The borough: a poem

Front matter

CHABBE, Poems. Borough, etc., "the Hogarth and Terriers of Poets, confessedly the most original and vivid painting of the best varieties of common life in England that England has produced. "-

1413 Crabbe (Rev. George) celebrated poet ; very interesting a.l.s., 3 pp., 4to, closely written, dated Bath.. 3 March, 1819, scarce 24s " I was in Town lately negotiating for my Verses with the Booksellers, and at last sold them to Mr. Murray for more than they are worth, but I shall be satisfied if he does not lose by them ; that would, I believe, mortify me."

THE BOROUGH

Preface

W'hether, if I had not been encouraged by some proofs of public favour, I should have written the Poem now before the reader, is a question which I cannot positively determine ; but I will venture to assert, that I should not, in that case, have committed the work to the press ; I should not have allowed my own opinion of it to have led me into further disappointment, against the voice of judges impartial and indifferent, from whose sentence it had been fruitless to appeal : the success of a late publication, therefore, may fairly be assigned as the principal cause for the appearance of this.

When the ensuing Letters were so far written, that I could form an opinion of them, and when

Xll PREFACE.

I began to conceive that they might not be unacceptable to the public,, I felt myself prompted by duty, as well as interest, to put them to the press ; I considered myself bound by gratitude for the favourable treatment I had already received, to show that I was not unmindful of it : and, however this might be mixed with other motives, it operated with considerable force upon my mind,, acting as a stimulus to exertions naturally tardy,, and to expectations easily checked.

It must nevertheless be acknowledged, that although such favourable opinion had been formed, I was not able, with the requisite impartiality, to. determine the comparative values of an unpublished manuscript, and a work sent into the world. Books, like children, when established, have doubtless our parental affection and good wishes ; we rejoice to hear that they are doing well, and are received and respected in good company : but it is to manuscripts in the study, &s to children in the nursery, that our care, our anxiety, and our tenderness are principally directed : they are fondled as our endearing companions ; their faults are corrected with the lenity of partial love, and their good parts are exaggerated by the strength of parental imagination ; nor is it easy even for the more cool and reasonable among parents, thus circumstanced, to decide upon the comparative

PREFACE. Xlll

merits of their offspring, whether they be children of the bed or issue of the brain.

But, however favourable my own opinion may have been, or may still be, I could not venture to commit so long a Poem to the press without some endeavour to obtain the more valuable opinion of less partial judges : at the same time, I am willing to confess that I have lost some portion of the timidity once so painful, and that I am encouraged to take upon myself the decision of various points, which heretofore I entreated my friends to decide. Those friends were then my council, whose opinion I was implicitly to follow; they are now advisers, whose ideas I am at liberty to reject. This will not, I hope, seem like arrogance : it would be more safe, it would be more pleasant, still to have that reliance on the judgment of others ; but it cannot always be obtained ; nor are they, however friendly disposed, ever* ready to lend an helping hand to him whom they consider as one who ought by this time to have cast away the timidity of inexperience, and to have acquired the courage that would enable him to decide for himself.

When it is confessed that I have less assistance from my friends, and that the appearance of this work is, in a great measure, occasioned by the success of a former; some readers will, I fear,

XIV PREFACE.

entertain the opinion that the book before them was written in haste, and published without due examination and revisal : should this opinion be formed, there will doubtless occur many faults which may appear as originating in neglect : Now, readers are, I believe, disposed to treat with more than common severity those writers who have been led into presumption by the approbation bestowed on their diffidence, and into idleness and unconcern, by the praises given to their attention. I am therefore even anxious it should be generally known that sufficient time and application were bestowed upon this work, and by this I mean that no material alteration would be effected by delay : it is true that this confession removes one plea for the errors of the book, want of time ; but, in my opinion, there is not much consolation to be drawn by reasonable minds from this resource : if a work fails, it appears to be a poor satisfaction when it is observed, that if the author had taken more care, the event had been less disgraceful.

When the reader enters into the Poem, he will find the author retired from view, and an imaginary personage brought forward to describe his Borough for him : to him it seemed convenient to speak in the first person ; but the inhabitant of a village in the centre of the kingdom, could not appear in the character of a residing burgess in

PREFACE. XV

a large sea-port ; and when, with this point, was considered what relations were to be given, what manners delineated., and what situations described, no method appeared to be so convenient as that of borrowing the assistance of an ideal friend : by this means the reader is in some degree kept from view of any particular place, nor will he perhaps be so likely to determine where those persons re^ side, and what their connections, who are so intimately known to this man of straw.

From the title of this Poem, some persons will, I fear, expect a political satire, — an attack upon corrupt principles in a general view, or upon the customs and manners of some particular place: of these they will find nothing satirized, nothing related. It may be that graver readers would have preferred a more historical account of so considerable a Borough ; — its charter, privileges, trade, public structures, and subjects of this kind; but I have an apology for the omission of these things, in the difficulty of describing them, and in the utter repugnancy which subsists between the studies and objects of topography and poetry. What I thought I could best describe, that I attempted ; — the sea, and the country in the im mediate vicinity; the dwellings, and the inhabitants; some incidents and characters, with an exhibition of morals and manners, offensive perhaps to those

XVI PREFACE,

of extremely delicate feelings, but sometimes, I hope, neither unamiable nor unaffecting : an election indeed forms a part of one letter, hut the evil there described is one not greatly nor generally deplored, and there are probably many places of this kind where it is not felt.

From the variety of relations, characters, and descriptions which a Borough affords, several were rejected which a reader might reasonably expect to have met with : in this case he is intreated to believe that these, if they occurred to the author, were considered by him as beyond his ability, as subjects which he could not treat in a manner satisfactory to himself. Possibly the admission of some will be thought to require more apology than the rejection of others : in such variety, it is to be apprehended, that almost every reader will find something not according with his ideas of propriety, or something repulsive to the tone of his feelings ; nor could this be avoided but by the sacrifice of every event, opinion, and even expression, which could be thought liable to produce such effect ; and this casting away so largely of our cargo, through fears of danger, though it might help us to clear it, would render our vessel of little worth when she came into port. I may likewise entertain an hope, that this very variety; which gives scope to objection and censure, will

PREFACE. XY11

also afford a better chance for approval and satisfaction.

Of these objectionable parts many must be to me unknown,, of others some opinion may be formed, and for their admission some plea may be stated.

In the first Letter is nothing which particularly calls for remark, except possibly the last line — giving a promise to the reader that he should both smile and sigh in the perusal of the following letters. This may appear vain, and more than an author ought to promise ; but let it be considered that the character assumed is that of a friend, who gives an account of objects, persons, and events, to his correspondent, and who was therefore at liberty, without any imputation of this kind, to suppose in what manner he would be affected by such descriptions.

Nothing, I trust, in the second Letter, which relates to the imitation of what are called weather-stains on buildings, will seem to any invidious or offensive. I wished to make a comparison between those minute and curious bodies which cover the surface of some edifices, and those kinds of stain which are formed of boles and ochres, and laid on with a brush. Now, as the work of time cannot be anticipated in such cases, it may be very judicious to have recourse to such

b

XV111 PREFACE.

expedients as will give to a recent structure the venerable appearance of antiquity ; aod in this case, though I might still observe the vast difference between the living varieties of nature, and the distant imitation of the artist, yet I would not forbear to make use of his dexterity, because he could not clothe my free-stone with mucor, lichen and byssus.

The wants and mortifications of a poor clergyman are the subjects of one portion of the third Letter ; and he being represented as a stranger in the Borough, it may be necessary to make some apology for his appearance in the Poem. Previous to a late meeting of a literary society, whose benevolent purpose is well known to the public, I was induced by a friend to compose a few verses, in which, with the general commendation of the design, should be introduced an hint that the bounty might be farther extended : these verses, a gentleman did me the honour to recite at the meeting, and they were printed as an extract from the Poem, to which in fact they may be called an appendage.

I am now arrived at that part of my work, which I may expect will bring upon me some animadversion. Religion is a subject deeply interesting to the minds of many, and when these minds are weak, they are often led by a warmth

PREFACE, XIX

of feeing into the violence of causeless resentment: I am therefore anxious that my purpose should be understood ; and I wish to point out what things they are which an author may hold up to ridicule and be blameless. In referring to the two principal divisions of enthusiastical teachers,, I have denominated them,, as I conceive they are generally called, Calvinistic and Arminian Methodists. The A rminians, though divided and perhaps sub-divided, are still, when particular accuracy is not intended, considered as one body, having had, for many years, one head, who is yet held in high respect by the varying members of the present day : but the Calvinistic societies are to be looked upon rather as separate and independent congregations ; and it is to one of these (unconnected, as is supposed, with any other) I more particularly allude. But while I am making use of this division, I must entreat that I may not be considered as one who takes upon him to censure the religious opinions of any society or individual : the reader will find that the spirit of the enthusiast, arid not his opinions, his manners, and not his creed, have engaged my attention. I have nothing to observe of the Calvinist and Arminian, considered as such ; but my remarks are pointed at the enthusiast and the bigot, at their folly and their craft. b2

XX FREFACE.

To those readers who have seen the journals of the first Methodists, or the extracts quoted from them by their opposers* in the early times of this spiritual influenza, are sufficiently known all their leading notions and peculiarities ; so that I have no need to enter into such unpleasant enquiries in this place; I have only to observe that their tenets remain the same, and have still the former effect on the minds of the converted : There is yet that imagined contention with the powers of darkness, that is at once so lamentable and so ludicrous : there is the same offensive familiarity with the Deity,, with a full trust and confidence both in the immediate efficacy of their miserably-delivered supplications, and in the reality of numberless small miracles wrought at their request and for their convenience : there still exists that delusion, by which some of the most common diseases of the body are regarded as proofs of the malignity of Satan contending for dominion over the soul : and there still remains the same wretched jargon, composed of scriptural language, debased by vulgar expressions, which has- a kind of mystic influence on the minds of the ignorant. It will be

* Methodists and Papists compared ; Treatise on Grace, by Bishop Warburton ; &c.

PREFACE. XXI

recollected that it is the abuse of those scriptural terms which I conceive to be improper : they are doubtless most significant and efficacious when used with propriety ; but it is painful to the mind of a soberly devout person, when he hears every rise and fall of the animal spirits, every whim and notion of enthusiastic ignorance, expressed in the venerable language of the Apostles and Evangelists.

The success of these people is great, but not surprising : as the powers they claim are given, and come not of education, many may, and therefore do, fancy they are endowed with them ; so that they who do not venture to become preachers, yet exert the minor gifts, and gain reputation for the faculty of prayer, as soon as they can address tha Creator in daring flights of unpremeditated absurdity. The less indigent gain the praise of hospitality, and the more harmonious become distinguished in their choirs : curiosity is kept alive by succession of ministers, and self-love is flattered by the consideration that they are the persons at whom the world wonders : add to this, that, in many of them, pride is gratified by their consequence as new members of a sect whom their conversion pleases, and by the liberty which, as seceders, they take, of speaking contemptuously of the Church and ministers, whom they have relinquished.

XXII PREFACE.

Of those denominated Calvinistic Methodists, I had principally one sect in view, or, to adopt the term of its founder, a church. This church consists of several congregations in town and country, unknown perhaps in many parts of the kingdom, but, where known, the cause of much curiosity and some amusement. To such of my readers as may judge an enthusiastic teacher and his peculiarities to be unworthy of any serious attention, I would observe that there is something unusually daring in the boast of this man, who claims the authority of a messenger sent from God, and declares without hesitation that his call was immediate ; that he is assisted by the sensible influence of the Spirit ; and that miracles are perpetually wrought in his favour, and for his convenience.

As it was and continues to be my desire to give proof that I had advanced nothing respecting this extraordinary person, his operations or assertions, which might not be readily justified by quotations from his own writings, I had collected several of these, and disposed them under certain heads ; but I found that by this means a very disproportioned share of attention must be given to the subject, and after some consideration, I have determined to relinquish the design ; and should any have curiosity to search whether my representation of the temper and disposition, the spirit and man-

PREFACE. XX111

ners, the knowledge and capacity, of a very popular teacher be correct, he is referred to about fourscore pamphlets, whose titles will be found on the covers of the late editions of the Bank of Faith, itself a wonderful performance, which (according to the turn of mind in the reader) will either highly excite, or totally extinguish, curiosity. In these works will be abundantly seen, abuse and contempt of the Church of England and its ministers; vengeance and virulent denunciation against all offenders ; scorn for morality and heathen virtue, with that kind of learning which the author possesses, and his peculiar style of composition. A few of the titles placed below will give some information to the reader respecting the merit and designs of those performances*.

As many of the preacher's subjects are controverted and nice questions in divinity, he has sometimes allowed himself relaxation from the severity of study, and favoured his admirers with the effects of an humbler kind of inspiration, viz. that

* Barbar, in twfc parts ; Bond-Chiid ; Cry of Little- Faith ; Satan's Lawsuit ; Forty Stripes for Satan ; Myrrh and Odour of Saints ; The Naked Bow of God ; Rule and Riddle ; Way and Fare for Wayfaring Men ; Utility of the Books and Excellency of the Parchments; Correspondence between Noetua, Aurita, (the words so separated,) and Philomela, &c.

XXIV PREFACE.

of the Muse. It must be confessed that these flights of fancy are very humble, and have nothing of that daring and mysterious nature which the prose of the author leads us to expect. The Dimensions of Eternal Love is a title of one of his more learned productions, with which might have been expected (as a fit companion) The Bounds of infinite Grace ; but no such work appears, and possibly the author considered one attempt of this kind was sufficient to prove the extent and direction of his abilities.

Of the whole of this mass of enquiry and decision, of denunciation and instruction (could we suppose it read hy intelligent persons), different opinions would probably be formed ; the more indignant and severe would condemn the whole as the produce of craft and hypocrisy, while the more lenient would allow that such things might originate in the wandering imagination of a dreaming enthusiast.

None of my readers will, I trust, do me so much injustice as to suppose I have here any other motive than a vindication of what I have advanced in the verses which describe this kind of character, or that I had there any other purpose than to express (what I conceive to be) justifiable indignation against the assurance, the malignity; and (what is of more importance) the pernicious in-

PREFACE. XXV

fluence of such sentiments on the minds of the simple and ignorant, who, if they give credit to his relations, must be no more than tools and instruments under the controul and management of one called to be their Apostle.

Nothing would be more easy for me, as I have observed, than to bring forward quotations such as would justify all I have advanced ; but even had I room, I cannot tell whether there be not something degrading in such kind of attack ; the reader might smile at those miraculous accounts, but he would consider them and the language of the author as beneath his further attention : I therefore once more refer him to those pamphlets, which will afford matter for pity and for contempt, by which some would be amused and others astonished — not without sorrow, when they reflect that thousands look up to the writer as a man literally inspired, to whose wants they administer with their substance, and to whose guidance they prostrate their spirit and understanding.

Havi; g been so long detained by this Letter, I must not permit my desire of elucidating what may seem obscure, or of defending what is liable to misconstruction, any further to prevail over a wish for brevity, and the fear of giving an air of importance to subjects which have perhaps little in themselves.

XXVI PREFACE.

The circumstance recorded in the fifth Letter is a fact ; although it may appear to many almost incredible,, that, in this country, and but few years since, a close and successful man should be a stranger to the method of increasing money by the loan of it. The minister of the place where the honest Fisherman resided, has related to me the apprehension and suspicion he witnessed : With trembling hand and dubious look, the careful man received and surveyed the bond given to him ; and after a sigh or two of lingering mistrust, he placed it in the coffer whence he had just before taken his cash ; for which, and for whose increase, he now indulged a belief, that it was indeed both promise and security.

If the Letter which treats of Inns should be found to contain nothing interesting or uncommon ; if it describe things which we behold every day, and some which we do not wish to behold at any time ; let it be considered that this Letter is one of the shortest, and that from a Poem whose subject was a Borough, populous and wealthy, these places of public accommodation could not, without some impropriety, be excluded.

I entertain the strongest, because the most reasonable hope, that no liberal practitioner in the Law 7 will be offended by the notice taken of disho-

PREFACE. XXV11

nourable and crafty attorneys. The increased difficulty of entering into the profession will in time render it much more free than it now is, from those who disgrace it ; at present such persons remain ; and it would not be dimcult to give instances of neglect, ignorance, cruelty, oppression, and chicanery ; nor are they by any means confined to one part of the country : quacks and impostors are indeed in every profession, as well with a licence as without one. The character and actions of Swallow might doubtless be contrasted by the delineation of an able and upright solicitor, but this Letter is of sufficient length, and such persons, without question, are already known to my readers.

When I observe, under the article Physic, that the young and less experienced physician will write rather with a view of making himself known, than to investigate and publish some useful fact, I would not be thought to extend this remark to all the publications of such men I could point out a work, containing experiments the most judicious, and conclusions the most interesting, made by a gentleman, then young, which would have given just celebrity to a man after long practice. The observation is nevertheless generally true : many opinions have been adopted and many books written, not that the theory might be well defended, but that a young physician might be better known,

XXVlli PREFACE.

If I have in one Letter praised the good-humour of a man confessedly too inattentive to business, and, in another, if I have written somewhat sarcastically of cc the brick-floord parlour which the butcher lets ;" be credit given to me, that in the one case I had no intention to apologize for idleness, nor any design in the other to treat with contempt the resources of the poor. The good-humour is considered as the consolation of disappointment, and the room is so mentioned because the lodger is vain. Most of my readers will perceive this, but I shall be sorry if by any I am supposed to make pleas for the vices of men, or treat their wants and infirmities with derision or with disdain.

It is probable, that really polite people, with cultivated minds and harmonious tempers, may judge my description of a card-club conversation to be highly exaggerated, if not totally fictitious ; and I acknowledge that the club must admit a particular kmd of members to afford such specimens of acrimony and objurgation : yet that such language is spoken, and such manners exhibited, is most certain, chiefly among those who, being successful in life without previous education, not very nice in their feelings, or very attentive to improprietits, sit down to game with no other view than that of adding the gain of the evening to the profits of the day ; whom therefore clisappoiutmeni

PREFACE. XXIX

in itself makes angry , and, when caused by another, resentful and vindictive.

The Letter on itinerant Players will to some appear too harshly written, their profligacy exaggerated, and their distress magnified ; but though the respectability of a part of these people may give us a more favourable view of the whole body, though some actors be sober, and some managers prudent ; still there is vice and misery left, more than sufficient to justify my description. But if I could find only one woman who (passing forty years on many stages, and sustaining many principal characters) laments, in her uninspected old age, that there was no work-house to which she could legally sue for admission ; if I could produce only one female, seduced upon the boards, and starved in her lodging, compelled by her poverty to sing, and by her sufferings to weep, without any prospect but misery, or any consolation but death ; if I could exhibit only one youth who sought refuge from parental authority in the licentious freedom of a wandering company ; yet, with three such examples, I should feel myself justified in the account I have given : — but such characters and sufferings are common, and there are few of these societies which could not show members of this description. To some, indeed, the life has its satisfactions : they never expected to be free from

XXX PREFACE.

labour, and their present kind they think is light t they have no delicate ideas of shame, and therefore duns and hisses give them no other pain than what arises from the fear of not being trusted, joined with the apprehension that they may have nothing to subsist upon except their credit.

For the Alms-house itself, its Governors and Inhabitants, I have not much to offer, in favour of the subject or of the characters. One of these^ Sir Denys Brand, may be considered as too highly placed for an author (who seldom ventures above middle-life) to delineate ; and indeed I had some idea of reserving him for another occasion, where he might have appeared with those in his own rank ; but then it is most uncertain whether he would ever appear, and he has been so many years prepared for the public, whenever opportunity might offer, that I have at length given him place, and though with his inferiors, yet as a ruler over them. Of these, one ( BenbowJ may be thought too low and despicable to be admitted here, but he is a Borough- character, and, however disgusting in some respects a picture may be, it will please some, and be tolerated by many, if it can boast that one merit of being a faithful likeness.

Blancy and Clelia, a male and female inhabitant of this mansion, are drawn at some length ; and I may be thought to have given them attention

PREFACE. XXXI which they do not merit. I plead not for the originality,, but for the truth of the character ; and though it may not be very pleasing, it may be useful to delineate (for certain minds) these mixtures of levity and vice ; people who are thus incurably vain and determinate ly worldly ; thus devoted to enjoyment and insensible of shame, and so miserably fond of their pleasures, that they court even the remembrance with eager solicitation, by conjuring up the ghosts of departed indulgences with all the aid that memory can afford them. These characters demand some attention, because they hold out a warning to that numerous class of young people who are too lively to be discreet ; to whom the purpose of life is amusement, and who are always in danger of falling into vicious habits, because they have too much activity to be quiet, and too little strength to be steady.

The characters of the Hospital- Directors were written many years since, and, so far as I was capable of judging, are drawn with fidelity. I mention this circumstance, that, if any reader should find a difference in the versification or expression, he will be thus enabled to account for it.

The Poor are here almost of necessity introduced, for they must be considered, in" every

XXX11 PREFACE.

place,, as a large and interesting portion of its inhabitants. I am aware of the great difficulty of acquiring just notions on the maintenance and management of this class of our fellow-subjects, and I forbear to express any opinion of the various modes which have been discussed or adopted : of one method only I venture to give my sentiments., that of collecting the poor of an hundred into one building : This admission of a vast number of persons, of all ages and both sexes, of very different inclinations, habits and capacities, into a society, must, at a first view, I conceive, be looked upon as a cause of both vice and misery; nor does any thing which I have heard or read, invalidate the opinion ; happily, it is not a prevailing one, as these houses are, I believe, still confined to that part of the kingdom where they originated.