Records of Woodhall Spa and Neighbourhood: Historical, Anecdotal, Physiographical, and Archaeological, with Other MatterWalter, J. Conway (James Conway)
History
Records of Woodhall Spa and Neighbourhood: Historical, Anecdotal, Physiographical, and Archaeological, with Other Matter
Walter, J. Conway (James Conway)
Woodhall Spa (England)
A character of a higher type than those yet named, was the late
proprietor and manager of “The Bull” hostel, at which we are now supposed
to be staying, Mr. Clement James Caswell, a genial, generous, and
cultivated gentleman. He came of an old and highly respectable stock
located in the county of Herts., his father being for many years landlord
of “The George,” at Barnet, a stage on the Great North road, through
which, in the old coaching days, scores of coaches passed daily. He was
a coach proprietor, and handled the ribbons himself. The son was
educated at the Spalding Grammar School, and acquired antiquarian, tastes
while yet a boy. After having held some important public offices in that
town, and then managing some mills at Aswardby, he bought the Bull at
Horncastle. Though the inn had previously held a high position, he still
further raised its character; and his spare time was devoted to reading,
and research of various kinds. He had a very valuable collection of
coins, the result of many years of careful selection. His garden, just
out of the town, had an observatory, furnished with telescope, books, and
other appliances for amusement and relaxation. He supplied the
illustrations for a book entitled “In Tennyson Land,” by J. Cuming
Walters, published in 1890. He was a member of the Architectural Society
of Lincolnshire, Notts. and Leicestershire; a member of the Spalding
Gentlemen’s Society, one of the oldest antiquarian societies in the
kingdom; and he was continually corresponding, in various directions, on
subjects of antiquarian interest. He had a valuable library of books
bearing on these and kindred studies, and indicating the wide extent of
his reading. Especially, perhaps, as a Tennysonian expert, he was
consulted by almost everyone who has written on that subject, as in the
case already named, and in Napier’s “Homes and Haunts of Tennyson.” It
was a treat to get a quiet, genial hour with him, when he would run on
with a stream of informing converse, but on few themes did he warm up
with so much inspiration as that of the late Laureate, witness these
lines of his own composition:—
SOMERSBY.
Bright Somersby! the sometime summer haunt
Of Norsemen and of Dane, whose bards mayhap
Foretold—a nest of nightingales would come,
And trill their songs in shades of Holy Well;
Prophetic bards; for we have lived to see
Within your bounds a large-limbed race of men;
A long-lived race, and brimming o’er with song,
From lays of ancient Greece, and Roman eld,
To songs of Arthur’s knights, and England’s prime,
And modern verse, in graceful sonnet sung.
Each of the brood was clothed upon with song;
Yet some had stronger pinions than the rest;
And one there was, who for thy fame will long
Send pilgrims to thy cross in loving quest.
Mr. Caswell passed away in August, 1896, much valued and much missed by
many friends who knew his worth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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