Round the Lake Country (Glasgow, 1909)

Dedicated ‘To the Memory of the Late Rev. W. S. Calverley, a Pioneer in the Preservation and Understanding of many of the Norse Sculptured Stones in Cumberland’.  William Slater Calverley (1847-1898) served in a number of Lake District parishes before becoming vicar of St. Kentigern’s Church, Aspatria, in 1885.  He was an amateur antiquarian of some distinction.

In its review of the book, the local newspaper, the Penrith Observer, noted:

In prose and verse, the contributions of Canon Rawnsley to the literature of the Lakeland counties would suffice to make a very respectable library.  His volumes are numerous, but probably the fugitive pieces if brought together would make a still larger bulk.  What is more to the purpose, the Vicar of Crosthwaite never lacks interest in what he writes.  His sonnets, which seem to have been less frequent than was the case a few years ago, have not invariably reached a high level of merit, giving the impression of having been “knocked off” by way of pastime rather than as serious literary efforts.  But when content to leave the muse and adopt the more attractive prose, Canon Rawnsley has no superior as a writer on topics pertaining to the land of fells and lakes.  One reason for this stands out transparently in every one of his volumes: he is steeped in the literature of Cumberland and Westmeria.  No writer has ever produced anything worth reading which the Canon cannot recall and utilise with good effect.  Every parish, and almost every mile of many parishes, is occupied for him by the spirits of dead and gone notabilities; every mountain, fell, tarn, lake, and moor has its story, ancient or modern, many of them, indeed, told in recent years by the pen of the Vicar of Crosthwaite.  He does not pose as an archaeologist, nor as a deep antiquary, but in other phases of local life Canon Rawnsley can rightly claim an unequalled position.  For these among other reasons, lovers of local literature will welcome another volume from him.

 

Contents

Round the Coast of the Lake Country (pp. 1-24)

The Lily-Woods of Arnside (pp. 25-37)

In a Cumbrian Gullery (pp. 38-46)

The Gosforth Cross (pp. 47-67)

At St. Bees (pp. 68-79)

St. Cuthbert’s Last Journey in Cumberland (pp. 80-90)

Gowbarrow Fell and Aira Force (pp. 91-106)

At the World’s End (pp. 107-125)

At the Countess’ Pillar (pp. 126-157)

Ald Hoggart O’ Troutbeck (pp. 158-191)

Brough Hill Fair (pp. 192-209)

The Bewcastle Cross (pp. 210-227)

 

Hits: 4184

Poems at Home and Abroad (Glasgow, 1909)

One reviewer wrote of this collection of poems:

Canon Rawnsley has the faculty of placing vivid impressions in vivid verse.  He is a true and worthy disciple of Wordsworth.  In our own and other columns he has dealt with events of the moment in verse which always displays a wonderful faculty for grasping the inner meaning of these events.  This, too, is Wordsworthian in influence.  Poems at Home and Abroad show Canon Rawnsley in every phase of his art.

 

Contents

Poems of Italy and Abroad

May-time on Monte Subasio (p. 1)

On the Way to Rivo Torto (p. 7)

St. Francis (p. 10)

Sabbath Dawn at Castel di Poggio (p. 11)

Sunrise at Castel di Poggio (p. 13)

The Vindemia at Degli’ Angeli (p. 14)

On Leaving Florence by Starlight (p. 15)

From Orta to Varallo (p. 16)

At the Chapel of the Madonna del Belmone above Taponacchio, Fobello (p. 20)

Ponte Gula (p. 21)

Bilâl the Muedzzin (p. 23)

Poems of the Months

The Seasons: A Song from the Grasmere Play (p. 33)

A February Song (p. 36)

A Spring Song at the Lakes (p. 38)

March—Summer (p. 39)

April Showers (p. 42)

A Rainless April (p. 43)

The First Swallow (p. 44)

Foxgloves at Brandelhow (p. 45)

June Twilight at Eversley (p. 46)

July at the Lakes (p. 48)

Heather on Lonscale (p. 51)

September at the Lakes (p. 53)

The Tropaeolum Speciosum (p. 54)

Skating on Derwentwater (p. 55)

Christmas (p. 56)

The Keswick Old Folks’ Dinner (p. 57)

A Crosthwaite Belfry Song (p. 58)

Poems of the Birds

The Chaffinch’s Nest (p. 61)

’Twixt Sunrise and the Moon (p. 63)

A Thrush in Spring (p. 64)

The Blackbird Dead (p. 65)

Sadness in Song (p. 66)

The Chorus of the Dawn (p. 67)

The Waking of the Birds (p. 69)

The Chiff-Chaff (p. 70)

The Birthday of the Singers (p. 72)

‘Ubi Aves ibi Angeli’ (p. 73)

Fieldfares (p. 74)

Memorial Sonnets

The Village Naturalist: In Memory of William Greenip, 2nd November, 1890 (p. 79)

A Lake Country Guide: H. I. J., 1891 (p. 80)

John Ruskin: At Rest, Brantwood, Sunday, 21st January, 1900 (p. 81)

At Ruskin’s Grave: On His Birthday, 8th February, 1900 (p. 82)

In Memoriam: J. R. A., 20th March, 1907 (p. 83)

Senator Hoar (p. 84)

John Milton (p. 85)

The Gift of the Leigh Woods to Bristol: In Honour of G. W., 30th March (p. 86)

Algernon Charles Swinburne: 10th April, 1909 (p. 87)

Miscellaneous Poems

We meet at Morn, my Dog and I (p. 91)

The Sorrow of the May (p. 93)

The Fiddler’s Funeral (p. 95)

A Westmoreland Song (p. 98)

The Westmoreland Emigrant (p. 100)

Home from Italy (p. 102)

At Dunnabeck (p. 103)

Dawn in Greece and Cumberland—A Contrast (p. 105)

The Stag Impaled (p. 106)

Jupiter and Venus (p. 107)

A Shadow on Scafell: In Memoriam Prof. A. Milne Marshall, of Owens College, Manchester, who died by a fall from the crags above Lod’s Rake on Scafell, 31st December, 1893 (p. 108)

At Buck Castle: The Prehistoric Fort of Refuge at the head of Shoulthwaite Ghyll (p. 109)

In the Wray Garden (p. 111)

The Streamlet at the Wray (p. 112)

The Bewcastle Cross (p. 114) 

The Sycamore at High Close: 17th August, 1908 (p. 118)

A Memory (p. 119)

 

Hits: 3992

Poems, Ballads, and Bucolics (London, 1890)

Dedicated to:

Phillips Brooks, of Boston, U.S.A., in memory of a day at Crosthwaite, and with gratitude for all he has done for the religious thought of England; and to those of his fellow-citizens who remember that their forefathers sailed from Lincolnshire.

Brooks (1835-1893) was an American Episcopal clergyman who visited Hardwicke in 1887.  Of the collection of poems, Hardwicke wrote:

Some of these poems have appeared in contemporary periodicals.  The Ballads, for the most part, record heroic deeds done in Great Britain and America during the past few years.  The Bucolics are sketches from real life in Lincolnshire.  The language of these latter has been made familiar by the poet Laureate…. Readers of dialect will bear in mind that the dialect herein spoken, and the folk-lore alluded to, are those of the old Danish colony whose children live between Horncastle, Louth, and Boston.

One review of the book said that it would be read:

with interest by lovers of poetry in general, and with a particular delight by those who know the scenes and characters that are to be met with in the rural parts of Lincolnshire.  Most of the pieces in the book draw their subject from the fen country.  Those which do not are ballads or odes founded upon heroic actions done in quite recent times.  These are celebrated in a stately line, which, however, is usually too coldly dignified to have much life.  On the other hand, the pieces in the Lincolnshire dialect are lively both in theme and treatment.  They naturally suggest a comparison with the Laureate’s poems in the same dialect.  Some notion of their quality may be conveyed when it is said that they bear the comparison without disparagement to themselves.

 

Contents

Introductory (p. 1)

The Poet’s Home-Going (p. 2)

Grand-Dad’s Annie, Dead (p. 13)

A Welcome to Stanley (p. 20)

The Old Partner Gone (p. 34)

Sister Rose Gertrude (p. 39)

The Old-Fashioned “Tortossy” Cat (p. 46)

Dreeäms (p. 63)

Father Damien (p. 65)

The Evil Eye (p. 70)

The Monkey-O’-Herse-Back Methody Man (p. 79)

A Brave Doctor: To the Memory of Doctors Rabbeth and Lysaght (p. 87)

In the Pig Market (p. 90)

The Village Carpenter (p. 92)

A Sad Letter (p. 99)

The Island Home: A Ballad of the East River, New York (p. 101)

Chaäsing the Sun; or, The Trak Wi’ the Terrible Naáme (p. 111)

Death the Befriender. A Ballad of the People’s Palace (p. 116)

Old Times (p. 122)

Lincolnshire Witches (p. 130)

Daniel Periton: A Ballad of the Conemaugh Flood (p. 136)

The Widower from Latrigg (p. 141)

The Ballad of Rosemarie; or, the White Cockade (p. 144)

The Legend of St Bees (p. 155)

Ram Buksh, the Leper (p. 168)

In a Garden (p. 173)

The Christmas Bells (p. 175)

An Old Conspiracy (p. 181)

Elijah at the Brook Cherith (p. 186)

A Libel (p. 190)

A Woman Saviour (p. 193)

A Farm-Yard Soliloquy (p. 197)

The Brave Pit Lads of Penicuick (p. 202)

A Hero’s Crown (p. 206)

Catherine Watson (p. 208)

A Gallant Quarryman (p. 212)

The Fox and Hound (p. 214)

Dead Man’s Pool (p. 217)

New Fangledy Waäys (p. 228)

The Engine-Driver. On the Pennsylvanian Railway (p. 238)

At the Ram-Show Dinner. After the Member’s Speech (p. 244)

Valedictory (p. 246)

 

Hits: 4058

Past and Present at the English Lakes (Glasgow, 1916)

Published in 1916, this was the last of Hardwicke’s numerous books on his beloved Lake District.  Some of the chapters are tinged with the background sadness of WW1.  As with some of his earlier books, there is a mixture of new material and re-published information.

The reviewer for the Liverpool Daily Post noted:

To think of the English Lakes is to think of certain names in literature whose history is bound up with that of the wonderland in which they dwelt.  Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge, De Quincy, Arnold, these are a few, and to them we must add that of Canon Rawnsley, for he has done for the Lake district in prose what Wordsworth did in poetry.  No holiday should be taken there without a full sense of the wonderful literary associations of every spot with men who found inspiration in the lakes, mountains, and meres for works as enduring as the scenes they celebrate.  And there is no better guide than Canon Rawnsley, for he has spent his life covering the footprints of the masters so that we may undertake a pilgrimage with accuracy and comfort.  And although the canon’s books demand a great space upon one’s bookshelves, there must be room made for yet another, for it is worthy of a place…. Canon Rawnsley has written a book full of interesting facts and observation; with accuracy he combines a literary grace which makes his writing a pleasure to the ear as well as the sense.  The book, as were its companions, is well illustrated.  

 

Contents

Sunrise on Helvellyn (pp. 1-9)

Reminiscences of Hartley Coleridge (pp. 10-36)

From Gowbarrow to Mardale and Back (pp. 37-63)

The German Miners at Keswick (pp. 64-84)

The Home of the German Miners in Tyrol (pp. 85-101)

The Bluebells of the Duddon (pp. 102-108)

The Consecration Crosses, St. Kentigern’s Church, Crosthwaite (pp. 109-118)

A Hundred Miles of Beauty at the Lakes (pp. 119-152)

*The Story of Gough and His Dog (pp. 153-208)

At the Sign of the Nag’s Head (pp. 209-229)

Crossing the Sands (pp. 230-269)

A Crack with Mrs. Dixon of Dove Cottage (pp. 270-283)

(* Published previously)

Hits: 3931