Charles Bell Taylor (1829–1909), Nottingham

Here we have a clearer picture than the sculpted likeness on his gravestone in Nottingham General Cemetery – surely taken from this? – of what the ophthalmic surgeon, feminist, defender of animal rights, and writer Dr Charles Bell Taylor looked like. This picture is from Centenary of the Nottingham Medico-Chirurgical Society on March 7th, 1928.

 

Link to my previous post:

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Charles Bell Taylor (1829–1909)

Lost Plots with Rowena Edlin-White and Tony Shaw

It did occur to me that 'Cemetry [sic] Gates: Keats and Yeats Are on Your Side' would also have made a good title for this, but then not everyone would have recognised the reference to the Smiths' song, and anyway of what relevance to Nottingham are Morrissey's (partly tongue-in-cheek) reminiscences of walks around Manchester Southern Cemetery?

I digress. This announcement, then, I've copied from the booklet advertising this year's Lowdham Book Festival: with Rowena Edlin-White, I'll be taking a short walk around the literary features of Nottingham General Cemetery, giving potted biographies and snippets from the works of writers buried there. Ann Gilbert (aka Ann Taylor), Robert Millhouse and Henry Hogg are already mentioned above, but the list also includes Ruth Bryan, Annie Matheson, Josiah Gilbert, Charles Bell Taylor, Robert Goodacre, Anthony Hervey, Sarah Ann Agnes Turk and (indirectly) James Prior, whose parents lie here. And of course it would be churlish not to mention, in passing, the 'Old General' Benjamin Mayo – he probably couldn't even read, but at least he sold the writings of other people.

Friday 28 June at 10:30 and 2:30 then, tickets £3, and pre-booking essential. Should be very interesting, and if anyone can tell me where Samuel Cox's grave – or, for that matter, tell me where any other writer's grave is in the cemetery – I'd be very pleased to know.

OK, I can't resist the link:

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The Smiths: Cemetry [sic] Gates

The Grave of Photographer Samuel Bourne (1834–1912), General Cemetery, Nottingham

This is one I forgot about a few weeks ago when I was looking for (but didn't find) the Rev. Samuel Cox's grave. Samuel Bourne is most noted for the photographic work he did in India from 1863 to 1870. He married Mary Tolley in 1967 at George Street Baptist Church, Nottingham, where he later settled and where he died at their house on Clumber Road East.

 

 

'IN
LOVING MEMORY OF
SAMUEL BOURNE;
DIED APRIL 24^TH 1912,

AGED 78 YEARS.

ALSO OF MARY
WIFE OF THE ABOVE,
DIED NOVEMBER 26^TH 1912,
AGED 68 YEARS.'

 

I believe this is the only online photo of his grave, but please don't email me to ask where it is as I don't remember: being unsure of the dates, I wasn't certain that I'd got the right Samuel Bourne! As usual, though, I have no objection to the non-commercial reproduction of my photos as long as they're attributed to me with a link to my blog or to this blog post.

The Grave of Robert Goodacre (1777–1835)

Another chance discovery in Nottingham General Cemetery:

 

'IN MEMORY OF

ROBERT GOODACRE OF STANDARD HILL, WHO DIED AT EDINBURGH, NOVEMBER 25TH 1835, AGED 58.'
Robert Goodacre (1777–1835) was born in Long Clawson, Leicestershire, and was the eldest son of a tailor. He began his working life as a journeyman tailor, and it was after working as assistant to a schoolmaster in Mansfield that he established Robert Goodacre's Academy in Lower Parliament Street, Nottingham at the age of twenty.

Goodacre had a particularly strong interest in mathematics and astronomy, and the mathematician- and physicist-to-be George Green (1793–1841) became pupil number 255 at the academy in 1801 at the age of eight, to leave the following year after four terms, by which time he had probably absorbed all that Goodacre had to offer.

A few years after Green left the academy, Goodacre bought an area of land on Standard Hill from the Duke of Newcastle, and built his three-story Standard Hill Academy (with an observatory at the top) on it. In the early 1820s he left the academy and spent five years lecturing (mainly on astronomy) in the USA, where he visited twenty-four towns and cities.

He returned to the UK in 1828 to continue lecturing, and it was during a tour that he died in Scotland.

His various publications include:

An Essay on the Education of Youth (1808)

A Treatise on Book-keeping (1811)

A glossary: or, Explanation of the principal terms used in the sciences of astronomy and geography (1828).

Much of my information about Goodacre came from D. M. Cannell's George Green: Mathematician and Physicist 1793-1841: The Background to His Life and Work (London: The Athone Press, 1993; repr. Philadelphia, PA: The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, 2001).

Writers and literary associations in Nottingham General Cemetery:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Ruth Bryan (1805–1860)

Sarah Ann Agnes Turk (1859–1927)
Annie Matheson (1853–1924)
Josiah Gilbert (1814–1892)
Anthony Hervey (c. 1796–1850)
Charles Bell Taylor (1829–1909)
James Prior's Parents
Ann Taylor (1782–1866)
Robert Millhouse (1788-1839)
Henry Hogg (1831-74)

Ruth Bryan (1805–1860)

'IN

LOVING MEMORY OF

RUTH BRYAN,

WRITER OF

"DIARY" AND "LETTERS",

WHO FELL ASLEEP IN JESUS

JULY 27th 1860,

AGED 55 YEARS.

 

"THE MEMORY OF

THE JUST IS BLESSED" PROV. 10:7.'

 

While I was on my way to find Sarah Ann Agnes Turk's grave in Nottingham General Cemetery I came across the grave of Ruth Bryan (1805–1860), and would have passed it by if it hadn't mentioned that she was a writer. There's still a lot a mud on it but there was a great deal more before I used tissues and wipes to make it at least legible. I knew nothing of Ruth Bryan and didn't honestly expect to find much information, but I was in for quite a surprise.

 

I suspect that very few people in Nottingham, in the UK even, have heard of this writer, although her works are in the British Library. But the Library of Congress gives no mention of her, and yet virtually all of the information about her seems to come from 'Grace Gems', a puritan website based in Wenatchee, Washington state. 'Grace Gems' was founded and is edited by Matt Blair, who includes a number of religious writers' works on the site, from the internationally known John Bunyan to the much more obscure Ruth Bryan, whom he calls the sites's 'Best Female Author'. Bryan's letters are there, excerpts from her diary, and several audio recordings have been made of her 'meditations'.

 

There's also a little biographical information about Bryan: she was born in London, her father was in business but the family left when her father became a minister in Nottingham. And the diary – begun when she was seventeen and maintained until the year of her death – charts her spiritual progress and struggles, the journeys she made in England, her relationship with God, and her long struggle with illness.

 

There is a link to 'Grace Gems' below, and also a link to a later post I made.

 

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The Works of Ruth Bryan
Ruth Bryan (continued)

Writers and literary associations in Nottingham General Cemetery:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Robert Goodacre (1777–1835)

Sarah Ann Agnes Turk (1859–1927)
Annie Matheson (1853–1924)
Josiah Gilbert (1814–1892)
Anthony Hervey (c. 1796–1850)
Charles Bell Taylor (1829–1909)
James Prior's Parents
Ann Taylor (1782–1866)
Robert Millhouse (1788-1839)
Henry Hogg (1831-74)

Sarah Ann Agnes Turk / Sheila Agnes Turk (1859–1927)

Sarah Ann Agnes Turk (1859–1927) was a Catholic writer and is buried in Nottingham General Cemetery. Little biographical information seems to be readily available about her, although I am grateful to Rowena Edlin-White for telling me about the existence of her grave, and also for informing me that she'd discovered from Turk's obituary in the Guardian Journal of 24 April that 'she had a Requiem Mass at St Barnabas' Cathedral and her literary work had the blessing of two Popes!'

'Authoress'. The use of such a demeaning suffix seems unimaginable today. How about Carol Ann Duffy as 'poetess laureate'? I meander. Several of Turk's book are in the British Library, although under the pseudonym 'Sheila Agnes Turk':

The Star of Bethlehem: or, Seeking the King: A Sacred Drama in Three Acts (Cork: Sacred Heart College, 1916)

The Secret of Carickferneagh Castle: An Irish Romance (London: R. & T. Washbourne, [1914])

The Marriage of Enid Ruthven (London: Salesian Press, 1927)

Sacred drama: Joan of Arc (Barnet: St. Andrew's Press: [1909?])

Nemesis: And Other Short Stories (London: R. & T. Washbourne, 1908)

And, with Jeannie Turk (relation unknown):

The Marriage Bond only Death Can Sunder (London: Henry J. Drane, [1912]).

Writers and literary associations in Nottingham General Cemetery:
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Robert Goodacre (1777–1835)
Ruth Bryan (1805–1860)

Annie Matheson (1853–1924)
Josiah Gilbert (1814–1892)
Anthony Hervey (c. 1796–1850)
Charles Bell Taylor (1829–1909)
James Prior's Parents
Ann Taylor (1782–1866)
Robert Millhouse (1788-1839)
Henry Hogg (1831-74)

Annie Matheson (1853–1924) in Nottingham

I'm grateful to Rowena Edlin-White for the above image of Annie Matheson, and for the paragraphs below that she sent me:

'Annie Matheson was born in Blackheath, London in 1853, moving to Nottingham at the age of three when her father became Minister of Friar Lane Chapel (he took over from Joseph Gilbert), where he stayed until his death in 1878. Annie was the oldest of 11 children. She wrote for publication from a young age, including hymns for children, several collections of poetry, essays and biographies of Florence Nightingale, Elizabeth Fry and Joan of Arc. She also wrote new prefaces to novels by George Eliot and Mrs Craik.

'Matheson's poetry reflects her concern for social issues, particularly those affecting women and children. Her poem, 'A Song for Women' about sweated labour, was issued as a leaflet by the Women's Protective and Provident League (the first trade union for women).

'In the 1880s the Matheson family moved back to London, Annie finally settling at Maybury Hill, Woking, where she is believed to have been involved as a non-combatant in the women's suffrage movement  Her collection of essays and poems, Leaves of Prose (1912) express her wide variety of interests, and can be found as a free read on the web.

'Annie died in London in 1924 and her ashes were returned to Nottingham to be buried with her parents and sister Mabel in the General Cemetery.'

 

Among the books written by Annie Matheson are these: 

Love's Music, and Other Poems (Sampson Low, 1894)
Selected Poems, Old and New (H. Frowde, 1899)
Love Triumphant, and Other New Poems (A. D. Innes, 1898)
Leaves of Prose (Stephen Swift, 1912)
Florence Nightingale: A Biography (Nelson, [1913])
'The Religion of Humanity' and Other Poems (Percival, 1890).

Writers and literary associations in Nottingham General Cemetery:
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Robert Goodacre (1777–1835)
Ruth Bryan (1805–1860)

Sarah Ann Agnes Turk (1859–1927)
Josiah Gilbert (1814–1892)
Anthony Hervey (c. 1796–1850)
Charles Bell Taylor (1829–1909)
James Prior's Parents
Ann Taylor (1782–1866)
Robert Millhouse (1788-1839)
Henry Hogg (1831-74)

Josiah Gilbert (1814–1892) in Nottingham

'1814–1892

JOSIAH GILBERT ARTIST, TRAVELLER & MAN OF LETTERS'

An inscription on the marble pillar in Nottingham General Cemetery states 'JOSIAH GILBERT 1814–1892 DIED AT MARDEN ASH | ELDEST SON OF THE REV. JOSEPH GILBERT AND ANN TAYLOR HIS WIFE OF ONGAR'. Gilbert wrote Cadore, or Titian's Country (London: Longmans, Green, 1869), Landscape in Art before Claude and Salvator (London: Murray, 1885), and edited The Autobiography and Other Memorials of Mrs Gilbert, Formerly Ann Taylor (London: Henry S. King, 1874). 

A sketch of Pieve di Cadore, with Mount Marmarolo in the background, from Gilbert's Cadore.

Next to Josiah Gilbert's grave is a much earlier one: that of his wife Susan. Josiah had dedicated Cadore to her: 'To the dear companion of the journey of life, as of each Alpine ramble'. He wrote the Preface to the book on 1 May 1869, and in less than two years she was dead. 

There are links below to the full texts of two of these books:

 –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Cadore, or Titian's Country (1869)
The Autobiography and Other Memorials of Mrs Gilbert, Formerly Ann Taylor (1874)

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Writers and literary associations in Nottingham General Cemetery:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Robert Goodacre (1777–1835)
Ruth Bryan (1805–1860)

Sarah Ann Agnes Turk (1859–1927)
Annie Matheson (1853–1924)
Anthony Hervey (c. 1796–1850)
Charles Bell Taylor (1829–1909)
James Prior's Parents
Ann Taylor (1782–1866)
Robert Millhouse (1788-1839)
Henry Hogg (1831-74)

Anthony Hervey (c. 1796–1850)

'In Memory
of
ANTHONY HERVEY.
He died in the triumph of faith,
on the 26th of March, 1850.
AGED 54 YEARS. His last word was "Victory."
Hebrews 6 Ch. 17, 18, 19, 20 Ver.
He was the author of the "Sherwood Gipsy","
and was engaged as the humble and devoted
Missionary amongst the Aged inmates of
COLLINS', and LABRAY'S
Alms-houses in Nottingham.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Reader! the monumental stone we raise,
Is to the Saviour's, not the sinner's praise.
Sin was the whole that he could call his own,
His good was all derived from Christ alone;
His conflicts, pains, and griefs to sin he owed,
His conquering faith, and patience, Christ bestowed,
Oh! may'st thou too obtain like precious faith
To smile in anguish, and rejoice in death.'

According to Robert Mellors in Old Nottingham Suburbs: Then and Now (1914), Hervey earned a living as a framework knitter in Carrington and died in Wilford.

The Sherwood Gipsy (again according to Mellors) went through forty-seven editions, not all of which bore exactly the same title, although the longest appears to be The Sherwood Gipsy: or, The blessed results of the meeting of the superintendent of Sion Chapel Sunday School, Nottingham, and a gipsy girl, on Sherwood Forest, near that town, on Sunday morning, June 9, 1844. The gipsy girl was seventeen-year-old Matilda Harrison, and the narrator met her on Mapperley Common, where there was a gipsy encampment. Hervey gave her a copy of the Bible and some religious tracts. The girl later wrote to him telling him she'd been converted, although he learned of her death from consumption shortly after.

The first edition was in 1845, although the British Library's copy is dated the following year – and has seventeen pages and is in twelvemo (or duodecimo if you prefer).

Writers and literary associations in Nottingham General Cemetery:
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Robert Goodacre (1777–1835)
Ruth Bryan (1805–1860)

Sarah Ann Agnes Turk (1859–1927)
Annie Matheson (1853–1924)
Josiah Gilbert (1814–1892)
Charles Bell Taylor (1829–1909)
James Prior's Parents
Ann Taylor (1782–1866)
Robert Millhouse (1788-1839)
Henry Hogg (1831-74)

Charles Bell Taylor (1829–1909)

 

'IN MEMORY OF
CHARLES BELL TAYLOR
M.D. F.R.C.S.E.
BORN 1829, DIED 1909

A GENEROUS BENEFACTOR OF THE POOR,
A DEVOTED FRIEND OF ANIMALS, AN OPPONENT
OF EVERY FORM OF CRUELTY AND OPRESSION,
AND A FEARLESS CHAMPION OF LIBERTY.'   Dr Charles Bell Taylor was an opthalmic surgeon born in Nottingham, where he practised for most of his life. He was a prominent opponent of the Contagious Diseases Acts, which permitted the arrest and internal examination of prostitutes, for sexually transmitted diseases, in certain areas of the country. He was also opposed to vivisection and compulsory vaccination. He ate only two meals a day, didn't smoke or drink (even tea and coffee), owned a collection of bicycles and tricycles and cycled to work every day.

Taylor published a number of lectures, of which these are a few examples:

The Statistical Results of the Contagious Diseases Acts ... shewing their total failure in a sanitary point of view. Being a paper read before the Medical Society of London, etc. (1872)

Dangers de la réglementation et difficulté de reconnaître la syphilis chez la femme [c. 1877]

Lectures on diseases of the Eye (1888)

For Pity's Sake, published by the London & Provincial Anti-Vivisection Society in 1908.

Taylor's grave is in Nottingham General Cemetery.

Writers and literary associations in Nottingham General Cemetery:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Robert Goodacre (1777–1835)
Ruth Bryan (1805–1860)

Sarah Ann Agnes Turk (1859–1927)
Annie Matheson (1853–1924)
Josiah Gilbert (1814–1892)
Anthony Hervey (c. 1796–1850)
James Prior's Parents
Ann Taylor (1782–1866)
Robert Millhouse (1788-1839)
Henry Hogg (1831-74)

James Prior's Parents

I've so far been unable to locate the grave of the novelist James Prior (born James Prior Kirk) in Bingham, although by chance I came across his parents' grave in the General Cemetery in Nottingham today. Interestingly, I think, his mother died when he was still a child. His father, also James Kirk, was a straw hat manufacturer in Nottingham, and on his death in 1880 Prior helped in the family business for a year until two of his sisters took it over. The inscription reads:

'SACRED
TO THE MEMORY OF
SARAH JANE, THE BELOVED WIFE OF
JAMES KIRK,
WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE
DECEMBER 3RD. 1861,
AGED 46 YEARS

A LOVING WIFE, A PRUDENT MOTHER AND A FAITHFUL FRIEND.

ALSO THE ABOVE
JAMES KIRK,
WHO DIED APRIL 7TH. 1880
AGED 59 YEARS.

"AND HE WAS NOT, FOR GOD TOOK HIM."'

My James Prior posts:
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
James Prior's Forest Folk (dissertation): Introduction
James Prior's Forest Folk (dissertation): Chapter One
James Prior's Forest Folk (dissertation): Chapter Two
James Prior's Forest Folk (dissertation): Chapter Three
James Prior's Forest Folk (dissertation): Conclusion
James Prior (1851–1922) in Bingham
James Prior's Parents' Grave, Nottingham
James Prior: Three Shots from a Popgun (1880)
The Forest Folk memorial window
James Prior plaque, Blidworth

Writers and literary associations in Nottingham General Cemetery:
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Robert Goodacre (1777–1835)
Ruth Bryan (1805–1860)

Sarah Ann Agnes Turk (1859–1927)
Annie Matheson (1853–1924)
Josiah Gilbert (1814–1892)
Anthony Hervey (c. 1796–1850)
Charles Bell Taylor (1829–1909)
Ann Taylor (1782–1866)
Robert Millhouse (1788-1839)
Henry Hogg (1831-74)

Ann Taylor (1782–1866)

Ann Taylor (1782–1866) and her sister Jane (1783–24) were writers of children's poetry, and the representation above is by their father, the Rev Isaac Taylor, also a writer, and an engraver whose own father (also Isaac) had worked with the engraver Thomas Bewick. The Rev Isaac's son (also Isaac) was a writer too, as was his wife (also Ann, née Martin), and they came to be known as 'The Taylors of Ongar', a village in Essex, England.

The Rev Isaac's daughter Ann married the minister Joseph Gilbert in 1813 and they moved to Nottingham in 1825. As her Wikipedia entry (which probably provides more readily accessible biographical information about her than any other site) says: 'She died on December 20, 1866 and was buried next to her husband in Nottingham General Cemetery':

Most of the inscription is badly flaking off, although 'Joseph Gilbert' is quite clearly visible, 'Minister of the Gospel' a little less so.

The Autobiography and Other Memorials of Mrs Gilbert, (Formerly Ann Taylor) (London: Henry S. King, 1874), edited by her son Josiah Gilbert, is here. Below is a representation of Ann at 75, by her son.

Her sister Jane Taylor's famous poem of 1806:

'The Star

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.

When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

Then the trav'ller in the dark
Thanks you for your tiny spark,
He could not see which way to go,
If you did not twinkle so.

In the dark blue sky you keep,
And often thro' my curtains peep,
For you never shut your eye,
Till the sun is in the sky.

'Tis your bright and tiny spark,
Lights the trav'ller in the dark.
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.'

Writers and literary associations in Nottingham General Cemetery:
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Robert Goodacre (1777–1835)
Ruth Bryan (1805–1860)

Sarah Ann Agnes Turk (1859–1927)
Annie Matheson (1853–1924)
Josiah Gilbert (1814–1892)
Anthony Hervey (c. 1796–1850)
Charles Bell Taylor (1829–1909)
James Prior's Parents
Robert Millhouse (1788-1839)
Henry Hogg (1831-74)

The Old General in Nottingham General Cemetery

Well, there's a commemorative plaque at least, which I omitted to include in a blog post last September about Benjamin Mayo (aka The Old General), one of Nottingham's most noted eccentrics.

But the slate is no longer in its place: it has been propped against the wall below the framework that held it. It reads:

'BENJAMIN MAYO

COMMONLY KNOWN BY THE NAME OF

"THE OLD GENERAL"

DIED IN THE NOTTINGHAM

UNION WORK-HOUSE

12TH JANUARY 1843, AGED 64 YEARS.

A FEW INHABITANTS OF THIS TOWN,

ASSOCIATING HIS PECULIARITIES AND ECCENTRICITIES,

WITH REMINISCENCES OF THEIR EARLY BOYHOOD,

HAVE ERECTED THIS TABLET

TO HIS MEMORY.

See HONES' "EVERY DAY BOOK Vol. 2nd Page 1570.'

My previous blog post is here: The Old General.

Henry Hogg (1831-74): Nottingham Poet

The grave of the forgotten poet Henry Hogg (1831–74) is in the General Cemetery, Nottingham, England, very close to Robert Millhouse's. He was baptized in Radford, Nottingham shortly after his birth, and was the son of Joseph Hogg, who was in the hosiery trade. Henry was raised and educated in Nottingham and became a solicitor at various addresses in Nottingham.

In 1849 he published his first poem -– 'Mournful Recollections' – which was in blank verse. Some rather disparaging words have been written about him by people who know very little of what they profess to know,  but he was of his time, and it is difficult to imagine anyone who wasn't writing in the very long and deep shadow of Tennyson. He died of lung disease at his home in Elm Avenue, Nottingham, on 19 June 1874.

He published two books of poems: Poems (1852), and Songs for the Times (1856).



Hogg was a staunch evangelist, and his religious principles shine through all his poetry. His second collection of poems show life as a battle against the sin of idleness, with typical titles such as 'The Spirit of Labour', 'Our Duty', and 'The Battle of Life'.

'The Workers' is not about the working class, but about working for God:

'Some are the messengers that boldly stand
   Within the holy place;
And speak God's words of threatening and command,
   Of mercy, and of grace.

'And some are poets, and recite the wrongs
   That man inflicts on man;
They teach the truth that each to each belongs,
   And not to class or clan.

In 'England's Slavery', he does indeed 'recite the wrongs' of the appalling conditions under which many of the working class toiled in the industrial revolution:

'Labour is dignified and grand,
      And elevates our race;
But there are thousands in the land,
That groan beneath a cruel hand;
Driven like a servile band,
      In slavish fetters base.

'There are, whom life no blessing gave,
       Within this land of light;
Harder than ere was lot of slave;
They toil and toil, and vainly crave
Respite, - none until the grave,
       No respite day or night.

'Body and soul completely crushed,
       Beneath the murderous yolk;
Cheek white, that should with health be flushed;
Heart dead, whence feeling might have gushed;
Conscience into stupor hushed,
       That once in warning spoke.

'In shop, in mill, in attic bare,
       Alone, or closely packed,
Are men that toil in toil's despair;
And women who were once more fair;
Breathing foul distempered air.
       With bone and body racked.

'O masters, is it just or right
       That these should toil and slave,
All though the day, deep in the night,
In rooms shut out from common light,
Reeking with all moral blight,
       And dismal as the grave?

'O make not slaves of men who stand
       Upon the same free soil;
Give time to lift the praying hand;
To keep the day of God's command;
And sweep away this curse and brand,
       Of slavish human toil.'

Hogg is also concerned about the double sexual standard of the time, in which a 'fallen woman' could usually only resort to prostitution for her livelihood, whereas there is no such thing as a fallen man. This is a verse from 'The Fallen':

'But the man, who like a cruel fiend, her mortal ruin plotted,
Mixes in the world's great crowd, with name and fame unspotted;
Society still welcomes him, who ne'er was from it driven,
Smiling on his brow, but flinging her the curse of heaven.'

Pleasure is considered as timewasting, and though there is only one temperance poem in the collection, 'The Song of Wine' – because of the sheer toll of alcohol on human lives – unequivocally states that it is worse than 'Famine, Plague and War'.

Much 19th century writing is obsessed with the medieval era, which was seen as a utopian time, and today of course the neo-Gothic churches in England testify to this cult of medievalism. In 'The New Age', with a fleeting nod to Robin Hood, Hogg gives his take on the situation:

'Old romance is fled away,
     And the age of chivalry;
Shepherd pipes no longer play.
     In deep vales of Arcady.
Mail-clad knights no more are seen,
Outlaws fail from forest green,
Nymph, and fawn, and fairy queen,
     Have departed utterly.

'Now we hear the whirring wheels,
     Of the vast machinery;
Labour with stout workmen fills,
     Mine and forge and factory.
Merchants store their merchandise,
Art her busy fingers plies,
Steam propels and language flies
     To the world's extremity.

'Brothers, in the whirl and speed,
     Of this age of energy;
Lest our lives should shame our creed.
     Let us pray more fervently.
Onward with the new age move,
Talent, skill, and zeal, and love,
Consecrate to God above,
     With a true fidelity'.

Writers and literary associations in Nottingham General Cemetery: –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Robert Goodacre (1777–1835)
Ruth Bryan (1805–1860)

Sarah Ann Agnes Turk (1859–1927)
Annie Matheson (1853–1924)
Josiah Gilbert (1814–1892)
Anthony Hervey (c. 1796–1850)
Charles Bell Taylor (1829–1909)
James Prior's Parents
Ann Taylor (1782–1866)
Robert Millhouse (1788-1839)

The Grave of the Poet Robert Millhouse (1788-1839), Nottingham, England

The poet Robert Millhouse has been mentioned here before when I detailed the writers remembered at Nottingham Castle, although I didn't say anything of his grave in the General Cemetery, Nottingham, Canning Circus, against the Talbot Street wall. Finding the grave of Millhouse - who lived in Walker Street, Sneinton, Nottingham, in a house demolished some time ago - was not difficult, but removing the layers of ivy from it was, and the stone is showing some signs of deterioration.

The gravestone records that he wrote the poems 'The Destinies of Man', 'Sherwood Forest', 'The Song of the Patriot', and 'Blossom'. The following verse of Spencer T. Hall's is written at the bottom:

'When Trent shall flow no more and blossoms fail
On Sherwood's plains to scent the springtide gale;
When the lark's lay shall lack its thrilling charm,
And song forget the Briton's soul to warm:
And love o'er youthful hearts hath lost its sway,
Thy fame, O Bard, shall pass - but not till then - away.'

Harp and laurel wreath.

Writers and literary associations in Nottingham General Cemetery:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Robert Goodacre (1777–1835)
Ruth Bryan (1805–1860)

Sarah Ann Agnes Turk (1859–1927)
Annie Matheson (1853–1924)
Josiah Gilbert (1814–1892)
Anthony Hervey (c. 1796–1850)
Charles Bell Taylor (1829–1909)
James Prior's Parents
Ann Taylor (1782–1866)
Henry Hogg (1831-74)