The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles Volume Ii Part 3

On a Rural Seat 330

On the Front of a Hermitage, near a Dial 330

Quieti et Musis 331

BANWELL HILL;

A LAY OF THE SEVERN SEA.

PREFACE.[1]

The estimation of a Poem of this nature must depend, first, on its arrangement, plan, and disposition; secondly, on the judgment, propriety, and feeling with which--in just and proper succession and relief--picture, pathos, moral and religious reflections, historical notices, or affecting incidents, are interwoven. The reader will, in the next place, attend to the versification, or music, in which the thoughts are conveyed. Shakspeare and Milton are the great masters of the verse I have adopted. But who can be heard after them? The reader, however, will at least find no specimens of sonorous harmony ending with such significant words as "of," "and," "if," "but," _etc_ of which we have had lately some splendid examples. I would therefore only request of him to observe, that when such pa.s.sages occur in this poem as "vanis.h.i.+ng,"

"hus.h.!.+" _etc._ it was from design, and not from want of ear.[2]

An intermixture of images and characters from common life might be thought, at first sight, out of keeping with the higher tone of general colouring; but the interspersion of the comic, provided the due mock-heroic stateliness be kept up in the language, has often the effect of light and shade, as will be apparent on looking at Cowper's exquisite "Task," although he has often "offended against taste." The only difficulty is happily to steer "from grave to gay."

So far respecting the plan, the execution, the versification, and style. As to the sentiments conveyed in this poem, and in the notes, I must explicitly declare, that when I am convinced, as a clergyman and a magistrate, that there has been an increase of crime, owing, among other causes, to the system pursued by some "nominal Christians," who _will not_ preach "these three" (faith, hope, and charity) according to the order of St Paul, but keep two of these graces, and the greatest of all, out of sight, upon any human plea or pretension; when they do _not_ preach, "Add to your faith virtue;" when they will _not_ preach, Christ died for the sins of "the _world_, and not for _ours_ only;" when, from any pleas of their own, or persuaded by any sophistry or faction, they become, most emphatically, "dumb dogs" to the sublime and affecting moral parts of that gospel which they have engaged before G.o.d to deliver; and above all, when crimes, as I am verily persuaded have been, are, and must be, the consequence of such public preaching,--leaving others to "stand or fall" to their own G.o.d; I shall be guided by my own understanding, and the plain Word of G.o.d, as I find it earnestly, simply, beautifully, and divinely set before me by Christ and his Apostles; and so feeling, I shall as fearlessly deliver my own opinions, being a.s.sured, whether popular or unpopular, whether they offend this man or that, this sect or that sect, they will not easily be shaken.

I might ask, why did St Paul add, so emphatically, "these three,"

when he enumerated the Christian graces? Doubtless, because he thought the distinction very important. Why did St Peter say, "Add to your faith virtue"? Because he thought it equally important and essential. Why did St John say, "Christ died for the sins of the whole world, and not for ours only"? Because he thought it equally important and necessary.

Never omitting the atonement, justification by faith, the fruits of the Spirit, and never separating faith from its hallowed fellows.h.i.+p, we shall find all other parts of the gospel unite in harmonious subordination; but if we shade the moral parts down, leave them out, contradict them, by insidious sophistry, the Scripture, so far from being "rightly divided," will be discordant and clas.h.i.+ng. The man, be he whom he may, who preaches "faith"

without charity; who preaches "faith without virtue," is as pernicious and false an expounder of the divine message, as he who preaches "good works," without their legitimate and only foundation--Christian faith.

One would suppose, from the language of some preachers, the "civil," "decent," "moral" people, from the times of Baxter to the present, want amendment most. We all know that mere morals, which have no Christian basis, are not the gospel of Christ; but I might tell Richard, with great respect notwithstanding, for I respect his sincerity and his heart, that, at least, "decent," and "civil," and "moral" people,[3] are not worse than indecent, immoral, and uncivil people; and when there are so many of these last, I think a word or two of reproof would not much hurt them, let the "decent,"

"moral," and "civil" be as _wicked_ as they may.

I hope it is not necessary for me to disclaim, in speaking of facts, the most remote idea of throwing a slight on the sincerely pious of any portion of the community; but, if religion does not invigorate the higher feelings and principles of moral obligation; if a heartless and hollow jargon is often subst.i.tuted for the fundamental laws of Christian obedience; if ostentatious affectation supersedes the meek, un.o.btrusive character of feminine devotion; if a petty peculiarity of system, a kind of conventional code of G.o.dliness, usurps the place of the specific righteousness, visible in its fruits, "of whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are lovely;" if, to be fluent and flippant in the jargon of this petty peculiarity of code, is made the criterion of exclusive G.o.dliness; when, by thousands and thousands, after the example of Hawker, and others of the same school, Christianity is represented as having neither "an _if_, or _but_," the conclusion being left for the innumerable disciples of such a gospel school; when, because none--"no, not one"--is _without sin_, and none can stand upright in the sight of Him whose eyes are too pure to behold iniquity, they who have exercised themselves to "have a conscience void of offence toward G.o.d and man," though sensible of innumerable offences, are considered, by implication, before G.o.d, as no better than Burkes or Thurtles, for the imputation of utter depravity must mean this, or be mere hollow _verba et voces_; when amus.e.m.e.nts, or recreations, vicious only in their excess, are proclaimed as national abominations, while real abominations stalk abroad, as is the case in large manufacturing towns, with "the Lord," "the Lord," on the lips of some of the most depraved; when, from these causes, I do sincerely believe the heart has been hardened, and the understanding deteriorated, the wide effects being visible on the great criminal body of the nation,--I conceive I do a service to Evangelical Religion by speaking as I feel of that ludicrous caricature which so often in society usurps its name, and apes and disgraces its divine character.

I am not among those who divide the clergy of the Church of England into cla.s.ses; and I think it my duty ingenuously to declare, that the opinions I have expressed of the effects of such public doctrines as I have described, be they preached or published by whom they may, were written without communication with any one living. I think it right to declare this, most explicitly, lest the distinguished person to whom this poem is inscribed, might be supposed to have any partic.i.p.ation in such sentiments; though, I trust, no possible objection could be made to the manly avowal of my opinion of the injurious effects of Antinomian, or shades of Antinomian doctrines.

Further, the object of my remarks is _not_ piety, but ostentatious publicity and affectation,--far more disgusting in the a.s.sumed garb of female piety than under any shape; and often attended by _acting_ far more disgusting than any acting on any stage.

BANWELL CAVE.

The following extract of a letter from Mr Warner will enable the reader to form his own opinion concerning the vast acc.u.mulation of bones in this cave:--

"The sagacity of Mr Beard having detected the existence of the cavern, and his perseverance effected a precipitous descent into it, the objects offered to his notice were of the most astonis.h.i.+ng and paradoxical description--'an antre vast,' rude from the hand of nature, of various elevations, and branching into several recesses; its floor overspread with a huge mingled ma.s.s of bones and mud, black earth (or decomposed animal matter), and sand from the Severn sea, which flows about six miles to the northward of Banwell village. The quant.i.ty of bones, and the mode by which they could be conveyed to, and deposited in, the place they occupied, were points of equal difficulty to be explained: as the former amounted to several waggon loads; and as no access to the cavern appeared to exist, except a fissure from above, utterly incapable, from its narrow dimensions, of admitting the falling in of any animal larger than a common sheep; whereas it was evident that huge quadrupeds, such as unknown beasts of the ox tribe, bears, wolves, and probably hyenas and tigers, had perished in the cave. But, though the questions _how_ and _when_ were unanswerable, _this_ conclusion was irresistibly forced upon the mind, by the phenomena submitted to the eye, that, as the receptacle was infinitely too small to contain such a crowd of animals in their living state, they must necessarily have occupied it in succession: one portion of them after another paying the debt of nature, and (leaving their bones only, as a memorial of their existence on the spot) thus making room in the cavern for a succeeding set of inhabitants, of similarly ferocious habits to themselves. The difficulty, indeed, of the ingress of such beasts into the cave did not long continue to be invincible; as Mr Beard discovered and cleared out a lateral aperture in it, sufficiently inclining from the perpendicular, and sufficiently large in its dimensions, to admit of the easy descent into this subterraneous apartment of one of its unwieldy tenants, though loaded with its prey.

"From the circ.u.mstances premised, you will probably antic.i.p.ate my thoughts on these remarkable phenomena; if not, they are as follow:--I consider the cavern to have been formed at the period of the original deposition and consolidation of the matter const.i.tuting the mountain limestone in which it is found; possibly by the agency of some elastic gas, imprisoned in the ma.s.s, which prevented the approximation of its particles to each other; or by some unaccountable interruption to the operation of the usual laws of its crystallization;--that, for a long succession of ages anterior to the Deluge, and previously to man's inhabiting the colder regions of the earth, Banwell Cave had been inhabited by successive generations of beasts of prey; which, as hunger dictated, issued from their den, pursued and slaughtered the gregarious animals, or wilder quadrupeds, in its neighbourhood; and dragged them, either bodily or piecemeal, to this retreat, in order to feast upon them at leisure, and undisturbed;--that the bottom of the cavern thus became a kind of charnel-house, of various and unnumbered beasts;--that this scene of excursive carnage continued till 'the flood came,' blending 'the oppressor with the oppressed,'

and mixing the hideous furniture of the den with a quant.i.ty of extraneous matter, brought from the adjoining sh.o.r.e, and subjacent lands, by the waters of the Deluge, which rolled, surging (as Kirwan imagines), from the north-western quarter;--that, previously to this total submersion, as the flood increased on the lower grounds, the animals which fed upon them ascended the heights of Mendip, to escape impending death; and with panic rushed (as many as could gain entrance) into this dwelling-place of their worst enemies;--that numberless birds also, terrified by the elemental tumult, flew into the same den, as a place of temporary refuge;--that the interior of the cavern was speedilly filled by the roaring Deluge, whose waters, das.h.i.+ng and crus.h.i.+ng the various substances which they embraced, against the rugged rocks, or against each other; and continuing this violent and incessant action for at least three months, at length tore asunder every connected form, separated every skeleton, and produced that confusion of substances, that scene of _disjecta membra_, that mixture and disjunction of bones, which were apparent on the first inspection of the cavern; and which are now visible in that part of it which has been hitherto untouched."

Respecting the language of the Poem, I had nearly forgotten one remark. In almost all the local poems I have read, there is a confusion of the following nature. A local descriptive poem must consist, first, of the graphic view of the scenery around the spot from whence the view is taken; and, secondly, of the reflections and feelings which that view may be supposed to excite. The feelings of the heart naturally a.s.sociate themselves with the idea of the tones of the supposed poetical harp; but external scenes are the province of the pencil, for the harp cannot paint woods and hills, and therefore, in almost all descriptive poems, the pencil and the lyre clash. Hence, in one page, the poet speaks of his lyre, and in the next, when he leaves feelings to paint to the eye, before the harp is out of the hand, he turns to the pencil! This fault is almost inevitable; the reader, therefore, will see in the first page of this Poem, that the graphic pencil is a.s.sumed, when the tones of the harp were inappropriate.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: This poem, published in 1829, was dedicated to Dr Henry Law, the Bishop of Bath and Wells.]

[Footnote 2: Of blank verse of the kind to which I have alluded, I am tempted to give a specimen:--

"'Twas summer, and we sailed to Greenwich _in_ A four-oared boat. The sun was s.h.i.+ning, _and_ The scenes delightful; while we gazed _on_ The river winding, till we landed _at_ The s.h.i.+p."]

[Footnote 3: Baxter's "Saints' Rest."]

ARGUMENT.

PART FIRST.

Introduction--Retrospect--General view--Cave--Bones--Brief sketch of events since the deposit--Egypt--Druid--Roman--Saxon--Dane--Norman-- Hill--Campanula--Bleadon--Weston--Steep Holms--Solitary flower on Steep Holms, the Peony--Flat Holms--Three unknown graves--Sea--Sea treacherous in its tranquillity--Mr Elton's children--Packet-boat sunk.

PART SECOND.

First sound of the sea--First sight of the sea--Mother--Children--Uphill parsonage--Father--Wells clock--Clock figure--Contrast of village manners--Village maid--Rural nymph before the justices--State of agricultural districts--Cause of crime--Workhouse girl--Manufactory ranters--Prosing parson--Prig parson--Calvinistic commentators, _etc._--Anti-moral preaching--True and false piety--Crimes pa.s.sed over by anti-moral preachers--Bible, without note or comment--English Juggernaut--Village picture of Coombe--Village-school children, educated by Mrs P. Scrope--Annual meeting on the lawn of 140 children--Old nurse--Benevolence of English landlords--Poor widow and daughter--Stourhead--Ken at Longleat--Marston house--Early travels in Switzerland--Compton house--Clergyman's wife--Village clergyman.

PART THIRD.

A tale of a Cornish maid--Her prayer-book--Her mother--Widow and son--Tales of sea life--Phantom-s.h.i.+p of the Cape.

PART FOURTH.

Solitary sea--s.h.i.+p--Sea scenes of Southampton contrasted--Solitary sand--Young Lady--Severn--Walton Castle--Picture of Bristol-- Congresbury--Brockley-Coombe--Fayland--Cottage--Poor Dinah-- Goblin-Coombe--Langford court--Mendip lodge--Wrington--Blagdon--Author of the tune of "Auld Robin Gray"--Auld Robin Gray--Auld Lang Syne.

PART FIFTH.

Lang syne--Return to the Deluge--Vision of the Flood--Archangel--Trump--Voice--Phantom-horse--Dove of the Ark--Dove ascending--Conclusion.

BANWELL HILL.