Quaker Worthies - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1896. Excerpt: ... as I am aware, Bernard Barton is the only English, as John Greenleaf Whittier is the only American, poet to be found among the gentle, silence-loving, introspective followers of George Fox, to whom many a great cause owes so much. J To the public at large, Barton's fame is rather reflected than original, being due to his intimacy and correspondence with Robert Southey, Lord Byron, Charles Lamb, and many others, great in the literature of a departed generation. He is thus found in such good company that expectation is kindled as to his own productions. I am bound to say that his poems do not quite fulfil such expectation; but none the less, the man has an interest of his own, and the picture of his life in the little Suffolk town of Woodbridge, presents a pleasing spectacle to us whose lot is cast in this faster and less restful age. From the scanty materials which are accessible, I will endeavour to give some idea of the man. The Bartons hailed originally from Cumberland. John Barton, the greatgrandfather of Bernard, was "one of those truly patriarchal personages, a Cumbrian statesman living on his own little estate, and drawing from it all things needful for himself and family." In looking over some family papers, John, Bernard's brother, came upon an inventory of his stock, which seems to have reached the large sum of £61 6s., whilst the annual value of the estate was about £2 15s., and yet from slender resources like these, he seems to have been the chief means of building the little Episcopal chapel in the dale, which, when Bernard wrote in u 1839, was then standing, and may possibly be to this day. From the simple pastoral life at IveGill his son, Bernard the elder, was drawn by a desire to better his fortune; for, being of a mechanical tur...