THE John Harris Newsletter Society No 62 Winter 2018

Old winter, old winter, come, hie thee away

Headgear at South Crofty on a grey, winter’s day. Picture by Paul Langford

The grey-headed man, clad in rags as And they trembled with cold, and And thou must be off to the frost- he goes, were weeping with pain. bitten zone, And the water-cress girl, with the Thou hast but a season, old Winter, And beautiful Spring have thy septre frost in her toes, to roar, and throne. I saw them to-day creeping down the And then I know surely thy reign will dark lane, be o’er, Taken from Harris’s poem Winter. JHS 2 MRS EVE PARSONS She is writing the social history of her Cornish copper-mining ancestors by Eve has served The Society since its the name of Snell from Chacewater. inception in 1998 and has been Chair- Having courteously asked permission man, Vice Chairman and a most loyal to quote from Harris (whom she’s just member of The Committee. Her pre- discovered through our website) Tony sent state of health caused her to not and I have been able to furnish her stand for election as vice-chairman at with further information and a 2020 our AGM, but I’m delighted that she flyer. She has really ‘fallen’ for Har- will continue to serve on the commit- ris’ works and wished she could have tee. attended our AGM. She is considering We owe Eve a real debt of gratitude whether October 2020 should be her as she smoothed the way for me when next trip to where she stays taking over the chairman’s role and has with friends when visiting the U.K. always been someone who could be Facebook, which member Caroline relied upon. Palmer set up and manages, now has Eric’s health problems, too, are mak- 125 followers. Caroline has received an ing life difficult for them both so we enquiry from Troy Mayne who lives in send our best wishes to them. Wisconsin. He is a descendent of Hen- ry Mayne who lived at Bolenowe Croft EXHIBITIONS and emigrated to the USA in 1841 for the same reasons as the siblings of John The Federation of Old Cornwall Harris. Troy is most interested in the Societies’ Winter Festival at John Harris story. School on Saturday, November 4, was a most interesting day when we found much interest in John Harris from IT’S SUBS TIME AGAIN people who had never heard of him. We need the £6 per annum from Christine, Tony and I were able, as our members to fund our day to day descendents of the poet, to read his work. Subs are due on 1st January. poetry as they had requested. This payment is something that can I was then informed that I could be be easily overlooked so please check seen and heard on YouTube, doing my whether you’ve paid and, if not, please bit! A considerable number of flyers use the information on the back of for the 2020 Bi-Centenary Festival this newsletter to settle your account. were distributed together with the Thank you, in anticipation that you society’s membership leaflets. will attend to this matter. Lastly, this is An exhibition was set up at entirely a personal suggestion but I am College on a large wall-mounted asking each member to consider mak- display board on November 8 and will ing an additional financial gift, however remain there until March 28. We are small, as the collective amount would grateful to tutor Marilla Walker for indicate to potential sponsors, a degree assisting us and monitoring the wallet of commitment to the 2020 Festival. containing both 2020 flyers and mem- I made a similar appeal at the AGM bership leaflets. and that day, £98 was received by our The display is in an area used by many treasurer. Your commitment, indicated students and by outside organisations by a gift, will be greatly appreciated. and the feedback has been positive. Exhibitions of a more permanent WINTER IS PASSING! nature are being developed at King Did people 200 years ago complain Edward Mine and at Poldark Mine. about the cold weather as we do today? CONTACTS THROUGH I dare say they were far more accept- ing of it and resilient to it – living in SOCIAL MEDIA houses with gaps but no windows, and We are grateful to member Duncan none of the home comforts that we Yeates for responding to an enquiry take for granted today. from Camilla Bloxham, an English Really, it’s not that long ago, which degree student who is studying Harris’ leads me to think that we live in privi- poem ‘The Mine’. Duncan was able leged times. Well, with confidence, we to reply from his knowledge gained await the full arrival of Spring, already through his research for his PhD. in evidence in our gardens as buds are

Chairman’s ramblings Recently, an enquiry has been re- forming and daffodils are blooming!

with Paul Langford ceived from Margaret Floyd, a Western Kind regards to all – at home and Australian with Cornish roots. abroad! JHS 3 BICENTENARY FESTIVAL 2020 Exciting events organised

BY TONY JASPER for a Truro history walk, to see the Reach a hundred years of age, and John Harris plaque in Falmouth, visit you receive a special communication Troon Methodist, a special church from the Queen. service, and especially for our visitors, Unfortunately no-one is likely to a Cornish evening of stories and dance, reach the 200-year mark, unless, of of memories and, who knows, discov- course in the future, you will be re- ery of family connections here with membered, and although not involving someone from overseas. Her Majesty, there will be a special Tony Jasper will be revisiting his event in your honour. lecture of some years back for the So it is for Bolenowe-born John Har- London Cornish Society. ris, poet, sometime Methodist preach- You will be able to drop in as you er, and Quaker. He has been compared please, but we would hope that many to no less than Shakespeare. of you will see fit to attend the whole John entered this world in 1820. And Tony Jasper is the 2020 bicente- festival even if you decide not to stay so to celebrate this, the John Harris nary festival’s administrator. at the hotel. We will provide you as Society is organising a series of excit- and when with relevant details. We ing events between October 16 and 18, may have a general ticket which would in the year 2020. Duchy. The venue is Truro’s splendid mean you can come to all or drop in as Already the main committee, and a Alverton Hotel. you please, but when added up there special ‘Festival’ planning team, have Residency is for anyone, and so would be a saving. been meeting to plot and plan. Tony spend a weekend conversing, chatting, Attend the special dinner and cost Jasper, a Cornishman, author, writer eating and drinking, and be part of ac- will be the hotel charge and full details and broadcaster, was asked to draw up tivities in Truro, Troon and Falmouth. will be available soon. Should you de- a weekend of activity with outreach Note though - of course anyone can cide to spend the weekend at the hotel stretching to across drop into the special happenings. then we will provide you as and when the globe, special attention paid to the Indeed the committee want your pres- with relevant details. US, Canada, Australia and Europe, and ence very much. No one is required to So, time passes! Just think it over. wherever Cornish societies exist. spend the weekend as a hotel resident This is a one-off event, a promised With vision and bravery the commit- but it seems a good idea. experience to be remembered and tee agreed with Jasper’s idea to hold As for the weekend - a special dinner treasured. most events at one central venue, and and speaker, poetry readings of John If you like, email me, Tony Jasper at indeed to invite visitors to take a holi- Harris and conversation with literary [email protected] and ask day there, attend the arranged gather- Cornish figures, obviously outline to me to send you relevant details, and ings and spend later time exploring the his life and evaluation, out and about start keeping you in touch.

of John Harris’s life and works. PayPal, the addresses for which are Treasurer’s We none of us claim expenses, but both on the back of this newsletter. we do rely on your annual member- If you would prefer, you could ar- notes ship fees of £6 per person to pay the range to pay by standing order on costs of newsletters and exhibitions January 1st each year, and if you ring Thank you to all members who have etc. If you have not already done so, me on 01209 713863, I will giv eyou supported the Society so well. we’d be grateful if you could either the bank details. The committee works quite hard send me a cheque for £6, payable to Once again our thanks, on your behalf to promote the story “The John Harris Society”, or pay by Christine Cowls

Copy deadline for the summer newsletter is June 1

JHS 4

TWO BAILIFFS [On their arrival] the French-men, we Extracts presume, like the Portsmouth [a crack FROM team of dockyards-men] not wishing from the to risk a defeat by women, and, above West Briton At a village [near] Cury Cross-Lanes, all, English-women, they declined the two bailiffs from Helston pounced with proposed encounter. - life in great fury on the humble cot of a poor However, a match they must have, Cornwall labourer, at the suit of a neighbouring and at length one was concluded cobbler. between the women, headed by in the early On approaching the lonely cot of Anne Glanville, and a boat’s crew from their victim, they found, to their great The Grand Turk... 19th century astonishment, that the inmates had The race was immediately com- flown, and left only a solitary bed-tye menced, and concluded in favour of for their heartless visitors. the Amazonian Rowers, amid the deaf- Not a little chagrined, as may be im- ening plaudits of 20,000spectators. agined, at the circumstances, the bailiff 26th August 1842 and his follower took the bed-tye to [The ‘Saltashers’ competed in many a public-house in the neighbourhood, regattas and were widely known for and quickly began their jollification. their rowing garb---white dresses, and A scheme was then immediately white caps with ribbons---as well as concocted to deprive the bailiff of their their unfailing success. In 1847, for prey, by five old village dames, one of example, they competed in the Fleet- whom volunteered to dance a hornpipe wood Regatta, but not before the ves- for their amusement, to the music of sel in which they and their rowing gig Willie, the follower, who often figures were shipped was blown by gales across to great advantage on the fife, while the Irish Sea to Dublin.] his master was enjoying his yard of clay, and almost enveloped in the odorifer- ous perfumes of tobacco. THE DEVON AND The scheme succeeded to admiration, CORNWALL MILITIA and the bailiff were amused with their music and pipe, the youthful villagers When this regiment of militia was at walked quietly off with the bed-tye. Plymouth, it was reviewed by General 8th July 1842 , on Mount Wise. After going through the exercise, the word was given to ‘dismiss’, upon THE AMAZONIAN which all the men left the ground, with the exception of those belonging to the ROWERS corps of a place west of Truro. A prize, to be contended by amateur Astounded at this, the General asked rowers, open to all the world, having the officer in command, why they did been offered by the committee of the not follow the others, as he had given Havre Regatta, our far-famed Saltash- the word ‘dismiss’? ers, who have recently acquired so ‘O’, said the officer, they don’t under- much celebrity by beating their oppo- stand you; if you’ll allow me, I’ll soon nents at Portsmouth, boldly ventured send them off’. to seek renown on the French waters, Then turning to his men, he ex- and accordingly entered themselves for claimed ‘Company!’ At which they the stakes. pricked up ears. ‘attention to your They left Plymouth in the Brunswick officer! Scat up’. They all vanished -im for Southampton, whence they pro- mediately. ceeded to Havre in the Grand Tyrk... 4th November 1842

Not a little chagrined, as may be imag- ined, at the circumstances, the bailiff and his follower took the bed-tye to a public- house in the neighbourhood, and quickly compiled by Eve Parsons

Down Mwemory Lane began their jollification.

JHS ‘ 5 THE AGM Upbeat promotion of festival

BY TONY LANGFORD The annual Our president, Peter Bickford-Smith meeting was chaired the annual general meeting on held in the Guild Saturday, February 17, guiding the busi- Room atTroon ness matters through on time. Methodist This included Paul Langford deliv- Church. ering his chairman’s report and Tony Jasper, festival administrator, giving an upbeat promotion of the John Harris Bi-Centenary Festival 16-18 October 2020 (see page 3 in this newsletter). Christine Cowls presented the au- dited annual accounts and Steve Cross- man gave an update on press and publicity matters, including dis- tributing samples of a brochure he had prepared publicising the 2020 festival. The following were elected to of- fice: Chairman, Paul Langford; vice- chairman, John Gillbard; secretary, Tony Langford; treasurer, Christine Cowls; press and publicity officer, Steve Crossman; committee members, Eve Parsons, Caroline Palmer and Duncan Yeates. Following formal business, Peter Bickford-Smith introduced guest speaker Duncan Yeates, who gave an interesting and informative illustrated Director of English at Mounts Bay Langford and Peter Bickford-Smith talk on the techniques used by John Academy, Duncan is studying for a Phd thanked everyone for coming and Harris in his poetry writing (see a sum- at Falmouth University. closed the meeting. Refreshments fol- mary by Duncan on this page). A vote of thanks was given by Paul lowed. Talk on John Harris and his work BY DUNCAN YEATES Here is an example from the literary ing new metrical forms and Harris was periodical The Athenaeum: “What we no exception. During the society’s recent an- admire in his [Harris’s] poetry is its simplic- I discussed the idea that his use of nual general meeting, I was fortunate ity, its honest piety, and the limitation of its heptasyllabic (seven syllable) lines enough to be able to present some of matter to the facts of his own experience.” to represent drunkenness in his play my doctoral research into John Harris. Here the emphasis is on the content of Caleb Cliff was an example of Harris During his lifetime, much of the the work rather than his formal abili- using an unusual metrical scheme to criticism of Harris praised the fact that ties as a poet. create some very deliberate bodily ef- he had produced so much poetry as a In my talk, I argued that not enough fects on the reader. labouring man. criticism of Harris has focused on his Anyone who is interested in contact- Victorian reviewers also commented skills in using different metrical forms ing me about my research is welcome on the themes of Harris’s work and its such as blank verse and ottava rima. to e-mail me at: [email protected]. moral message rather than comment- In the Victorian era, poets were also nDuncan Yeates is Director of English ing on the poems themselves. interested in inventing and appropriat- at Mounts Bay Academy JHS 6 HISTORICAL REPORT

Discovered recently, in the Falmouth & Penryn Weekly Times of Saturday, September 24, 1881, is a report of the death of John Harris’s mother. Note the fact that she is not mentioned by name - a sign of those times.

DEATH OF THE MOTHER OF JOHN HARRIS, THE CORNISH POET

The mother of John Harris, the Cornish poet, died at Troon, , on Saturday morning last, September 17th, 1881, in her 82nd year. She has left behind her seven sons and two daughters, of whom John is the eldest. Five of her sons and one of her daughters, are now in America, and the others are in England. Eight are members of Christian churches; and five of her sons are preachers of the Gospel. Besides these, two of her children have died - one in manhood, and one in infancy. Her husband has been dead upwards of 30 years. She was a member of the Wesleyan society for more than fifty years, and gently passed away, relying on the merits of Christ. The poet touchingly alludes to his mother in several of his volumes. Here is what he said of her in his last book, “Monro.”

His gentle mother nursed her fair first-born, And called him Monro in her dream of joy; And prayed she for him every night and morn, And rocked the cradle singing to her boy. A bliss was hers the world could not destroy, Or the great clamour marching o’er the steep, Nor want’s worn visage at the hearth annoy. Her love was like and angel’s, pure and deep; She hushed him when he sighed, and kissed him in his sleep.

She soothed his sobbings with the simplest sounds, The simplest words and tenderest looks that be; While in the dell the waterfall resounds, As it foams downwards by the hollow tree. “Do good, my child, though no good comes to thee. The highest task is to relieve distress, To save a brother from the boiling sea Of bitter waters, when huge woes oppress, And wintry darkness drops upon life’s wilderness.

“Let love and mercy in thy bosom reign, And hold not back thy hand in time of need; Be thou the soother of another’s pain, Nor ever cause thy neighbour’s heart to bleed. For worth and virtue and pale pity plead, And serve thy Maker with a faith sincere, So shall Jehovah bless the pious deed, And give my child a richer portion here, And more than tongue can tell in that eternal sphere.”

She is buried at Treslothan, Camborne, where the grass is green and the daisies beautiful, where the youngest daughter of the poet is also interred, and who has been sleeping there, under the violets, for 26 years.

JHS 7 BOOK REVIEW Caroline Palmer’s new book BY TONY LANGFORD

Prolific writer Caroline Palmer, a JHS committee member, has just brought out a new book, Mawla, Nancekuke and More About and (published by Pen and Ink at £9.99). It follows in the wake of her popular Porthtowan and Towan Cross, published in 2013. Caroline has been busy pouring over old newspa- per accounts, studying old documents and listening to first hand accounts by members of local families. The stories of local people, “some funny, some sur- prising, some tragic,” proved particu- larly helpful. Profusely illustrated with black and white photographs, the book covers many topics from farming to family life, from mining to Methodism and much else. Caroline points out that the four areas under scrutiny “are com- pletely different, though connected by proximity and often ties of blood and friendship, as well as occupation.” Both Mawla and Nancekuke get a mention in the Domesday Book, Towan Cross dates from the sixteenth century but Porthtowan arrives much later. Mawla, says Caroline, “feels so different from the coastal area, serene and self-con- tained, tucked away.” Letters of the Simmons family of Mawla, some nearly a hundred and fifty years old, provided useful background information. Court- ship and family doings, births and deaths and chapel life were some of the topics recorded. The links between the Simmons family and Mawla are strong. A farm- signs of an ancient field system. the nerve agent Sarin was produced ing family, they at one time also had Nancekuke hit the headlines in 2000 there. Many local people were em- a butchers shop in Redruth. Ken when it was reported that former ployed there at this time and Caroline Simmons recounted memories of his workers at the Ministry of Defence es- tells of their experiences, including grandfather, George Simmons. An ex- tablishment there had died as a result the memories of a former chemist. In cellent all-round farmer, George raised of exposure to nerve gas. An airfield for 2000, Candy Atherton, the then MP cattle and did butchery, the animals be- RAF Portreath had been constructed for Falmouth and Camborne, raised ing slaughtered on the farm. He looked at Nancekuke during the Second World the health issues of former workers at after the land very well and was expert War. It played a key role in the war Nancekuke in Parliament. These days, at building stone hedges. effort and many well-known people RAF Portreath operates an air defence It was on an holding of the Simmons passed through, including General radar station at Nancekuke. family, Farm that South (later Field Marshall) Montgomery, Writing this book has clearly been a West Water carried out an archaeologi- General de Gaulle and Anthony Eden. labour of love for Caroline, whose aim cal investigation in 1996. It revealed In the 1950s it became an outstation was to “create a feel of how the past the remains of a large prehistoric struc- of the Chemical Defence Establish- has given birth to the present.” She has ture, Bronze and Iron Age pottery and ment (Porton Down) and for a while certainly succeeded in doing that. JHS 8 THE JOHN HARRIS SOCIETY CONTACTS

This newsletter is published three times per year, by the John Harris Society, free to members. All articles for inclusion to: Press and publicity officer Stephen Crossman 8 Rose-an-Grouse Canonstown, TR27 6JN. Phone: 01736 753912 Email: John Harris 1820 -1884 NEWSLETTER [email protected] BY TONY LANGFORD

John Harris was born in 1820 at About Six Chimneys on Bolenowe Carn, near Camborne, the eldest of 11 Subscription fee - £6 per year children. the (and other cheques) to: Largely self-educated - he started Hon treasurer school when he was six or seven Christine Cowls years old, before finishing at the poet ‘Trematon’ age of nine - John had an insatiable 20 Westborne Road appetite for reading from his early and when no paper was available, Camborne, TR14 7JD years. would scratch his poems on slate, Phone: On his ninth birthday he started using a sharp pointed nail. 01209 713863 work, briefly as a ploughboy, then In his mining days his miner’s Or by: for a tin-streamer or tinner, operat- ‘hard’ hat was sometimes used for PayPal to: ing in Forest Moor. this purpose. When no ink was

SUBSCRIPTIONS [email protected] When he was 13, John went to available, he used blackberry juice. work underground at Dolcoath. He fitted his writing into a busy He was to ply this arduous occupa- life that, apart from his work and tion for 24 years, seeing the famous his family responsibilitiies, includ- mine pass from copper to tin. ed being a Methodist lay preacher WEBSITE www.johnharrissociety.org.uk Poetry, or verse-making as he and a Sunday School teacher. called it, had been part of John’s John Harris left Dolcoath in 1857 life since his first attempts at to take up an appointment as a FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/johnharrissociety rhyme at school when he was just Scripture Reader at Falmouth, a

ONLINE eight years old. post which he threw himself into Whatever he was doing, verses with enthusiasm. were forming in his mind and he He continued writing poetry, and scribbled these down whenever began writing peace tracts and and wherever and on whatever became a Quaker. President: Peter Bickford-Smith he could. He used the clean side John Harris died in 1884 and lies of cast off labelled tea wrappers, buried in Treslothan Churchyard. Chairman: Paul Langford 01209 213146 [email protected] Grateful thanks go to all those who have contributed news articles in the Secretary: Tony Langford past and more articles from you, our readers, will be most welcome for 01209 215918 possible inclusion in future editions - anything connected with Cornwall, John Harris, poetry, including other poets and Cornish life.

OFFICERS [email protected] JHS