Sonnet Written in York Castle

Sonnet Written in York Castle

During an arbitrary Incarceration of Forty Days, in the autumn of
1846 for “Contempt of Court”

Think not, because a prison’s massive wall
Deprives my body of its liberty,
That stones, and locks, and iron bars call thrall
The scaring mind, which, mounting over all,
Can freely roam o’er each declivity, 5
And mountain-steep through groves, o’er verdant plains,
Visiting scenes of pleasures past or pains;
For tyrants ne’er can keep the soul in chains.
The heart that’s nobly learn’d to soar above
Mere worldly wealth, and rank, and lawless power, 10
Of human life,—the heart that in its love
And all the sensual play-things of the hour
Can comprehend the meanest things that crawls,
Defies all terror of your castle-walls!

George Tweddell
[To be found in the Special Collection, Brotherton library,
Leeds University and included here with kind permission.]

York Castle Prison
http://www.yorkcastleprison.org.uk/york-castle-prison.html

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)