this book were, during many years, our principal associates in the Vale
of Grasmere, unless I were to except our very nearest neighbours. I have
entered so particularly into the main points of their history, that I
will barely testify in prose that (with the single exception of the
particulars of their journey to Grasmere, which, however, was exactly
copied from real life in another instance) the whole that I have said of
them is as faithful to the truth as words can make it. There was much
talent in the family, and the eldest son was distinguished for poetical
talent, of which a specimen is given in my Notes to the Sonnets on the
Duddon. Once, when in our cottage at Town-End, I was talking with him
about poetry, in the course of our conversation I presumed to find fault
with the versification of Pope, of whom he was an enthusiastic admirer.
He defended him with a warmth that indicated much irritation;
nevertheless I would not abandon my point, and said, 'In compass and
variety of sound your own versification surpasses his.' Never shall I
forget the change in his countenance and tone of voice: the storm was
laid in a moment, he no longer disputed my judgment, and I passed
immediately in his mind, no doubt, for as great a critic as ever lived.
I ought to add, he was a clergyman and a well-educated man, and his
verbal memory was the most remarkable of any individual I have known,
except a Mr. Archer, an Irishman, who lived several years in this
neighbourhood, and who in this faculty was a prodigy: he afterwards
became deranged, and I fear continues so if alive.
Then follows the character of Robert Walker, for which see Nates to the
Duddon.
Next that of the _Deaf Man_, whose epitaph may be seen in the churchyard
at the head of Hawes-Water, and whose qualities of mind and heart, and
their benign influence in conjunction with his privation, I had from his
relatives on the spot.
The _Blind Man_, next commemorated, was John Gough, of Kendal, a man
known, far beyond his neighbourhood, for his talents and attainments in
natural history and science.
Of the _Infants' Grave_ next noticed, I will only say, it is an exact
picture of what fell under my own observation; and all persons who are
intimately acquainted with cottage life must often have observed like
instances of the working of the domestic affections.
_A volley thrice repeated_.--This young volunteer bore the name of
Dawson, and was younger brother, if I am not mistaken, to the prodigal
of whose character and fortunes an account is given towards the
beginning of the preceding book. The father of the family I knew well;
he was a man of literary education and [considerable] experience in
society, much beyond what was common among the inhabitants of the Vale.
He had lived a good while in the Highlands of Scotland as a manager of
iron-works at Bunaw, and had acted as clerk to one of my predecessors in
the office of distributor of stamps, when he used to travel round the
country collecting and bringing home the money due to Government in
gold, which it may be worth while to mention, for the sake of my
friends, was deposited in the cell or iron closet under the west window,
which still exists, with the iron doors that guarded the property. This,
of course, was before the time of bills and notes. The two sons of this
person had no doubt been led by the knowledge of their father to take
more delight in scholarship, and had been accustomed, in their own
minds, to take a wider view of social interests, than was usual among
their associates. The premature death of this gallant young man was much
lamented, and as an attendant upon the funeral, I myself witnessed the
ceremony, and the effect of it as described in the poems, 'Tradition
tells that in Eliza's golden days,' 'A knight came on a war-horse,' 'The
house is gone.' The pillars of the gateway in front of the mansion
remained when we first took up our abode at Grasmere. Two or three
cottages still remain which are called Nott Houses, from the name of the
gentleman (I have called him a knight) concerning whom these traditions
survive. He was the ancestor of the _Knott_ family, formerly
considerable proprietors in the district. What follows in the discourse
of the 'Wanderer,' upon the changes he had witnessed in rural life by
the introduction of machinery, is truly described from what I myself saw
during my boyhood and early youth, and from what was often told me by
persons of this humble calling. Happily, most happily, for these
mountains, the mischief was diverted from the banks of their beautiful
streams, and transferred to open and flat counties abounding in coal,
where the agency of steam was found much more effectual for carrying on
those demoralising works. Had it not been for this invention, long
before the present time, every torrent and river in this district would
have had its factory, large and populous in proportion to the power of
the water that could there be commanded. Parliament has interfered to
prevent the night-work which was carried on in these mills as actively
as during the daytime, and by necessity, still more perniciously; a sad
disgrace to the proprietors and to the nation which could so long
tolerate such unnatural proceedings.
Reviewing, at this late period, 1843, what I put into the mouths of my
interlocutors a few years after the commencement of the century, I
grieve that so little progress has been made in diminishing the evils
deplored, or promoting the benefits of education which the 'Wanderer'
anticipates. The results of Lord Ashley's labours to defer the time when
children might legally be allowed to work in factories, and his
endeavours to still further limit the hours of permitted labour, have
fallen far short of his own humane wishes, and of those of every
benevolent and right-minded man who has carefully attended to this
subject; and in the present session of Parliament (1843) Sir James
Graham's attempt to establish a course of religious education among the
children employed in factories has been abandoned, in consequence of
what might easily have been foreseen, the vehement and turbulent
opposition of the Dissenters; so that for many years to come it may be
thought expedient to leave the religious instruction of children
entirely in the hands of the several denominations of Christians in the
Island, each body to work according to its own means and in its own way.
Such is my own confidence, a confidence I share with many others of my
most valued friends, in the superior advantages, both religious and
social, which attend a course of instruction presided over and guided by
the clergy of the Church of England, that I have no doubt, that if but
once its members, lay and clerical, were duly sensible of those
benefits, their Church would daily gain ground, and rapidly, upon every
shape and fashion of Dissent; and in that case, a great majority in
Parliament being sensible of these benefits, the ministers of the
country might be emboldened, were it necessary, to apply funds of the
State to the support of education on church principles. Before I
conclude, I cannot forbear noticing the strenuous efforts made at this
time in Parliament by so many persons to extend manufacturing and
commercial industry at the expense of agricultural, though we have
recently had abundant proofs that the apprehensions expressed by the
'Wanderer' were not groundless.
'I spake of mischief by the wise diffused,
With gladness thinking that the more it spreads
The healthier, the securer we become;
Delusion which a moment may destroy!'
The Chartists are well aware of this possibility, and cling to it with
all ardour and perseverance which nothing but wiser and more brotherly
dealing towards the many on the part of the wealthy few can moderate or
remove.