, boisterous, keen, green as the salt sea billows,
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  Speaker 1: white and green, poured down the hills a coral multitude.
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  Speaker 1: Nor have I tracked their course for scanty gains. They
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  Speaker 1: taught me random cares and truant joys that shield from
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  Speaker 1: mischief and preserve from stains vague minds. While men are
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  Speaker 1: growing out of boys, maturer fancy owes to their rough noise,
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  Speaker 1: impetuous thoughts that brook not servile rains. Twenty seven journey renewed.
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  Speaker 1: I rose, while yet the cattle heat oppressed, crowded together
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  Speaker 1: under rustling trees, brushed by the current of the water breeze.
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  Speaker 1: And for their sakes and love of all that rest
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  Speaker 1: on Duddon's margin in the sheltering nest, for all the
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  Speaker 1: startles scaly tribes that slink into his coverts, and each
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  Speaker 1: fearless link of dancing insects forged upon his breast. For
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  Speaker 1: these and hopes and recollections worn close to the vital
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  Speaker 1: seat of human clay, glad meetings, tender partings that upstay
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  Speaker 1: the drooping mind of absence, by vows sworn in his
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  Speaker 1: pure presence, near the trysting thorn, I thanked the leader
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  Speaker 1: of my onward way twenty eight. No record tells of
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  Speaker 1: lance opposed to lance, horse charging horse mid these retired domains,
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  Speaker 1: nor that their turf drank purple from the veins of
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  Speaker 1: heroes fallen or struggling to advance till doubtful combat issued
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  Speaker 1: in a trance of victory that struck through heart and reins,
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  Speaker 1: even to the inmost seat of mortal pains, and lightened
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  Speaker 1: o'er the pallid countenance Yet to the loyal and brave
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  Speaker 1: who lie in the blank earth, neglected and forlorn, the
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  Speaker 1: passing wind's memorial tribute pay the torrents chant their praise,
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  Speaker 1: inspiring scorn of power usurped with proclamation, high and glad
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: acknowledgment of lawful sway twenty nine, who swerves from innocence,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: who makes divorce of that serene companion a good name,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: recovers not his loss, but walks with shame, with doubt,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: with fear, and haply with remorse. And ofttimes he who,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: yielding to the force of chance temptation, ere his journey
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: end from chosen comrade, turns or faithful friend in vain,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: shall rue the broken intercourse. Not so with such as
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: loosely wear the chain that binds them pleasant river to
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: the eye side, through the rough copse wheel, Thou, with
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: hasty stride, I choose to saunter o'er the grassy plain.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: Sure when the separation has been tried, the wee who
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: part in love shall meet again. Thirty The kirk of
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: Ulpha to the pilgrim's eye is welcome as a star
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: that doth present its shining forehead through the peaceful rent
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: of a black cloud diffused o'er half the sky, or
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: as a fruitful palm tree towering high o'er the parched
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: waste beside an Arab's tent, or the Indian tree whose
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: branches downward bent take root again a boundless canopy, How
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: sweet were leisure, could it yield no more than mid
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: that wave washed churchyard to recline from pastoral graves, extracting
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: thoughts divine, or there to pace and mark the summit's
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: hoar of distant moonlit mountains, faintly shine, soothed by the
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: unseen rid gentle roar thirty one and thirty two not
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: hurled precipitous from steep to steep, lingering no more mid
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: flower enameled lands and blooming thickets, nor by rocky bands held,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: but in radiant progress toward the deep, where mightiest rivers
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: into powerless sleep, sink and forget their nature. Now expands
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: majestic dudden over smooth flat sands, gliding in silence with
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: unfettered sweep beneath an ampler sky. A region wide is
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: opened round him. Hamlets, towers and towns, and blue topped
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: hills behold him from afar in stately meend to sovereign
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: Thames Allied, spreading his bosom under Kentish downs with commerce
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: freighted or triumphant war. But here no cannon thunders to
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: the gale upon the wave, no haughty pendants cast a
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: crimson splendor, lowly is the mass that rises here and
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: humbly spread the sale, while less disturbed than in the
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: narrow vale through which, with strange vicissitudes he passed. The
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: wanderer seeks that receptacle vast where all his unambitious functions fail.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: And may thy poet, cloud borne stream be free, the
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: sweets of earth contentedly resigned, and each tumultuous working left
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: behind that seemly distance, to advance like thee prepared in
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: peace of heart, in calm of mind and soul, to
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: mingle with eternity. Thirty three conclusion. I thought of thee
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: my partner and my guide, as being passed away, vain
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: sympathies for backward dudden. As I cast my eyes, I
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: see what was and is and will abide. Still glides
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: the stream, and shall forever glide. The form remains, the
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: function never dies. While we the brave, the mighty, and
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: the wise, we men who in our morn of youth
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: defied the elements, must vanish. Be it so enough if
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: something from our hands have power to live and act
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: and serve the future hour, And if as toward the
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: silent tomb, we go through love, through hope and faith's
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: transcendent dower. We feel that we are greater than we know. PostScript.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: A poet whose works are not yet known as they
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: deserve to be, thus enters upon his description of the
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: ruins of Rome. The rising sun flames on the ruins,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: and the purer air towering aloft and ends. Thus the
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: setting sun displays his visible great round between yon towers,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: as through two shady cliffs. Mister Crow, in his excellent
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: local descriptive poem Lewiston Hill, is still more expeditious, finishing
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: the whole on a May morning before breakfast to morrow.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: For severer thought, but now to breakfast and keep festival
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: to day. No one believes, or is desired to believe,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: that these poems were actually composed within such limits of time,
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: nor was there any reason why a prose statement should
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: acquaint the reader with the plain fact to the disturbance
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: of poetic credibility. But in the present case I am
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: compelled to mention that the above series of sonnets was
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: the growth of many years. The one which stands the
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: fourteenth was the first produced, and others were added upon
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: occasional visits to the stream, or as recollections of the
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: scenes upon its banks. Awakened a wish to describe them.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: In this manner, I had proceeded insensibly without perceiving that
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: I was trespassing upon ground preoccupied, at least as far
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: as intention went by mister Coleridge, who more than twenty
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: years ago used to speak of writing a rural poem
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: to be entitled the Brook of which is given a
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: sketch in a recent publication. But a particular subject cannot,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: I think much interfere with the general one, and I
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: have been further kept from encroaching upon any right mister
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: c may still wish to exercise, by the restriction which
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: the frame of the sonnet imposed upon me, narrowing unavoidably
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: the range of thought, and precluding, though not without its advantages,
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: many graces to which a freer movement of verse would
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: naturally have led. May I not venture, then to hope that,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: instead of being a hindrance by anticipation of any part
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: of the subject, these sonnets may remind mister Coleridge of
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: his own more comprehensive design and induce him to fulfill it.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: There is a sympathy in streams one calleth to another,
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: and I would gladly believe that the brook will ere
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: long murmuring concert with the dudden, but asking pardon for
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: this fancy, I need not scruple to say that those
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: verses must indeed be ill fated, which can and enter
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: upon such pleasant walks of nature without receiving and giving inspiration.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: The power of waters over the minds of poets has
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: been acknowledged from the earliest ages, through the flumina amem
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: silvaskiing glorious of Virgil, down to the sublime Apostrophe to
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: the Great Rivers of the Earth by Armstrong, and the
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: simple ejaculation of Burns chosen if I recollect rite by
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: mister Coleridge as a motto for his Embryo Brook the
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: muse near poet ever found her till by himself he
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: learned to wander a down some trotting Burns Meander and
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: nathink Lang. When first published in eighteen twenty, the River
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: Dudden series consisted of thirty three sonnets. Later editions included
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: a thirty fourth. This readings of the sonnet listed as
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: number twenty seven in volume three of the six volume
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: Poetical Works published in eighteen seventy twenty seven, fallen and
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: diffused into a shapeless heap, or quietly self buried in
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: Earth's mold. Is that embattled house whose massy keep flung
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: from yon cliff A shadow, large and cold. There dwelt
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: the gay, the bountiful, the bold, till nightly lamentations, like
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: the sweep of winds, though winds were silent, struck a
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: deep and lasting terror through that ancient hold. Its line
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: of warriors fled, they shrunk when tried by ghostly power.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: But time's unsparing hand hath plucked such foes like weeds
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: from out the land. And now if men with men
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: in peace abide all other strength, the weakest may withstand
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: all worse assaults may safely be defied. End of Part one,
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: Part two of the River Dudden Sonnets by William Wordsworth.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: This liveryvox recording is in the public domain. Notes Sonnet six.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: There bloomed the strawberry of the wilderness, the trembling eyebright
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: showed her sapphire blue. These two lines are in a
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: great measure taken from the Beauties of Spring, a juvenile
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: poem by the Reverend Joseph Simpson, author of the Vision
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: of Alfred et cetera. He was a native of Cumberland,
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: and was educated in the Vale of Grasmere and at
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: Hawkshead's School. His poems are little known, but they contain
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: passages of splendid description, and the versification of his vision
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: of Alfred is harmonious and animated. The present severe season,
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: with its amusements, reminds me of some lines which I
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: will transcribe as a favorable specimen. In describing the motions
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: of the Sylphs that constitute the strange machinery of his
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: vision of Ali Alfred, he uses the following illustrative simile.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: Glancing from their plumes a changeful light, the asia vaulty looms,
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: less varying hues beneath the polar dawn, the streamy glories
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: of the boreal morn that, wavering to and fro, their
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: radiance shed on Bothnia's gulf with glassy ice, or spread
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: where the lone native, as he homeward, glides on polished
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: sandals or the imprisoned tides. And still the balance of
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: his frame preserves, wheeled on alternate foot in lengthening curves,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: sees at a glance above him and below two rival
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: heavens with equal splendor glow sphered in the center of
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: the world. He seems for all around with soft effulgence, gleams, stars,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: moons and meteors, ray opposed to ray, and solemn midnight
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: pours the blaze of day. He was a man of
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: ardent feeling, and his faculties of mind, particularly his memory,
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: were extraordinary. Briefns notices of his life ought to find
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: a place in the history of Westminland, Sonnet seventeen. The
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: eagle requires a large domain for its support, but several
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: pairs not many years ago, were constantly resident in this country,
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: building their nests in the steeps of Boridale, Wastdale, Ennerdale,
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: and on the eastern side of Helvelyn. Often have I
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: heard anglers speak of the grandeur of their appearance as
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: they hovered over red Tarn in one of the coves
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: of this mountain. The bird frequently returns, but is always destroyed.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: Not long since one visited Ridle Lake and remained some
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: hours near its banks. The consternation which it occasioned among
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: the different species of fowl, particularly the herons, was expressed
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: by loud screams. The horse also is naturally afraid of
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: the eagle. There were several Roman stations among these mountains.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: The most considerable seems to have been in a meadow
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: at the head of Windermere, established undoubtedly as a check
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: over the passes of Kirkston, don Mel Rise, and of
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: Hardknot and Rhinos. On the margin of Ridal Lake. A
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: coyin of Trajan was discovered very lately. The Roman fort
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: here alluded to, called by the country people, hard Knock Castle,
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: is most impressively situated half way down the hill, on
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: the right of the road that descends from hard Not
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: into Sdale. It has escaped the notice of most antiquarians,
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: and is but slightly mentioned by license. The druidical circle
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: is about half a mile to the left of the
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: road ascending stone side from the Vale of Duddon. The
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: country people call it Sunken Church. The reader, who may
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: have been interested in the foregoing sonnets, which together may
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: be considered as a poem, will not be displeased to
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: find in this place a prose account of the Duddon
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: extracted from Greene's comprehensive Guide to the Lakes, lately published.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: The road leading from Coniston to Broughton is over high
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: ground and commands of view of the River Dudden, which
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: at high Water is a grand site, having the beautiful
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: and fertile lands of Lancashire and Cumberland stretching each way
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: from its margin. In this extensive view, the face of
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: nature is displayed in a wonderful variety of hill and
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: dale wooded grounds and buildings. Amongst the latter, Broughton Tower,
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: seated on the crown of a hill, rising elegantly from
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: the valley, is an object of extraordinary interests. Fertility on
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: each side is gradually diminished and lost in the superior
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: heights of Blackcombing, Cumberland, and the high lands between Kirby
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: and Olvston. The road from Broughton to Seathwaite is on
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: the banks of the Dudden, and on its Lancashire side.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: It is of various elevations. The river is an amusing
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: companion one while brawling and tumbling over rocky precipices, until
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: the agitated water becomes again calm by arriving at a
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: smoother and less precipitous bed. But its course is soon
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: again ruffled and the current thrown into every variety of
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: form which the rocky channel of a river can give
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: to water. VD eight. Green's Guide to the Lakes volume one,
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: pages ninety eight to one hundred. After all, the traveler
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: would be most gratified. Who should approach this beautiful stream,
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: neither at its source, as is done in the Sonnets,
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: nor from its termination, but from Coniston over Walna Scar,
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: first descending into a little circular valley, a collateral compartment
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: of the long winding vale through which flows the dudden.
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: This recess towards the close of September, when the after
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: grass of the meadows is still of a fresh green,
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: with the leaves of many of the trees faded but
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: perhaps non fallen, is truly enchanting. At a point elevated
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: enough to show the various objects in the valley, and
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: not so high as to diminish their importance, the stranger
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: will instinctively halt on the foreground. A little below the
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: most favorable station, A rude footbridge is thrown over the
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: bed of the noisy brook, foaming by the wayside. Russet
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: and craggy hills of bold and varied outline surround the
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: level valley, which is besprinkled with gray rocks plumed with
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: birch trees. A few homesteads are interspersed in some places
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: peeping out from among the rocks, like hermitages whose sight
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: has been chosen for the benefit of sunshine as well
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: as shelter. In other instances, the dwelling house, barn, and
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: bayer composed together a cruciform structure, which, with its embowering
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: trees and the ivy clothing part of the walls and
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: roof like a fleece, call to mind the remains of
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: an ancient abbey. Time in most cases, and nature everywhere,
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: have given a sanctity to the humble works of man
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: that are scattered over this peaceful retirement, hence a harmony
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: of tone and color, a perfection and consummation of beauty,
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: which would have been marred had aim or purpose interfered
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: with the course of convenience, utility, or necessity. This unvitiated
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: region stands in no need of the vale of te
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: twilight to soften or disguise its features. As it glistens
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: in the morning sunshine, it would fill the spectator's heart
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: with gladsomeness. Looking from our chosen station, he would feel
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: an impatience to rove among its pathways, to be greeted
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: by the milkmaid, to wander from house to house, exchanging
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: good morrows as he passed the open doors. But at evening,
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: when the sun is set and a pearly light gleams
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: from the western quarter of the sky, with an answering
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: light from the smooth surface of the meadows, when the
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: trees are dusky, but each kind still distinguishable, when the
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: cool air has condensed the blue smoke rising from the
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: cottage chimneys, when the dark, mossy stones seem to sleep
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: in the bed of the foaming brook, then he would
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: be unwilling to move forward, not less from a reluctance
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: to relinquish what he beholds, than from an apprehension of
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: disturbing by his approach the quietness beneath him. Issuing from
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: the plain of this valley, the brook descends in a
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: rapid torrent, passing by the churchyard of Seathwaite. The traveler
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: is thus conducted at once into the midst of the
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: wild and beautiful scenery which gave occasion to the sonnets
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: from the fourteenth to the twentieth inclusive. From the point
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: where the Seathwaite Brook joins the Duddon is a view
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: upwards into the pass through which the river makes its
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: way into the plain of Donnedale. The perpendicular rock on
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: the right bears the ancient British name of the pen.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: The one opposite is called Waller Barrow Crag, a name
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: that occurs in several places to designate rocks of the
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: same character. The chaotic aspect of the scene is well
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: marked by the expression of a stranger who strolled out
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: while dinner was preparing, and, at his return, being asked
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: by his host what way had he been wandering, replied,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: as far as it is finished. The bed of Duddon
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: is here strewn with large fragments of rock fallen from
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: a loft, which, as mister Greene truly says, are happily
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: adapted to the many shaped waterfalls, or that water breaks,
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: for none of them are high displayed in the short
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: space of half a mile. That there is some hazard
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: in frequenting these desolate places, I myself have had proof,
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: for one night an immense mass of rock fell upon
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: the very spot where with a friend I had lingered
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: the day before. The concussion, says mister Greene, speaking of
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: the event, for he, also, in the practice of his
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: art on that day, sat exposed for a still longer
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: time to the same peril was heard not without alarm
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: by the neighboring shepherds, but to return to Seathwaite churchyard.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: It contains the following inscription in memory of the Reverend
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: Robert Walker, who died the twenty fifth of June eighteen
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: o two, in the ninety third year of his age
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: and sixty seventh of his curacy at Seathwaite. Also a
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: ann his wife, who died the twenty fourth of January
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: in the ninety third year of her age. In the
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: Paris Register as Seethwaite Chapel is this notice buried June
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: twenty eighth the Reverend Robert Walker. He was curate of
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: Seathwaite sixty six years. He was a man singular for
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: his temperance, industry and integrity. The individual is the pastor
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: alluded to in the eighteenth Sonnet as a worthy compeer
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: of the country, parson of Chaucer, et cetera. An abstract
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: of his character is given in the author's poem of
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: the Excursion, and some accounts of his life, for it
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: is worthy of being recorded, will not be out of
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: place here. Memoir of the Reverend Robert Walker in the
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: year seventeen o nine Robert Walker was born at under
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: Crag in Seathwaite. He was the youngest of twelve children.
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: His eldest brother, who inherited the small family estate, died
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: at under Crag aged ninety four, being twenty four years
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: older than the subject of this memoir, who was born
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: of the same mother. Robert was a sickly infant, and
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: through his boyhood and youth, continuing to be of delicate
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: frame and tender health. He was deemed best, according to
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: the country phrase, to breed him a scholar, for it
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: was not likely that he would be able to earn
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: a livelihood by bodily labour. At that period, few of
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: these dales were furnished with schoolhouses, the children being taught
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: to read and write in the chapel and in the
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: same consecrated building where he officiated for so many years,
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: both as preacher and schoolmaster. He himself received the rudiments
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: of his education in his youth. He became schoolmaster at
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: Low's Water, not being called upon, probably in that situation,
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: to teach more than reading, writing and arithmetic, But by
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: the assistance of a gentleman in the neighbourhood, he acquired,
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: at leisure hours a knowledge of the classics, and became
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: qualified for taking holy orders. Upon his ordination, he had
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: the offer of two curuses, the one Torvah in the
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: Vale of Coniston, the other Seathwaite in his native Veil.
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: The value of each was the same viz. Five pounds annam,
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: but the cure of Seathwaite having a cottage attached to it.
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: As he wished to marry, he chose it in preference.
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: The young person on whom his affections were fixed, though
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: in the condition of a domestic servant, had given promise,
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: by her serious and modest deportments, and by her virtuous dispositions,
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: that she was worthy to become the helpmate of a
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: man entering upon a plan of life such as he
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: had marked out for himself. By her frugality, she had
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: stored up a small sum of money with which they
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: began housekeeping. In seventeen thirty five or seventeen thirty six
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: he entered upon his curacy, and nineteen years afterwards. His
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: situation is thus described in some letters to be found
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: in the Annual Register for seventeen sixty, from which the
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: following is extracted. Sir Coniston, July twenty sixth seventeen fifty four.
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: I was the other day upon a party of pleasure,
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: about five or six miles from this place, where I
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: met with a very strike king object, and of a
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: nature not very common. Going into a clergyman's house of
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: whom I had frequently heard, I found him sitting at
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: the head of a long square table, such as is
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: commonly used in this country by the lower class of people,
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: dressed in a coarse blue frock trimmed with black horn buttons,
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: a checked shirt, a leathern strap about his neck for
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: a stock, a coarse apron, and a pair of great
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: wood and soled shoes plated with iron to preserve them
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: what we call clogs in these parts, with a child
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: upon his knee, eating his breakfast. His wife and the
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: remainder of his children were, some of them employed in
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: waiting on each other. The rest in teasing and spinning wool,
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: at which trade he is a great proficient, And moreover,
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: when it is made ready for sale, he will lay
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: it by sixteen or thirty two pounds weight upon his back,
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: and on foot seven or eight miles will carry it
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: to the market, even in the depth of winter. I
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: was not much surprised at all this, as you may
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: possibly be, having heard a great deal of it related before.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: But I must confess myself astonished with the alacrity and
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: the good humor that appeared both in the clergyman and
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: his wife, and more so at the sense and ingenuity
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: of the clergyman himself. Then follows a letter from another person,
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: dated seventeen fifty five, from which an extract shall be given.
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: By his frugality and good management, he keeps the wolf
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: from the door, as we say, and if he advances
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: a little in the world, it is owing more to
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: his own care than to anything else he has to
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: rely upon. I don't find his inclination is running after
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: further preferment. He is settled among the people that are
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: happy among themselves, and lives in the greatest unanimity and
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: friendship with them. And I believe the Minister and people
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: are exceedingly satisfied with each other. And indeed, how should
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: they be dissatisfied when they have a person of so
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: much worth and probity for their pastor, a man who
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: for his candor and meekness, his sober, chaste and virtuous conversation,
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: his soundness in principle, and practice is an ornament to
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: his profession and an honor to the country he is in.
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: And bear with me if I say the plainness of
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: his dress, the sanctity of his manners, the simplicity of
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: his doctrine, and the vehemence of his expression have a
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: sort of resemblance to the pure practice of primitive Christianity.
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: We will now give his own account of himself to
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: be found in the same place from the Reverend Robert Walker. Sir,
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: yours of the twenty sixth Instant was communicated to me
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: by mister c and I should have returned an immediate
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: answer for the hand of providence, then, lying heavy upon
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: an amiable pledge of conjugal endearment, hath since taken from
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: me a promising girl, which the disconsolate mother too pensively
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: laments the loss of. Though we have yet eighte living,
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: all healthful, hopeful children, whose names and ages are as
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: follows Zacchius aged on my eighteen years, Elizabeth sixteen years
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: and ten months, Mary fifteen, Moses thirteen years and three months,
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: Sarah ten years and three months, Mabel eight years and
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: three months, William Tyson three years and eight months, and
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: Anne esther one year and three months. Besides Anne, who
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: died two years and six months ago and was then
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: aged between nine and ten, and Eleanor who died the
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: twenty third inst January aged six years and ten months. Zaccius,
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: the eldest child, is now learning the trade of tanner,
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: and has two years and a half of his apprenticeship
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: to serve. The annual income of my chapel at present,
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: as near as I can compute, it may amount to
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: about seventeen pound ten shillings, of which is paid in
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: cash viz. Five pounds from the bounty of Queen Anne,
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: and five pound from w p Esquire of p out
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: of the annual rents, he being lord of the manor,
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: and three pound from the several inhabitants of l settled
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: upon the tenements as a rent charge. The house and
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: gardens I value at four pound yearly, and not worth more.
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: And I believe the surplus fees and voluntary contributions one
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: year with another may be worth three pound. But as
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: the inhabitants are few in number and the fees very low,
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: this last mentioned sum consists merely in free will offerings.
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: I have situated greatly to my satisfaction with regard to
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: the conduct and behavior of my auditory, who not only
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: live in the happy ignorance of the follies and vices
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: of the age, but in mutual peace and good will
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: with one another, and as seemingly I hope really too,
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: sincere Christians as sound members of the established Church, not
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: one dissenter of any denomination being amongst them all. I
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: got to the value of forty pound for my wife's fortune,
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: but had no real estate of my own, being the
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: youngest son of twelve children born of obscure parents. And
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: though my income has been but small and my family large,
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: yet by a providential blessing upon my own diligent endeavors,
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: the kindness of friends, and a cheap country to live in,
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: we have always had the necessaries of life. By what
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: I have written, which is a true and exact account
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: to the best of my knowledge, I hope you will
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: not think your favor to me out of the late
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: worthy doctor Stratford's effects quite misbestowed, for which I must
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: ever gratefully own myself, Sir, your much obliged and most
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: obedient humble servant, R. W. Curate of s to Mister
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: c of Lancaster about the time when this letter was written.
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: The Bishop of Chester recommended the scheme of joining the
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: curacy of Ulpha to the contiguous one of Seathwaite, and
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: the nomination was offered to mister Walker, but an unexpected
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: difficulty arising. Mister w in a letter to the Bishop,
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: a copy of which in his own beautiful handwriting now
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: lies before me, thus expresses himself if he, meaning the
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: person in whom the difficulty originated, has suggested any such
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: objection before, I should utterly have declined any attempt to
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: the curacy of Ulpha. Indeed, I was always apprehensive it
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: might be disagreeable to my auditory at Seathwaite, as they
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: have been always accustomed to double duty, and the inhabitants
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: of Ulpha despair of being able to support a schoolmaster
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: who is not cureate there also which suppressed all thoughts
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: in me of serving them both. And in a second
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: letter to the Bishop he writes, my Lord, I have
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: the favor of yours of the first inst and am
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: exceedingly obliged on account of the Ulpha affair. If that
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: curacy should lapse into your Lordship's hands, I would beg
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: leave rather to decline than embrace it, for the chapels
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: of Seathwaite and Ulpha annexed together would be apt to
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: cause a general discontent among the inhabitants of both places,
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: by either thinking themselves slighted, being only served alternately or
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: neglected in the duty, or attributing it to covetousness in me,
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: all which occasions of murmuring I would willingly avoid. And
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: in concluding his former letter he expresses a similar sentiment
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: upon the same occasion, desiring, if it be possible, however,
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: as much as in Meliath, to live peaceably with all men.
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: The year following the curacy of Seathwaite was again augmented,
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: and to effect this augmentation, fifty pounds had been advanced
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: by himself, and in seventeen sixty lands were purchased with
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: eight hundred pounds scanty as was his income. The frequent
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: offer of much better benefices could not tempt mister w
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: to quit a situation where he had been so long happy,
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: with a consciousness of being useful. Among his papers I
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: find the following copy of a letter dated seventeen seventy five,
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: twenty years after his refusal of the curacy of Ulpha,
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: which will show what exertions had been made for one
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: of his sons. May it please your Grace, our remote
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: situation here makes it difficult to get the necessary information
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: for transacting business regularly. Such is the reason of my
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: giving Your Grace the present trouble. The bearer, my son
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: is desirous of offering himself candidate for Deacon's orders at
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: Your Grace's ensuing ordination, the first on the twenty fifth
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: inst so that his papers could not be transmitted in
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: due time. As he is now fully at age, and
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: I have afforded him education to the utmost of my ability,
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: it would give me great satisfaction if Your Grace would
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: take him and find him qualified to have him ordained.
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: His constitution has been tender for some years. He entered
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: the College of Dublin, but his health would not permit
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: him to continue there, or I would have supported him
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: much longer. He has been with me at home above
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: a year, in which time he has gained great strength
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: of body, sufficient I hope to enable him for performing
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: the function. Divine providence, assisted by liberal benefactors, has blessed
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: my endeavors from a small income to rear a numerous
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: family and as my time of life renders me now
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: unfit for much future expectancy from this world, I should
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: be glad to see my son settled in a promising
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: way to acquire an honest livelihood for himself. His behavior
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: so far in life has been irreproachable, and I hope
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: he will not degenerate in principles or practice from the
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: precepts and pattern of an indulgent parent. Your Grace's favorable
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: reception of this from a distant corner of the diocese
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: and an obscure hand, will excite filial gratitude, and a
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: due use shall be made of the obligation vouchsafed thereby
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: to your Grace's very dutiful and most obedient son and servant,
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: Robert Walker. The same man who was thus liberal in
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: the education of his numerous family, was even unificent in hospitality.
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: As a parish priest. Every sandy was served upon the
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: long table at which he has been described, sitting with
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: a child upon his knee, messes of broth for the
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: refreshment of those of his congregation who came from a distance,
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: and usually took their seats as parts of his own household.
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: It seems scarcely possible that this custom could have commenced
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: before the augmentation of his cure, and what would to
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: many have been a high price of self denial was
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: paid by the pastor and his family for this gratification,
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: as the treat could only be provided by dressing at
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: one time the whole perhaps of their weekly allowance of
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: fresh animal food. Consequently, for a succession of days the
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: table was covered with cold victuals. Only. His generosity in
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: old age may be still further illustrated by a little
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: circumstance relating to an orphan grandson, then ten years of age,
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: which I find in a copy of a letter to
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: one of his sons. He requests that half a guinea
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: made left the little Robert's pocket money, who is then
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: at school, entrusting it to the care of a lady, who,
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: as he says, may sometimes for straight his squandering it
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: away foolishly, and promising to send him an equal allowance
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: annually for the same purpose. The conclusion of the same
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: letter is so characteristic that I cannot forbear to transcribe it. We,
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: meaning his wife and himself, are in our wonted state
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: of health, allowing for the hasty strides of old age,
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: knocking daily at our door and threateningly telling us we
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: are not only mortal, but must expect ere long to
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: take our leave of our ancient cottage and lie down
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: in our last dormitory. Pray pardon my neglect to answer yours.
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: Let us hear sooner from you to augment the mirth
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: of the Christmas holidays. Wishing you all the pleasures of
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: the approaching season. I am dear son, with lasting sincerity,
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: Yours affectionately, Robert Walker. He loved old customs and usages,
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: and in some inn instances stuck to them, to his
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: own loss. For having had a sum of money lodged
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: in the hands of a neighboring tradesman, when long course
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: of time had raised the rate of interest and more
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: was offered, he refused to accept it, an act not
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: difficult to want, who, while he was drawing seventeen pounds
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: a year from his curacy, declined, as we have seen,
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: to add the profits of another small benefice to his own,
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: lest he should be suspected of cupidity. From this vice
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: he was utterly free. He made no charge for teaching school.
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: Such as could afford to pay, gave him what they
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: pleased when very young, having kept a diary of his expenses,
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: however trifling, the large amount at the end of the
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: year surprised him, and from that time the rule of
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: his life was to be economical, not avaricious. At his
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: decease he left behind him no less a sum than
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: two thousand pounds, And such a sense of his various
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: excellencies was prevalent in the country that the epithet of
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: war wonderful is to this day attached to his name.
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: There is in the above sketch something so extraordinary as
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: to require further explanatory details. And to begin with his industry.
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: Eight hours in each day, during five days of the
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: week and half of Saturday, except when the labours of
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: husbandry were urgent, he was occupied in teaching. His seat
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: was within the rails of the altar. The communion table
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: was his desk, and like Shenstone's schoolmistress, the master employed
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: himself at the spinning wheel while the children were repeating
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: their lessons by his side. Every evening after school hours,
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: if not more profitably engaged, he continued the same kind
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: of labor, exchanging for the benefit of exercise the small
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: wheel at which he had sat for the large one
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: on which woollis span the spinner stepping to and fro.
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: Thus was the wheel constantly in readiness to prevent the
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: waste of a moment's time. Nor was his industry with
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: the pen when occasion called for it less eager. Entrusted
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: with extensive management of public and private affairs, he acted
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: in his rustic neighborhood as scrivener, writing out petitions, deeds
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: of conveyance, wills, covenants, et cetera, with pecuniary gain to
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: himself and to the great benefit of his employers. These labours,
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: at all times considerable at one period of the year,
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: this between Christmas and Candle Mass, when money transactions are
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: settled in this country, were often so intense that he
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: passed great part of the night, and sometimes whole nights,
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: at his desk. His garden also was tilled by his
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: own hand. He had a right of pasturage upon the
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: mountains for a few sheep and a couple of cows,
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: which required his attendants. With this pastoral occupation, he joined
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: the labours of husbandry upon a small scale, renting two
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: or three acres in addition to his own less than
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: one acre of glebe and the humblest druggery which the
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: cultivation of these fields required, was performed by himself. He
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: also assisted his neighbours in haymaking and shearing their flocks,
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: and in the performance of this latter service he was
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: eminently dexterous. They, in their turn, complimented him with the
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: present of a haycock or a fleece, less as a
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: recompense for this particular service than as a general acknowledgment.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: The Sabbath was in a strict sense kept wholly, the
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: Sunday evenings being devoted to reading the scripture and family prayer.
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: The principal festivals appointed by the church were also duly observed.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: But through every other day in the week, through every
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: other week in the year, he was incessantly occupied in
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: work of hand or mind, not allowing a moment for
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: recreation except upon a Saturday afternoon, when he indulged himself
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: with a newspaper or sometimes with a magazine. The frugality
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: and temperance established in his house were as admirable as
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: the industry. Nothing to which the name of luxury could
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: be given was there known in the latter part of
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: his life. Indeed, when Tea had been brought into almost
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: general use. It was provided for visitors and for such
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: of his own family as returned occasionally to his roof,
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: and had been accustomed to this refreshment elsewhere, but neither
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: he nor his wife ever partook of it. The raiment
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: worn by his family was comely and decent, but as
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: simple as their diet. The home spun materials were made
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: up into apparrel by their own hands. At the time
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: of the decease of this thrifty pair, their cottage contained
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: a large store of webs of woolen and linen cloth
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: woven from thread of their own spinning. And it is
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: remarkable that the pew in the chapel in which the
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: family used to sit remained a few years ago, neatly
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: lined with woolen cloth spanned by the pastor's own hands.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: It is the only pew in the chapel so distinguished,
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: and I know of no other instance of his conformity
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: to the delicate accommodations of modern times. The fuel of
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: the house, like that of their neighbours, consisted of peat
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: procured from the mosses by their own labour. The lights
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: by which in the winter evenings their work was performed
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: were of their own manufacture, such as still continue to
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: be used in these cottages. They are made of the
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: pith of rushes, dipped in any unctuous substance that the
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: house affords. White candles, as tallow candles are here called,
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: were reserved to honour the Christmas festivals, and were perhaps
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: produced upon no other occasions. Once a month, during the
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: proper season, a sheep was drawn from their small mountain
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: flock and killed for the use of the family, and
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: a cow towards the close of the year was salted
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: and dried for winter provision. The hide was tanned to
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: furnish them with shoes. By these various resources, this venerable
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: clergyman reared a numerous family, not only preserving them, as
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: he affectingly says, from wanting the necessaries of life, but
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: afforded them an unstinted education and the means of raising
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: themselves in society. It might have been concluded that no
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: one could, thus, as it were, have converted his body
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: into a machine of industry for the humblest uses, and
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: kept his thoughts so frequently bent upon secular concerns without
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: grievous injury to the most precious parts of his nature.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: How could the powers of intellect thrive or its graces
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: be displayed in the midst of circumstances apparently so unfavorable,
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: And where to the direct cultivation of the mind so
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: small a portion of time was allotted. But in this
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: extraordinary man, things in their nature adverse were reconciled. His
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: conversation was remarkable, not only for being chaste and pure,
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: but for the degree in which it was fervent and eloquent.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: His written style was correct, simple, and animated. Nor did
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: his affections suffer more than his intellect. He was tenderly
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: alive to all the duties of his pastoral office. The
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: poor and needy he never sent empty away. The stranger
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: was fed and refreshed in passing that unfrequented veil. The
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: sick were visited, and the feelings of humanity found further
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: exercise among the distresses and embarrassments in the worldly estate
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: of his neighbours with which his talents for business made
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: him acquainted. And the disinterestedness, impartiality, and uprightness which he
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: maintained in the management of all affairs confided to him,
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: were virtues seldom separated. In his own conscience from religious obligations,
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: Nor could such conduct fail to remind those who witnessed
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: it of a spirit nobler than law or custom. They
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: felt convictions which but for such intercourse could not have
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: been afforded, that as in the practice of their pastor
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: there was no guile, so in his faith there was
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: nothing hollow. And we are warranted in believing that upon
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: these occasions, selfishness, obstin tanacy, and discord would often give
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: way before the breathings of his good will and saintly integrity.
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: It may be presumed also, while his humble congregation were
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: listening to the moral precepts which he delivered from the pulpit,
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: and to the Christian exhortations that they should love their
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: neighbor as themselves and do as they would be done onto,
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: that particular efficacy was given to the preacher's labors by
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: recollections in the minds of his congregation, that they were
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: called upon to do no more than his own actions
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: were daily setting before their eyes. The afternoon's service in
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: the chapel was less numerously attended than that of the morning,
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: but by a more serious auditory. The lesson from the
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: New Testament on those occasions was accompanied by Burkett's commentaries.
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: These lessons he read with impassioned emphasis, frequently drawing tears
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: from his hearers and leaving a lasting impression upon their minds.
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: His devotional feelings and the powers of his own mind
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: were further exercised, along with those of his family, in
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: perusing the scriptures not only on the Sunday evenings, but
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: on every other evening, while the rest of the household
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: were at work, Some one of the children, and in
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: her turn the servant, for the sake of practice in
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: reading or for instruction, read the Bible aloud. And in
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: this manner the whole was repeatedly gone through. That no
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: common importance was attached to the observance of religious ordinances
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: by his family appears from the following memorandum by one
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: of his descendants, which I am tempted to insert at length,
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: as it is characteristic and somewhat curious. There is a
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: small chapel in the County Palatine of Lancaster, where a
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: certain clergyman has regularly officiated above sixty years, and a
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: few months ago administered the sacrament of the Lord's Supper
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: in the same to a decent number of devout communicants.
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: After the clergyman had received himself. The first company out
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: of the assembly who approached the altar and kneeled down
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: to be partakers of the sacred elements consisted of the
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: parson's wife, to whom he had been married upwards of
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: sixty years, one son and his wife, four daughters each
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: with her husband, whose ages all added together amount to
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: above seven hundred and fourteen years. The several and respective
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: distances from the place of each of their abodes to
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: the chapel where they all communicated will measure more than
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: one thousand English miles. Though the narration will appear surprising,
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: it is without doubt a fact that the same persons
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: exactly four years before met at the same place and
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: all joined in performance of the same venerable duty. He was,
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: indeed most zealously attached to the doctrine and frame of
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: the established church. We have seen him congratulating himself that
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: he had no dissenters in his cure of any denomination.
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: Some allowance must be made for the state of opinion
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: when his first religious impressions were received. Before the reader
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: will acquit him of bigotry. When I mention that at
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: the time of the arth augmentation of the cure, he
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: refused to invest part of the money in the purchase
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: of an estate offered to him upon advantageous terms, because
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: the proprietor was a Quaker, whether from scrupulous apprehension that
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: a blessing would not attend a contract framed for the
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: benefit of the church between persons not in religious sympathy
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: with each other, or as a seeker of peace, he
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: was afraid of the uncomplying disposition, which at one time
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: was too frequently conspicuous in that sect. Of this an
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: instance had fallen under his own notice, for while he
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: taught school at Low's Water, certain persons of that denomination
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: had refused to pay or be distrained upon for the
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: accustomed annual interest due from them, among others, under the
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: title of church stock, a great hardship upon the incumbent,
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: for the curacy of Low's Water was then scarcely less
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: poor than that of Seathwaite. To what degree this prejudice
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: of his was blameable need not be determined. And it
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: is that he was not only desirous, as he himself says,
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: to live in peace, but in love with all men.
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: He was placable and charitable in his judgments, and however
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: correct in conduct and rigorous to himself. He was ever
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: ready to forgive the trespasses of others, and to soften
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: the censure that was cast upon their frailties. He would
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: be unpardonable to admit that in the maintenance of his
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: virtues he received due support from the partner of his
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: long life. She was equally strict in attending to her
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: share of their joint cares, nor less diligent in her
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: appropriate occupations. A person who had been some time their
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: servant in the latter part of their lives concluded the
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: panegyric of her mistress by saying, to me, she was
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: no less excellent than her husband. She was good to
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: the poor, she was good to everything. He survived for
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: a short time this virtuous companion. When she died, he
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: ordered that her body should be born to them grave
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: by three of her daughters and one granddaughter. And when
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: the corpse was lifted from the threshold, he insisted, upon
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: lending his aid, and, feeling about, for he was then
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: almost blind, took hold of a napkin fixed to the coffin,
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: and as a bearer of the body entered the chapel,
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: a few steps from the lowly parsonage. What a contrast
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: does the life of this obscurely seated and in point
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: of worldly wealth, poorly repaid churchmen present to that of
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: a cardinal Wolsey. Oh tis a burthen Cromwell, tis a
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: burthen too heavy for a man who hopes for heaven.
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: We have been dwelling upon images of peace in the
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: moral world that have brought us again to the quiet
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: enclosure of consecrated ground in which this venerable pair lye interred.
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: The sounding brook that rolls close by the churchyard without
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: disturbing feeling or meditation, is now unfortunately laid bare. But
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: not long ago it participated with the chapel the shade
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: of some stately ash trees, which will not spring again.
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: While the spectator from this spot is looking round upon
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: the girdle of stony mountains that encompasses the vale masses
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: of rock, out of which monuments for all men that
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: ever existed might have been hewn, he would surprise him
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: to be told, as with truth he might be, that
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: the plain blue slab dedicated to the memory of this
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: aged pair is a production of a quarry in North Wales.
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: It was sent as a mark of respect by one
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: of their descendants from the Vale of Festigniog, a region
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: almost as beautiful as that in which it now lies.
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: Upon the Seathwaite Brook, at a small distance from the parsonage,
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: has been erected a mill for spinning yarn. It is
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: a mean and disagreeable object, though not unimportant to the spectator,
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: as calling to mind the momentous changes wrought by such
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: inventions in the frame of society, changes which have proved
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: especially unfavorable to these mountain solitudes. So much had been
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: affected by those new powers before the subject of the
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: preceding biographical sketch closed his life, that their operation could
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: not escape his notice, and doubtless excited touching reflections upon
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: the comparatively insignificant results of his own manual industry. But
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: Robert Walker was not a man of times and circumstances.
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: Had he lived at a later period, the principle of
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: duty would have produced application as unremitting. The same energy
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: of character would have been displayed, though in many instances
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: with widely different effects. Having mentioned in this narrative, the
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: vale of Low's Water as a place where mister Walker
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: taught school. I will add a few memorandums from its
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: parish register. Respecting a person apparently of desires as moderate
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: with whom he must have been intimate during his residence there,
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: Let him that would ascend the tottering seat of courtly
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: grandeur and become as great as are his mounting wishes.
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: But for me, sweet repose and rest my portion be
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: Henry Forrest curate honor the idol which the most adore
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: receives no homage from my knee. Content in privacy I
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: value more than all uneasy dignity. Henry Forrest came to
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: Loweswater seventeen o eight, being twenty five years of age.
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: This curacy was twice augmented by Queen Anne's bounty. The
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: first payment, with great difficulty, was paid to mister John
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: Kerwin of London on the ninth of May seventeen twenty four,
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: deposited by me Henry Forrest, Curate of Low's Water. The
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: said ninth of May, the said mister Kirwin went to
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: the office and saw my name registered there, et cetera. This,
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: by the providence of God, came by lot to this
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: poor place Haig testor H. Forrest. In another place, he
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: records that the sycamore trees were planted in the churchyard
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: in seventeen ten. He died in seventeen forty one, having
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: been cure at thirty four years. It is not improbable
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: that h. Forest was the gentleman who assisted Robert Walker
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: in his classical studies at Low's Water. To this parish
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: register is prefixed a motto of which the following verses
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: are part in. Vigilati viri tasito nam tempera gressu difujion
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: nuloque son no convertitur anus who tend them estetat sitope
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: de preteritates, Sonnet thirty three. We feel that we are
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: greater than we know, and feel that I am happier
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: than I know Milton. The allusion to the Greek poet
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: will be obvious to the classical reader. End of the
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: River dud and Sonnets by William Wordsworth