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)

 

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Months at the Lakes (Glasgow, 1906)

The book is dedicated to Hardwicke’s older bother, Willingham, and his wife, Alice, who are ‘true lovers of the English Lakes and keen observers of Nature’.  About the book, Hardwicke writes:

It has been my custom for the past twenty years to keep a monthly record of the changes in the face and mood of Nature at the English Lakes.  These sketches of the ‘Months at the Lakes’ though written in the past two years, are a series of compound pictures or impressions drawn from such notes.

I have added thereto under each month some account of the more noticeable goings-on among the dale-folk, and matters of such local interest for lovers of country life as seemed specially to belong to the season.

The book was warmly praised by the critics.  One reviewer commented:

It is no wonder the English lakes are famous.  They have not only their devoted poet—nay, their school of devoted poets; they have also their clerical proseman.  Everybody who knows the literature of the lake country has read something or another of Canon Rawnsley’s.  His subject, however, is inexhaustible; his last book as fresh as his first.  Like the others, this is occupied by studies of the face of Nature as viewed both in the changes of scenery wrought by the seasons, and in the manners, customs, and characters of people in the dales.  Its sketches follow the order of the months, and set down from long observation how the countryside looks in January, how in February, and so on; but are saved from any monotony as of a gardener’s calendar, firstly, by their unrivalled knowledge of their subject, and secondly, by the skill with which they are interwoven with special studies of such incident as (to name a few) the “pace-egging” at Easter, the Grasmere sports, the North Country wrestling, and the Mardale Shepherds’ Meeting.  Charmingly pictorial themselves, they are accompanied by a few admirable photographic illustrations of characteristic scenes.  They make a book which will be read with a keen interest by anyone who wishes to realise what a fine show is to be seen in Keswick valley and thereaway as the months slue round the rollers in the diorama.     

 

Contents

January at the Lakes (pp. 1-7)

The Grasmere Dialect Play (pp. 7-17)

February at the Lakes (pp. 18-25)

White Candlemas (pp. 26-29)

March at the Lakes (pp. 30-36)

April at the Lakes (pp. 37-47)

Pace-Egging at Easter-Tide (pp.47-54)

May at the Lakes (pp. 55-62)

In Lily-Land (pp. 62-73)

June at the Lakes (pp. 74-82)

A Sunrise from Helvellyn (pp. 82-93)

July at the Lakes (pp. 94-103)

A Lake Country Sheep-Clipping (pp. 103-116)

August at the Lakes (pp. 117-126)

At the Grasmere Rushbearing. 1905 (pp. 126-132)

Wrestling in the North Countree (pp. 133-139)

The Grasmere Sports. 1905 (pp.140-153)

The Hound Trails of the North (pp. 153-159)

September at the Lakes (pp. 160-170)

A Day at Levens (pp. 171-181)

October at the Lakes (pp.182-191)

An October Day at Muncaster (pp. 192-202)

November at the Lakes (pp. 203-214)

The Mardale Shepherds’ Meeting (pp.214-233)

December at the Lakes (pp.234-240)

White Christmas at the Lakes (pp. 240-244)

 

 

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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)

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Memories of the Tennysons (Glasgow, 1900)

For many years there had been strong links between the Rawnsley and Tennyson families.  As vicars in neighbouring Lincolnshire parishes, Hardwicke’s grandfather and Alfred Tennyson’s father knew each other well.  Hardwicke’s father, Robert, and Alfred Tennysons were also close friends with Robert officiating at Alfred’s wedding in his parish church at Shiplake.  In fact, Alfred Tennyson spent the night before his wedding with the Rawnsleys in Shiplake Vicarage.  In addition, Hardwicke’s mother, Catherine, was a first cousin of Alfred’s wife, Emily Sellwood.  Hardwicke and his siblings grew up with constant interactions with the Tennyson families and friends.

Hardwicke begins Memories of the Tennysons:

Born at the “Vicarage by the quarry,” from whence the late Poet Laureate had led his bride; and going, each year of one’s life, away from the cedared lawn and the terraced garden, the flowery meadows, and the silver Thames below the chalk cliff, to the sand hills of the Lincoln coast, the levels of the Lincoln marsh, the windmills of the Lincoln wold, and the cornfields in the shining fen, which Tennyson, in his boyhood, had known—it was inevitable that one who had been brought up on so much of his poems as a child could understand, should associate the scene of those annual holidays with thoughts of the Poet.

Each year my father paid a visit to the Poet at Farringford, and one heard talk of Tennyson when he returned.  Each time a volume of poems was given to the world, a presentation copy came to my father’s hands, and we, as children, gathered in the eventide to hear the poems read in our ears with such deep feeling, that we were impressed by them even when we could not realise their beauty of thought and diction. (pp. vii-viii)   

Hardwicke was a prodigious writer and lecturer on Tennyson.  A list of some of his writings is given at the end of this document.

 

Contents

Somersby and Its Neighbourhood (pp. 1-26)

Folk-Lore at Somersby. Reminiscences Among the Villagers (pp. 27-61)

Boyhood’s Friends in Lincolnshire (pp. 62-75)

Tennyson at the English Lakes (pp. 76-91)

Memories of Farringford (pp. 92-118)

†Reminiscences (pp. 119-149)

From Aldworth to the Abbey (pp. 150-184)

††Lincolnshire Scenery and Characters as Illustrated by Mr. Tennyson (pp. 185-200)

††Virgil and Tennyson (pp. 201-220)

Charles Tennyson Turner: A Memory of Grasby (pp. 221-247)

(† Chapter written by Hardwicke’s brother, Willingham)

(†† Chapters written by Hardwicke’s father, Robert)

Articles and Poems on Tennyson by Rawnsley (excludes the above chapters)

Tennyson at Clevedon (A Book of Bristol Sonnets, p. 142)

To Alfred Lord Tennyson (Sonnets Round the Coast, p. 6)

Farringford, Isle of Wight (Sonnets Round the Coast, p. 7)

On Hearing Lord Tennyson Read His Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington (Sonnets Round the Coast, p. 8)

After the Epilogue. To the Charge of the Light Brigade (Sonnets Round the Coast, p. 9)

On Leaving Farringford (Sonnets Round the Coast, p. 12)

At Mablethorpe (Sonnets Round the Coast, p. 218)

‘To Lord Tennyson: On His Eightieth Birthday, August 6th, 1889’, Macmillan’s Magazine, 60 (August 1889), 293. [Poem]
‘To Lord Tennyson: On His Eightieth Birthday’, St. James’s Gazette, 6 August 1889, p. 12. [Poem]
To Lord Tennyson: On His Eightieth Birthday, August 6th, 1889’, Westmorland Gazette, 17 August 1889, p. 3. [Poem]
‘To Lord Tennyson: On His Eightieth Birthday, August 6th, 1889’, Crosthwaite Parish Magazine, (September 1889). [Poem]

‘Leaving Aldworth: Oct. 11, 1892’, Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, 152 (November 1892), 768. [Poem]

‘The Laureate Dead’, Academy, (November 1892). [Poem]
‘The Laureate Dead’, Crosthwaite Parish Magazine, (November 1892). [Poem]
‘The Laureate Dead’, Living Age, 195 (17 December 1892), 706. [Poem]

Tennyson. Obiit, Aldworth, October 6th, 1892 (Valete: Tennyson and other Memorial Poems, p. 3)

Somersby (Valete: Tennyson and other Memorial Poems, p. 15)

Clevedon (Valete: Tennyson and other Memorial Poems, p. 16)

Farringford. 1883 (Valete: Tennyson and other Memorial Poems, p. 17)

On Leaving Farringford (Valete: Tennyson and other Memorial Poems, p. 18)To Alfred, Lord Tennyson. January 18th, 1884 (Valete: Tennyson and other Memorial Poems, p. 19)

To Lord Tennyson. On His 80th Birthday, August 6th, 1889 (Valete: Tennyson and other Memorial Poems, p. 20)

A Story from the “Arabian Nights.” 1889 (Valete: Tennyson and other Memorial Poems, p. 21)

A Farewell to the “Sunbeam.” 1889 (Valete: Tennyson and other Memorial Poems, p. 22)

On Hearing Lord Tennyson Read His Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington (Valete: Tennyson and other Memorial Poems, p. 23)

After the Epilogue to the Charge of the Heavy Brigade (Valete: Tennyson and other Memorial Poems, p. 24)

Death and Fame (Valete: Tennyson and other Memorial Poems, p. 25)

“I have Opened the Book.” At Aldworth, October 5th, 1892 (Valete: Tennyson and other Memorial Poems, p. 26)

The Poet’s Death-Chamber (Valete: Tennyson and other Memorial Poems, p. 27)

The Laureate Dead (Valete: Tennyson and other Memorial Poems, p. 28)

Tennyson’s Home-Going (Valete: Tennyson and other Memorial Poems, p. 29)

Leaving Aldworth. October 11th, 1892 (Valete: Tennyson and other Memorial Poems, p. 30)

The Two Poets (Valete: Tennyson and other Memorial Poems, p. 31)

Christmas Without the Laureate (Valete: Tennyson and other Memorial Poems, p. 32)

At Mablethorpe; An Episode in the Publication of the “Poems by Two Brothers,” 1827 (Valete: Tennyson and other Memorial Poems, p. 34)

To a Portrait of the Mother of the Poets (Valete: Tennyson and other Memorial Poems, p. 35)

The Poet’s ‘Lilian.’ In Memory of S. E. Shawell, October 14th, 1889 (Valete: Tennyson and other Memorial Poems, p. 132)

Literary Associations of the English Lakes, Vol. I – Chapter 6.
Literary Associations of the English Lakes, Vol. II – Chapter 4.

‘Tennyson a South Country Man?’ Spectator, 92 (23 April 1904), 639. [Letter]

‘Tennyson’, Homes and Haunts of Famous Authors (London, 1906), 137-51.

At the Unveiling of the Tennyson Statue, Lincoln (A Sonnet Chronicle, p. 75)

‘The Tennyson Centenary’, Times, 3 August 1909, p. 11. [Letter]

‘In Memory of the Tennyson Centenary at Somersby, August 5th, 1909’, Crosthwaite Parish Magazine, (September 1909). [Poem]

‘The Tennyson Centenary Memorial’, Times, 16 December 1909, p. 7. [Letter]

‘The Tennyson Centenary Memorial’, Times, 2 September 1910, p. 9. [Letter]

‘Tennyson as a Religious Teacher’, Church Family Newspaper, 18 (11 August 1911), 604.

‘The Tennyson Memorial Meetings at Somersby’, Spectator, 107 (12 August 1911), 241-2.

‘Memories of the Tennysons at Somersby’, Cornhill Magazine, 32 (February 1912), 170-9.

 

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