The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles Volume Ii Part 9

[Footnote 22: Young's "Night Thoughts."]

[Footnote 23: Clock in the Cathedral.]

[Footnote 24: Traditional name of the clock-image, seated in a chair, and striking the hours.]

[Footnote 25: _Vide_ the old ballad.]

[Footnote 26: A book, called the "Villager's Verse Book," to excite the first feelings of religion, from common rural imagery, was written on purpose for these children.]

[Footnote 27: See "Pilgrim's Progress."]

[Footnote 28: See Rowland Hill's caricatures, ent.i.tled "Village Dialogues."]

[Footnote 29: The text, which no Christian can misunderstand, "G.o.d is _not_ willing," is turned, by elaborate Jesuitical sophistry, to "G.o.d is willing," by one "master in Israel." So that, in fact, the Almighty, saying No when he should have said Yes, did not know what he meant, till such a sophistical blasphemer set him right! To such length does an adherence to preconceived Calvinism lead the mind.]

[Footnote 30: "And now abideth faith, hope, and charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."--_St Paul_.]

[Footnote 31: Literally the expression of Hawker, the apostle of thousands and thousands. I speak of the obvious inference drawn from such expressions, and this daring denial of the very words of his Master: "Happy are ye, _if_ ye do them!"--_Christ_. "_But_ in vain,"

_etc._]

[Footnote 32: I fear many churches have more to answer for than tabernacles.]

[Footnote 33: The long controversial note appended to this poem has been purposely suppressed.]

[Footnote 34: I forget in what book of travels I read an account of a poor Hottentot, who being brought here, clothed, and taught our language, after a year or two was seen, every day till he died, on some bridge, muttering to himself, "Home go, Saldanna."]

[Footnote 35: See Bishop Heber's Journal. Yet the Shaster, or the holy book of the Hindoos, says, "No one shall be burned, unless willingly!"]

[Footnote 36: Cowper.]

[Footnote 37: The English landlord has been held up to obloquy, as endeavouring to keep up the price of corn, for his own sordid interest; but rent never leads, it only follows, and the utmost a landlord can get for his capital is three per cent., whereas the lord of whirling wheels gains thirty per cent.]

[Footnote 38: These lines were written at Stourhead.]

[Footnote 39: The Bishop of Bath and Wells. Ken was one of the seven bishops sent to the Tower by James. He had character, patronage, wealth, station, eminence: he resigned all, at the accession of King William, for the sake of that conscience which, in a former reign, sent him a prisoner to the Tower. He had no home in the world; but he found an asylum with the generous n.o.bleman who had been his old schoolfellow at Winchester. Here, it is said, he brought with him his shroud, in which he was buried at Frome; and here he chiefly composed his four volumes of poems.]

[Footnote 40: The Rev. Mr Skurray.]

[Footnote 41: The seat of the Earl of Cork and Orrery.]

[Footnote 42: Mrs Heneage, Compton House.]

[Footnote 43: Mrs Methuen, of Corsham House.]

[Footnote 44: For the "Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge," on which occasion a sermon was preached by the author.]

[Footnote 45: A book, just published, with this t.i.tle, "The Duke of Marlborough is rector of Overton, near Marlborough."]

[Footnote 46: Rev. Charles Hoyle, Vicar of Overton, near Marlborough.]

[Footnote 47: "Killarney," a poem.]

[Footnote 48: Sonnets.]

[Footnote 49: "Exodus," a poem.]

[Footnote 50: Large coloured prints, in most cottages.]

[Footnote 51: The letter said to be written by our Saviour to King Agbarus is seen in many cottages.]

[Footnote 52: Tib, the cat.]

[Footnote 53: The notes of the cuckoo are the only notes, among birds, exactly according to musical scale. The notes are the fifth, and major third, of the diatonic scale.]

[Footnote 54: The "whip-poor-will" is a bird so called in America, from his uttering those distinct sounds, at intervals, among the various wild harmonies of the forest. See Bertram's Travels in America.]

[Footnote 55: In Cornwall, and in other countries remote from the metropolis, it is a popular belief, that they who are to die in the course of the year appear, on the eve of Midsummer, before the church porch. See an exquisite dramatic sketch on this subject, called "The Eve of St Mark," in Blackwood.]

[Footnote 56: Madern-stone, a Druidical monument in the village of Madern, to which the country people often resort, to learn their future destinies.]

[Footnote 57: Such is the custom in Cornwall.]

[Footnote 58: Polwhele. These are the first four lines of the real song of the season, which is called "The Furry-song of Helstone." Furry is, probably, from Feriae.]

[Footnote 59: _Campanula cymbalaria, foliis hederaciis_.]

[Footnote 60: _Erica multiflora_, common in this part of Cornwall.]

[Footnote 61: The rhythm of this song is taken from a ballad "most musical, most melancholy," in the Maid's Tragedy, "Lay a garland on my grave."]

[Footnote 62: The bay of St Ives.]

[Footnote 63: _Feniculum vulgare_, or wild fennel, common on the northern coast of Cornwall.]

[Footnote 64: Revel is a country fair.]

[Footnote 65: It is a common idea in Cornwall, that when any person is drowned, the voice of his spirit may be heard by those who first pa.s.s by.]

[Footnote 66: The pa.s.sage folded down was the 109th Psalm, commonly called "the imprecating psalm." I extract the most affecting pa.s.sages:--

"May his days be few."

"Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow."

"Let there be none to extend mercy."

"Let their name be blotted out, because he slayed even the broken in heart."]