Of poets, we have mentioned the saintly Heber. But there are others of
an earlier age. John Brownswerd, a native of the shire, was born in
1540, and after graduating at Cambridge became master of the Grammar
School at Macclesfield, earning fame as one of the best Latin poets of
his age. A tablet was raised to the memory of this “vir pius & doctus,”
who is described as
Alpha poetarum, coryphæus grammaticorum
Flos pædagogum hic sepelitur humo.
He died in 1589, a good example of the learned men of the Elizabethan
age, who trained their pupils in good classic lore. There were several
such schools in Cheshire--at Chester, Audlem, Northwich, and other
places. Another Elizabethan poet owed his education to such schools.
Geoffrey Whitney, who was born at Nantwich, learned his classics at
Audlem and Northwich, graduated at Oxford, and then migrated to Leyden.
There he published his _Choice of Emblemes_, printed in 1586 in the
famous printing-press of Christopher Plantyn, and a collection of
fables. Each poem is dedicated to one of the principal gentlemen in
Lancashire and Cheshire. The Cheshire historian Ormerod quotes a poem
addressed “to my countremen of the Namptwicke in Cheshire,” relating
to a fire that had lately destroyed the town, and comparing the place
to a phœnix, of which the poet gives a device. Near Northwich was born
Sir John Birkenhead, poet and political writer, of humble origin, his
father being either a saddler or an innkeeper. The excellence of the
Cheshire schools is again shown by his ability in taking a degree at
Oxford and a fellowship at Oriel College. When the Civil War broke
out he started the newspaper the _Mercurius Aulicus_ for the purpose
of “communicating the intelligence and affairs of the Court of Oxon
to the rest of the kingdom.” The King was pleased with this product
of his fluent pen, and appointed him Reader in Moral Philosophy.
When misfortune befell him with the fall of the Royal cause, he wrote
poems and divers political tracts, and at the Restoration was rewarded
for his loyalty with a knighthood and other lucrative appointments.
He has been described as a man “of great courage in words, scoffing
humour, an unscrupulous conscience, and an inexhaustible fund of arch
and mischievous drollery, ... one of the most expert and successful
guerilla partisans on the side of the Royalists.”
The poet Milton is connected with this county, as his third wife,
Elizabeth Mynshal, a lady connected with some of the best Cheshire
families, came from Cheshire and died at Nantwich. She is believed to
have been a termagant, and brought the poet little pleasure, but others
have described her as of “a peaceful and agreeable humour.”
The Rev. William Broome, a native of Cheshire, was a poet of some
distinction, a translator of Homer, and the coadjutor of Pope in the
translation of the _Odyssey_. He supplied all the notes to that work,
but he quarrelled with Pope, and was lampooned in the _Dunciad_. Dr.
Johnson gave him a niche in his _Lives of the Poets_, describing him
as an excellent versifier; “his lines are smooth and sonorous, and his
diction is select and elegant.” Another name must be honoured among
Cheshire poets, that of Henry Birkenhead, M.D., a poet of distinction,
Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, a founder in 1707 of the
Professorship of Poetry in that University.