M ERRI E CARLISLE A N D POEMS OF TRADITION HUGH EALCONER \ , inister o f th e resb teria n Ch urch o f E n land C a rlisle M P y g , ; ” o f Th e M aid o f Sh ulam a nd The Unfinished Sympho ny . S econd Edition R evised. CARL ISL E GLI S H S R E E . S ON S , 11 EN T T 1914. To AT CARLI LE S , THE F DS PHYSICIANS RIEN , , WHOSE K INDNES S HAS BEEN so UNFAILING DU HI S PROTRACTED ILL ES S RING N , C O N T E N T S . Dedication POEMS OF L OCAL TRADITION Merrie Carlisle w St . Cuthbert and St . Herbert on the S ifts Sauceries Mary , Queen of Scots , at the ’ Kinmon t Willie s Toast George Fox and th e Carlisle Friends Major Ba nald MacPh erson on the Duke Cumberland ’ The Brampton Girl s Fear ’ The Burning of the Hexha m Bairns (Red Ker o ’ a C N Lindsey s L ment (Haughton astle , orth Tyne! D w D The erwent ater Lights ( ilston Castle , South Tyn e! The Gilsla nd Question P OEMS OF THE CHRISTIAN TRADITION The Proprietor The Old Age Pensioner Charity Death of a Poet — Poems of the Chr istian Tradition continued. The Reign of Man Beethoven ’ s Portrait Th e Councillor Welcome to the Latest Arri val Mother and Son Father and Daughter Triptych of Childhood ’ The Ph ilosoPh er s Dream Unconscious Influence The Curate ’ s Love ’ Don Juan on Sir Walter Scott s Quatrain to Woman Summer Song Old Age and Youth by the sea De Profundis To my Sister Agnes HYMN S Christmas Easter The Ministry of An gels The Final Vision I n hoc sign o victor RAT ON LIST OF IL LUS T I S . Portrait of Author Carlisle in 1745 Sauceries and Sta nwix from Carlisle Castle K ’ Fourteenth Century House , ing s Arms ’ Major Macdonald s Cell , Carlisle Castle s 1745 Highmore House , Carli le , in Bonnie Prince Charlie Bewcastle Cross (East Front! Bewcastle Cross (West Front! Dilston Castle G d The Popping Stone, ilslan 1745 Town Hall , Carlisle , in P R OL G O US GALEATUS . This little volume may need a helmeted prologue to vindicate its publication . It is printed in the hope that it may serve the great cause of local patriotism . In two recent lectures o n the value of local tradition the writer ventured to recite to large popular audiences some o f the o s . f llowing pieces , with their prose preface He was s urprised by the enthusiasm evoked , by a request for publication , and even by a remonstrance that more a ball ds had not been given . An illustrated version of on e e of u piece was print d as a set pict re post cards , a n i d cop es have been sold . It then occurred to him that singers in the 20th century might do on o ld to well occasion , like the minstrels , recite their verses to the people , who seem to cherish a for - o r — g reat liking verse , sung spoken provided the s ubject awaken their interest . Also that a brief r ec ord of his experience might be of service to some o i of reader whose proper v cation , unl ke that the w riter , is poetry . It may be urged that local tradition has only a limited appeal . But the universal may shine through the particular , and the ideal through the concrete ld ce . o instan Was it not said of , History is but ” Philosophy teaching by examples ? Or it may b e said that the poet should help people , and especially o young f lk , to contemplate the spectacle of life with appropriate emotions as it is lived at present , or will be in the near future , rather than as it was in e the past . But they will best understand and serv — — their own generation at home and overseas whose sympath etic imagination has first been exercised on own o the records of their c untryside , and the vividly d o coloure experience of their f rbears Happily , of from its wealth historic monuments , no country is better fitted than our own to develop in the citizens of the future that power of the mind to project itself c of e into the onsciousness others , and see life as th y of t see it , which is the secret good manners and wor hy rv social se ice . Is not the time at hand when classic al figures as poetic symbols shall abdicate , letting familiar typical national figures reign in their stead ? Is n o t of ro e Mary , Queen Scots , as symbolical a tragic he in as Iphigenia or (Enone ? A Cromwell or a Nelson as poetic a hero as Achilles or Hector ? Raleigh or Livingstone as typical a wanderer as Jason or Uly ssas ? Robert Burns as ideal a lyrist as Sappho ? Tyrtaeus The devotion of o ur poets in time — past to classical themes as if these alone embo died — the ideal and unive rsal has rendered poetry caviare A of to the general . change poetic symbols from the unknown to the familiar might mean much for the interest of the democracy in poetry . At any rate there is no reason why poetry sho uld not appeal to the million as well as to the cultured few . If they but read aright the signs of our time , our younger poets should soon come into their kingdom . Let them don their singing robes for the people , not of for a small exclusive coterie . Is it not foolish Church and State to ignore the measureless potencies of social service wrapped up in popul a r song ? Is not one half of the Old Testament p oetry ? And in of our the light this fact , is it not surprising that its d s British Church history , with stirring episo e , and of above all the romance of the last century Missions , o has not been sung int the popular heart , but still i ? remains , poet cally speaking, virgin soil To the pieces on local tr adition the writer adds some others indicating more definitely his attitude u to life , and s ggesting, however brokenly, some aspects of that supreme interpreter of experience — our greatest tradition and heritage the Christian o evangel of the most blessed G d . The helmeted ” o prologue , then , may perhaps vindicate this b ok of as the plea of a provincial voice that poets , as old , sing an d recite their verse to the people , not to a a clique , and th t due recognition of the exceeding — of — o o t b e value tradition l cal , nati nal , Chris ian made by a democratic age , which looks with infectious to eagerness the future, and has set its hand in earnest to the titanic task of social reconstruction . In the first section o f this volume some of the e pieces were originally compos d in the Scots dialect , but these have been modified to save th e reader from the distraction of footnotes explaining the vernacular . In the second section the texts were an afterthought . The pieces were written on some spontaneous impulse and then fo und susceptible of Scripture texts , as indeed are all the poems in both sections . ’ Unconsciously , the writer s outlook has been coloured by the measure of his apprehension of the Christian d view . In simple truth , apart from that , he coul of make nothing life and death at all , but would be of utterly in the dark , and driven to despair his - ‘ brother men and himself . The Evangel is his all . But it is infinite . ’ The writer s thanks are due to the Rev . A . E . m Bloxso e D . D . o f Day , , for the photograph ’ the fourteenth century house in King s Arms. to Lane , now printed for the first time ; the o o Rev . David Connor for the use f his plates f the v for Bewcastle Cross ; to the Rev . J . E . Mc . ittie , of the photograph Hexham Abbey ; to J . P . D . for Wheatley , Esq . , permission to reproduce various photographs relating to Prince Charlie ; to Me ssrs . t J . Russell Sons for permission to use their por rait of the writer ; to Messrs . Gibson , of Hexham , and of Messrs . Nicholson Cartner , Carlisle , for photo st Giln ockie th e graphs of Dil on Castle , Tower , e and S a uceries Popping Ston , the ; to his dear friend Canon Rawnsley for constant interest and valuable ilfilla n oo G . suggestions ; and to Revs . J . , G . J G d m a n an d . c , J E . Falconer for kind help in corre ting e 1 proofs . What a deal of kindn ss there is in the world Th e writer puts on record this testimony (pro bably as b o his l t! , that as a traveller from oyho d in many his - lands , he has found t kindness of his brother men absolutely unfailing , and their varied talent passing wonderful . He is sorry to leave them so soon . God s of bless them all . Could the vast kindlines the ‘ b e on . human heart but focussed somehow life , half of the ills that afilict long - sn fi erin g mankind l ’ — tack ed concertedly and in God s name would . vanish like vapour . 13 ' MERRIE CARLISLE . “ The epithet merrie deno tes the celebrity of the City in the olden time for deeds of warlike daring that still stir the blood like the sound of a trumpet .