The question of judgement, Doug, is that of whether he seems to have been
the type to have made up the Black Annis story himself, recent historians
suppose that as a kind of reductionist move, but he seems more likely that
he was recording, if with spice, something already known to family and
intimates.
It's fun to do something like this.
2009/10/22 Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]>
> Hey (Rick I want to say but it's) David
>
> I read it too. How neat to track down what may be one of htge few copies in
> existence, & then to read & pass judgement....
>
> Doug
>
>
> Quoting "David Bircumshaw" <[log in to unmask]>:
>
> Heyrick being from Leicester the County Records Office held a copy: after
>> about half-an-hour of searching the archivist found the copy of his book,
>> mouldering spine and long esses and all, printed in London with a preface
>> dated Leicester August 18th 1797 declaring of the Author and his offering
>> that 'the poems were in the Prefs, ... when it pleafed God to remove him
>> from all earthly concerns'.
>>
>> John Heyrick has been accused of the role of inventor of a local legend of
>> Black Annis and her Bower (Robert Graves alludes to it in The White
>> Goddess)
>> but having read his slim volume in full I feel confident that imagination
>> is
>> something of which he could not be accused. He really is repeating, if
>> with
>> a bit of stage-paint, a local legend. He's an aimiable dabbler in verses
>> for
>> friends, family, and A Young Lady named Eliza, or Betsy. This is something
>> like his best:
>>
>> LINES addressed to a LADY
>>
>> When you compel the bird of night
>> To view the sun with eagle's eye,
>> Or with his bold undaunted flight
>> To penetrate the noon-day sky,
>>
>> Then under the same soft control,
>> In polish'd strains I'll learn to trace,
>> The countless virtues of thy soul,
>> The countless beauties of thy face.
>>
>>
>> Not so bad for a soldier, eh? (I suppose Robin Hamilton might
>> read this, if no-one else)
>>
>> 2009/10/6 David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]>
>>
>> My own copy of the Chadwyck-Healy database has failed to deliver the
>>> needed
>>> at its very first serious test: I was looking for the text of 'First
>>> Flights' a volume by John Heyrick junior (1742-1797) published in London
>>> 1797 and it has nothing by this distant relative (I think) of Robert
>>> Herrick
>>> and (definite, I'm sure) of the (lesser-known than Robert) 17th century
>>> Thomas Heyrick.
>>> I can find references to inaccesible microfilm copies of the book. Any
>>> clues anyone?
>>>
>>> --
>>> David Bircumshaw
>>> "A window./Big enough to hold screams/
>>> You say are poems" - DMeltzer
>>> Website and A Chide's Alphabet
>>> http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
>>> The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
>>> Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
>>> Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> David Bircumshaw
>> "A window./Big enough to hold screams/
>> You say are poems" - DMeltzer
>> Website and A Chide's Alphabet
>> http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
>> The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
>> Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
>> Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> Douglas Barbour
> 11655 - 72 Avenue NW
> Edmonton Alberta T6G 0B9
>
> That’s not a cross look it’s a sign of life
>
> Frank O’Hara
>
--
David Bircumshaw
"A window./Big enough to hold screams/
You say are poems" - DMeltzer
Website and A Chide's Alphabet
http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw
|