English fiction -- 19th century; Walker, Robert, 1710-1802
to sleep in the bed of the foaming Brook; _then_, he would be unwilling
to move forward, not less from a reluctance to relinquish what he
beholds, than from an apprehension of disturbing, by his approach, the
quietness beneath him. Issuing from the plain of this valley, the Brook
descends in a rapid torrent, passing by the church-yard of Seathwaite.
The traveller is thus conducted at once into the midst of the wild and
beautiful scenery which gave occasion to the Sonnets from the 14th to the
20th inclusive. From the point where the Seathwaite Brook joins the
Duddon, is a view upwards, into the pass through which the River makes
its way into the Plain of Donnerdale. The perpendicular rock on the
right bears the ancient British name of THE PEN; the one opposite is
called WALLA-BARROW CRAG, a name that occurs in several places to
designate rocks of the same character. The _chaotic_ aspect of the scene
is well marked by the expression of a stranger, who strolled out while
dinner was preparing, and at his return, being asked by his host, “What
way he had been wandering?” replied, “As far as it is _finished_!”
The bed of the Duddon is here strewn with large fragments of rocks fallen
from aloft; which, as Mr. Green truly says, “are happily adapted to the
many-shaped waterfalls,” (or rather water-breaks, for none of them are
high,) “displayed in the short space of half a mile.” That there is some
hazard in frequenting these desolate places, I myself have had proof; for
one night an immense mass of rock fell upon the very spot where, with a
friend, I had lingered the day before. “The concussion,” says Mr. Green,
speaking of the event, (for he also, in the practice of his art, on that
day sat exposed for a still longer time to the same peril,) “was heard,
not without alarm, by the neighbouring shepherds.” But to return to
Seathwaite Church-yard: it contains the following inscription.
“In memory of the Reverend Robert Walker, who died the 25th of June,
1802, in the 93rd year of his age, and 67th of his curacy at
Seathwaite.
“Also, of Anne his wife, who died the 28th of January, in the 93rd
year of her age.”
In the parish-register of Seathwaite Chapel, is this notice:
“Buried, June 28th, the Rev. Robert Walker. He was curate of
Seathwaite sixty-six years. He was a man singular for his
temperance, industry, and integrity.”
This individual is the Pastor alluded to, in the eighteenth Sonnet, as a
worthy compeer of the Country Parson of Chaucer, &c. In the Seventh Book
of the Excursion, an abstract of his character is given, beginning—
“A Priest abides before whose life such doubts
Fall to the ground;—”
and some account of his life, for it is worthy of being recorded, will
not be out of place here.
MEMOIR OF THE REV. ROBERT WALKER.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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