The Town of Cowper; or, the literary and historical associations of Olney and its neighbourhood ... With photographs and wood engravings

Front matter

THE TOWN OF COWPER -pTttta BALI.ANTVNE, HANSON AND CO. EU1NBORGH AND LONDON THE TOWN OF COWPER OK Wijt Uttcrarg ano historical Associations of ©Incg antj its jjkigtjoourijooo BY THOMAS WRIGHT WITH PHOTOGRAPHS AMD WOOD EMGRAV/MGS LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON CROWN BUILDINGS, 188 FLEET STREET 1886 [All rights reserved] TO JAMES WILLIAM CAR LI LE, Esq., OF Gayhurst House, in the County of Bucks. Dear Sir, When I asked leave to dedicate to you "The Town of Cowper," you with great kindness acceded to my request, but at the same time were pleased to express your feeling that " such an honour should not have been offered to a stranger." It is true that your connection with this neighbourhood has not extended over many years. And it is equally true that only a few months have passed since you first accorded me the pleasure of an interview ; but during those few months I have been so greatly indebted to your kindness in connection with the collecting of material concerning not merely the history of your noble mansion, but also many of the other subjects to which I have given attention, that I feel it my bounden duty to make the only return in mv power, and inscribe this small work with your name.

Kindly, then, accept it as a mark of gratitude and respect, together with siucerest thanks for your numerous favours. I have the honour to be, Dear Sir, Your humble servant, THOMAS WRIGHT.

Preface

. Nothing can be more appropriate than to speak of Olney as the Town of Cowper, for in this neighbourhood the poet lived for twenty-nine years, and wrote with scarcely an excep tion everything that he produced of any merit at all whether in poetry or prose. Of these twenty-nine years, nineteen were spent in Olney, and ten in Weston Underwood, a village which from earliest times has been closely connected with Olney. The following pages, however, will deal not only with the town itself, but also with the villages within walking distance, or, in other words, those that were, or could have been, frequently visited by the poet ; for, as he himself remarks, it was to his feet, and to his feet alone, that he was indebted for transportation from place to place. But we do not restrict ourselves to Cowper : we shall speak also of the other distinguished literary and historical person ages connected with the neighbourhood, — the Digbys, the Throckmortons, the second Earl of Dartmouth, Newton, Scott, Sutcliff, Carey, and others ; nor in noticing sites and objects hereabout shall we confine ourselves to those mentioned in Cowper's works, but shall take the opportunity to enlarge upon whatever has struck us as of peculiar interest, whether a stately

PREFACE.

. VIII mansion, a picturesque church, a sculptured stone, or a venerable tree. Surely no other town in the kingdom has hitherto been treated so unfairly as Olney. Almost every person who has written on Cowper has given it a bad name ! Here is a speci men of the way we are spoken of, and I take it from the "Introductory Memoir" of an excellent and well-known work, the Globe Edition of Cowper (first published, I believe, in 1870, but my own copy bears the date 1879), though I could easily point to a dozen other books containing similar and equally erroneous statements about Olney : — " It is not an attractive town, and the staple occupations of its inhabitants, and the whole neighbourhood, lace-making and straw-plaiting, were, and still are, very prejudicial to health, wealth, and godliness."

Whether Olney is attractive or not, the reader who is unac quainted with the town will be able to judge for himself when he gets to the end of our pages ; but it is very certain that its staple occupations are not, and have not been for many years, either lace-making or straw-plaiting. Moreover, to represent Olney at the present day, as it has so often been represented, as unhealthy, poverty-stricken, and wicked, is giving a wrong impression of the town. In the first place it is one of the healthiest towns in the kingdom, one proof being that just before Christmas 1884 no fewer than thirty of its inhabitants were over 80 years of age ; in the second place, it is quite as wealthy as a town of some 2300 inhabitants can reasonably be expected to be ; and in the third place, although as regards religion there is ample room for

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. IX improvement, we are decidedly in this respect in advance of very many other towns,— but it would be astounding indeed if the labours of Newton, Scott, Sutcliff, Gauntlett, and other laborious and self-sacrificing divines were all as nothing, and Olney were a byword for its depravity. As a matter of fact, whatever Olney may have been in Cowper's time, it is now a quiet, industrious, respectable, and progressive town. Many of the inhabitants are engaged in the shoe-trade. What though it sometimes appears desolate ! A short time ago a visitor, after facetiously observing that " You might fire a cannon down the street all day, without injuring even a cat," inquired of a shoemaker, the only person to be seen, where the people were. " Where they ought to be," was the prompt answer, " all at work, sir !

" Let it never again be imputed to us as a fault that our street is often empty ! Of the sketches that form this book, No. 2 and part of No. 1 were contributed to the Leisure Hour a iew months ago; and my thanks are due to Dr. Macaulay for permission to use them. Seven of the other sketches have already appeared in some what different forms in local newspapers : No. 12 in the Bucks Advertiser. Nos. 13, 22, in the Beds Times. Nos. 23, 24, 26, 27 in Croydon's Weekly Standard. In conclusion, and this is to me the most agreeable part of the preface, I beg to offer warmest thanks to those ladies and gentlemen who have so generously assisted in this under taking ; whether by permitting me to go over their mansions, houses, and grounds ; by lending books and engravings ; or

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. X by furnishing information in other ways. To the kindness of J. W. Carlile, Esq., of Gayhurst, I have already referred. My particular thanks are also due to Rev. J. P. Langley, M.A., Olney Vicarage; Rev. J. Allen, B.A., Olney; Rev. J. Tarver, M.A., Filgrave Rectory; Rev. W. Sutthery, M.A., Clifton Rectory ; and Rev. G. W. Wilkinson, Wainsgate. Cowper School, Olney, May i, 1886. CONTENTS. PAGE DEDICATION V

PREFACE.

: . . . vii I. cowper's house and the market-place ... I II. olney bridge at the time of cowper . . .18 III. the ancient church of olney and the legend of the lordship close 21 IV. OLNEY CHURCH 26 V. THE VICARAGE 33 VI. THE POET COWPER 44 VII. THE REV. JOHN NEWTON 67 VIII. THE REV. THOMAS SCOTT AND HIS COMMENTARY . . 85 IX. THE SECOND EARL OF DARTMOUTH 99 X. THE THREEFOLD CORD, OR LADY AUSTEN AT OLNEY . 106 XI. "KILWICK'S ECHOING WOOD" 1 1 5 XII. OLNEY COURTS AND HUGH THE WOLF . . . .122 XIIT. THE FIGHT AT THE BRIDGE, OR THE CAPTURF. OF OLNEY BY PRINCE RUPERT 128 XIV. TWO OLD MEETING-HOUSES I 36 XV. THE REV. JOHN SUTCLIFF, A. M 1 50 XVI. DR. CAREY AND THE BAPTIST MISSION .... 168 XVII. WESTON UNDERWOOD , . 183 XVIII. THE MANSION OF GOTEHURST 197 XIX. SIR EVERARD DIGBY AND THE GUNPOWDER PLOT . 214 XX.

SIR KENELM DIGBY AND THE BEAUTIFUL LADY ANASTASIA 226 XXI. TYRINGHAM CONTENTS. PAGE XXII. LAVENDON CASTLE AND THE PEYVRES .... 239 XXIII. LAVENDON GRANGE AND THE ABBEY OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST 245 XXIV. THE WROUGHT STONE OF RAVENSTONE .... 253 XXV. CLIFTON REYNES AND THE ANCIENT EFFIGIFS . . . 258 XXVI. THE CAMP AT EMBERTON: AN INCIDENT IN THE WARS OF THE ROSES . . 267 XXVII. THE PERISHED CHURCHES OF EKENEY, PETSOE, AND FIL- GRAVE 273