Bolckow and Vaughan

Bolckow and Vaughan

Written on reading an account of Unveiling the Statue of the late H.
W. F. Blockow Esq., M. P., at Middlesbrough, October 6th 1881.

Honour to those who honour’d Bolckow’s name!
’Twas fit that Cleveland should all honours pay
To her illustrious dead: but who dare say
The worker Vaughan, shall share not in his fame?
Castor and Pollux—sans their cruelty— 5
Around their heads the flames indeed did play,—
Smelting the iron-ore! The self-same bay
Should crown each brow; for in their industry
Alike they fought and conquer’d. Unto each
We owe our equal gratitude; for one 10
Without his partner never could have done
The things they did. Had Bolckow’s statue speech,
In voice as loud as Stentor’s we should hear,—
“Honour not me if ye neglect my Partner dear!”

Rose Cottage, Stokesley George Markham Tweddell
[Tweddell’s Illustrated Annual 1881-1882, p. 40]

Here is Tweddell's celebrated history of Middlesbrough, appreciated by historian Asa briggs in Victorian Cities. http://georgemarkhamtweddell.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/tweddells-history-of-middlesbrough-1890.html

The full manuscript book is in the reference section of Middlesbrough Library between C800 and C900 - near a box with his People's History of Cleveland. This is the extract from Bulmers North Yorkshire directory 1890 in which, halfway down is a good account of Bolkow and Vaughan.

Redcar

Redcar

Redcar! Upon thy firm, smooth sands, I love

To loiter in the pleasant Summer time,

When Phoebe drives his fiery wain aloft,

And zephyrs waft the fragrance of the vale,

Mix’d with the coolness of the old Ocean’s breath, 5

Acceptable alike to youth and age,

Joy to the hale, and healing to the ill.

See what a fleet of vessels gaily glide,

Like happy swans, upon the glassy sea,

Bringing the riches of each foreign land 10

In happy exchange for our industry.

Another day, perchance on angry waves

These ships will toss; grim Neptune in his rage,

Like raving madmen, striving to destroy

All that hath taken years of toil to make. 15

But now in calm the sea-god seems to sleep,

And Cleveland’s maidens, in the limpid waves,

Bathe their fair limbs, as Dian did of old;

Whilst the sands sparkle, as with diamonds strewn.

Peter Proletarius (George Markham Tweddell)

[Tweddell’s North of England Illustrated Annual for 1879-1880, p. 38]

Poem also in Tweddell's book Visitor's Guide toe Redcar, Coatham and Saltburn 1863, which can be download free via Google books via this page on the Tweddell Hub. http://georgemarkhamtweddell.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/redcar-coatham-and-saltburn-tweddells.html

The Rev. John Graves

The Rev. John Graves.

“Hail! Patient plodder in the useful mine of our antiquities:

Cleveland owes to thee

Honour, as one who made her History

From out the darkness of the Past to shine;

And evermore thy brows we will entwine 5

With bays that will not fade. Although no bard

To sing her greatness, yet thou labour’d hard,

In nervous prose, to make her name divine

In our land’s letters. Pioneer wert thou

For Ord to follow; and now I aspire, 10

To pen in prose, and sometimes tune my lyre

To sing, of Cleveland in the Past and Now.

May thy industrious labours, Graves to me

Prove such an example, that I equal thee!”

‘Peter Proletarius’ George Markham Tweddell

[Bards and Authors, p. 384 & Tractates No. 37 Cleveland

Sonnets (Fourth Series - 1890)]

Author of The History of Cleveland 1808 - More info to come.

Frank Wilkinson

Frank Wilkinson.

“He wooed the Muses on thy banks, fair Tees!

And oft, in distant Burmah, sigh’d once more

Bardlike to loiter in the pleasant fields

And flower-strewn footpaths of his native land:

And when he sang by Sitong’s eastern stream, 5

His songs breathed love for home, and Hurworth Rose

In hid ‘mind’s eye,’ with all its quiet homes

And dear familiar faces, till he wept,

And felt himself a child again.”

‘Peter Proletarius’ George Marham Tweddell

[Bards and Authors, p. 350]

More info to come to this.

James Clephan

James Clephan.

“His leisure only to the Muse he gives;

By writing prose, not singing verse, he lives.”

‘Peter Proletarius’ George Markham Tweddell

From the intro to the chapter on James Clepham in Tweddell's [Bards & Authors, p. 295]

Info to come to this.

Bishop Brian Walton

From Tweddell's Bards and Authors 1872

Bishop Brian Walton.

“He lived in troubled times. Let us forget

How paltry squabbles about tithes would fret

His soul and those of others: nor need we

Fight o’er again, with paper chivalry,

The struggle anent lectures. ’T is alone 5

As scholar Brian Walton will be known

Age after age: for ne’er will be forgot

His famous bible cleped the Polyglot”

‘Peter Proletarius’ (George Markham Tweddell )

From the intro to the chapter on Brian Walton in [Bards & Authors, p. 224]

More info here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Walton_(bishop)

John Reed Appleton.

John Reed Appleton.

 “Scoff not at antiquarian research,
As useless in results; for it throws light
Upon the darkness of the past to aid
Humanity along its devious way”.

‘Peter Proletarius’   - George Markham Tweddell
[ Bards and Authors , p.201]

............................
Note: This poem was written as an intro to a chapter on John Reed Appleton for Tweddell's Bards and Authors of Cleveland and South Durham 1872

Bards and Authors can be downloaded free (with the chapter in) from the Tweddell hub here http://georgemarkhamtweddell.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/bards-and-authors-of-cleveland-and.html

John Reed Appleton was a writer and close walking companion of Tweddell.
More to be added here!

And another poem on him from the Illustrated Annual.


John Reed Appleton, F.R.A.
Poet and antiquary, both combined!
Why not? All truth is beautiful; and truth
Must circulate through all the poet’s soul,
E’en as the blood through arteries and veins,
Past, present, future, to the bard are one 5
Unending circle of humanity:
And the true antiquary loves the past
For all its teachings in the search for truth.
Peter Proletarius
[Tweddell’s North of England Illustrated Annual for 1879-1880, p. 5]



Sonnet to John Appleton of Durham, F.S.A.

Oft, as I muse beside my winter’s fire,
The scene where we have rambled rise to view
In all their beauty: in fancy I review
Our sea-side visits; nor do I desire
A purer pleasure than we two enjoy’d 5
By bosky streams—on mountains—or beside
Ruins of fabrics once our country’s pride,—
Castles and monasteries: never cloy’d
Their histories and legends to our taste;
And now I half rehear the genial talk 10
Which we enjoy’d in many a rustic walk,
To shorten which we never felt in haste.
These rambles serve me for a glorious theme,
And linger in my brain as if a pleasant dream.

Rose Cottage, Stokesley George Markham Tweddell
[Tweddell’s Illustrated Annual 1881-1882, p. 8]


To a Young Friend

On his being articled as an Attorney-at-law
ALFRED! thine is a truly noble name!
It has been borne by one who was a king
In thought and deed, both on and off the throne;
And whoso bears that name should prize its fame.
With thee I’ve rambled o’er our Cleveland hills, 5
And mark’d thy young eyes sparkle with delight
To view these scenes thy sire* so well has sung.
To-day thou enters on the tedious path
Of legal studies;—tedious to the drone
Whose servile soul ne’er soars above the fees 10
Which future years, he hopes, will pluck from fools
That knaves like him may feed and batten on.
But to the pure of heart, my Alfred dear!
The study of the law can nerve the soul
To shield the innocent, and strike down Wrong; 15
Corruption to weed out, and rear a pile
Of Strength and Beauty, Justice makes her home.
Be it thine, brave youth (though others waste their time
In vain frivolity), to master all
Highways and byways of thy country’s laws, 20
Both past and present, in true student mood;
And thy wilt find in ev’ry task a pleasure
That Ignorance wots not of. And in time
Thy manly voice may thunder in our courts,
Demanding justice for the wrong’d, when I 25
Am dust below the sod.

Stokesley, Sept. 2nd 1871 George Markham Tweddell
*John Reed Appleton, F.S.A. &c., whose fine blank verse upon
Cleveland (forming No. 1 of the North of England Tractates), is a
valuable addition to our local literature. G. M. T.
Tweddell’s Middlesbrough Miscellany (1871), p. 83
Woodcut

Joseph Reed

Joseph Reed.
  
“Old all the amusements that the world o’er saw, 
The Theatre is chief; yea, worth them all.” 

‘Peter Proletarius’  - George Markham Tweddell
[ Bards & Authors , p. 178]  

...............................
Note: This short poem was to introduce Tweddell's chapter on Stockton playwright Joseph Reed in Bards and Authors of Cleveland and South Durham 1872.

You can download the book free on this page here via the Tweddell Hub - http://georgemarkhamtweddell.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/bards-and-authors-of-cleveland-and.html

There is also a chapter in William Hall Burnett's book Old Cleveland - Local Writers and Local Worthies, downloadable from the page on the Tweddell hub. http://georgemarkhamtweddell.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/old-cleveland-local-writers-and-local.html

Some more material to come to this post.


JOSEPH REED (1723 - 1787)

"The poet and playwright was born the son of a rope-maker in Stockton on Tees, and ran the business with vigor both in Stockton and London all his life. In 1750, he married Sarah Watson in Middlesbrough.

Reed always considered himself an amateur writer, despite his many publications and the success of several plays. He early developed an interest in combative pamphleteering, and between 1761-76 wrote four plays including his two most successful, The Register Office and the comic opera Tom Jones. Both derived from his relationship with the great Henry Fielding. The former work caught the public interest and became a standard afterpiece. The character Margery Moorpout, incidentally, extols Roseberry Topping. His tragedy Dido marked a collaboration with David Garrick, but trouble dogged the work. Joseph Ritson (q.v.) a friend of Reed, prepared it for the press in 1792 but it was not printed until 1808, and then perished in a fire."

From http://www.sclews.me.uk/m-reed.html



Margery Moorpout was performed at Dury Lane.