Cumberland Poet and Schoolmaster, St. John’s Vale. April 30th, 1886
Oh, never clad in Academic gown,
To wisdom led the simpler cottage way;
By nature tended till thy hairs were grey,—
The heart of nature grew into thine own;
And, whether ’neath Helvellyn’s moorland brown,
Or, as by glittering Bure thy steps would stray,
A poet-angler; or, on market-day,
Mixed with the yeomen of our village town,
Above they estate thy soul did ever soar,
Beyond thy mortal sight thine eyes could see
And the poor scholars at their upland school
Learned of thee this—the Poet’s golden rule—
That eyes and hearts were given to man, to be
On earth the gatherers of a heavenly lore.
(English Lakes Visitor and Keswick Guardian, 8 May 1886, p. 5)