cannington—the quantocks—nether stowey, and the coleridge circle

we leave bridgwater by st. mary’s church and the street called curiously, “penel orlieu,” whose name derives from a combination of pynel street and orlewe street, two thoroughfares that have long been conjoined. “pynel,” or “penelle,” was the name of a bygone bridgwater family.

up wembdon hill, we come out of the town by its only residential suburb. motor-cars have absolutely ruined this road out of bridgwater, and on through cannington and nether stowey, to minehead and porlock. it is a long succession of holes, interspersed with bumpy patches, and on typical summer days the air is heavy with the dust raised by passing cars; dust that has only begun to settle when another comes along, generally at an illegal speed, and raises some more. the hedges and wayside trees between bridgwater and nether stowey are nowadays, from this cause, a curious and woeful sight, and the village of nether stowey itself is, for the same reason, made to wear a shameful draggletailed appearance. the dust off the limestone road is of the whiteness 140of flour, but looks, as it lies heavily on the foliage, singularly like snow. the effect of a landscape heavily enshrouded in white, under an intensely blue august sky, is unimaginably weird: as though the unthinkable—a summer snowstorm—had occurred.

cannington, whose name seems temptingly like that of kennington—k?ningtun, the king’s town—in south london, especially as it was once the property of alfred the great, is really the “cantuctone,” i.e. quantock town, mentioned in alfred’s will, in which, inter alia, he gives the manor to his son eadweard.

cannington.

the village stands well above the parret valley, and is described by leland as a “praty uplandische” place. a stream that wanders to this side and that, and in its incertitude loses its way and distributes itself in shallow pools and between gravelly banks, over a wide area, is the traveller’s introduction to cannington. here a comparatively modern bridge carries the dusty highway over the stream, leaving to contemplative folk the original packhorse bridge by which in olden times the water was crossed when floods rendered impracticable the usual practice of fording it. the group formed by the tall red sandstone tower of the church seen from here, amid the trees, with the long rambling buildings of the “anchor” inn below, and the packhorse bridge to the left, is charming. the present writer said as much to the chauffeur of a motorcar, halted here by the roadside. it seemed a 141favourable opportunity for testing the attitude of such an one towards scenery and these interesting vestiges of eld.

“bridge, ain’t it?” he asked, jerking a dirty finger in that direction.

“yes: that is the old packhorse bridge, in use before wheeled traffic came much this way.”

“’ow did they carry their ’eavy machinery, then?”

“our ancestors had none.”

“then what about the farm-waggons?”

“they went through the stream.”

“kerridges too?”

“yes, such as the carriages of those times were.”

“’eavens,” said he, summing up; “what ’eathenish times to live in!” and he proceeded with his work, which turned out, on closer inspection, to be that of plentifully oiling the fore and aft identification-plates of his car, to the end that the dust which so thickly covered the roads should adhere to them and obscure alike the index-letters and the numbers. he was obviously proposing to travel well up to legal limit.

the church is a noble example of the perpendicular period, with an ancient court house adjoining, the property of the roman catholic lord clifford of chudleigh. it was made the home of a french benedictine sisterhood in 1807; and is now a roman catholic industrial school for boys. the tall, timeworn enclosing walls of its grounds form a prominent feature of the village.

142one of the monuments on the walls of the church, in the course of a flatulent epitaph upon the virtues of various members of the rogers family, of early seventeenth-century date, indulges in a lamentable pun. the subject under consideration is “amy, daughter of henry rogers.” “shee,” we are told, “did amy-able live.” deplorable!

cannington stands at the entrance to the quantock country, that delightful rural district of wooded hills and secluded combes which remains very much the same as it was just over a century ago, when coleridge and his friends first made it known. the quantock hills run for some twelve miles in a north-westerly direction, from taunton to the sea at west quantoxhead; the high road from bridgwater to minehead crossing the ridge of them at quantoxhead. the highest point of this range is will’s neck, midway, rising to 1262 feet. the capital of the quantock country, although by no means situated on or near the ridge, is nether stowey. behind that village rises the camp-crowned hill of danesborough, which, although not itself remarkably high, is so situated that it commands an exceptionally fine panoramic view extending over the flat lands that border the parret estuary, and over the semicircular sweep of bridgwater bay.

nether stowey; gazebo at stowey court.

some wild humorist, surely, that was, who pretended to derive the name of the quantocks from a supposititious exclamation by julius c?sar, who is supposed to have exclaimed, 145standing on the crest of danesborough, behind nether stowey, “quantum ad hoc!” that is, “how much from here!” in allusion to the view from that point. serious persons, however, tell us that the name is the celtic “cantoc” or “gwantog;” i.e. “full of combes.”

peculiarly beautiful though the quantock scenery is, it is probable that the especially delicate beauty of it would never have attracted outside attention, had it not been for the association during a brief space at nether stowey of coleridge and his friends. we will spare some time to visit nether stowey, and see what manner of setting was that in which the “ancient mariner” and other of coleridge’s poetry was wrought.

the entrance to stowey from the direction of bridgwater is particularly imposing. you come downhill, and then sharply round a bend to the right, where a group of scotch firs introduces stowey court and the adjoining parish church: the view up the road towards the village made majestic and old-world by another grouping of firs beyond the curious early eighteenth-century gazebo that looks out in stately fashion from the garden wall of the court. from this, and from similar summerhouse-like buildings, our great-great-grandfathers and grandmothers glanced from their walled gardens upon the coaches and the road-traffic of a bygone age. the roofs and gables, and the uppermost mullioned windows of the court are glimpsed over the tall walls.

although stowey court dated originally from 146the fifteenth century, when it was built by touchet, lord audley, and although it formed an outpost of the royalists during the struggles of charles the first with his parliament, the building is not nowadays of much interest, and the church is of less, having been rebuilt in 1851, with the exception of the tower.

the romantic promise of this prelude to stowey is scarcely supported by the appearance of the village street. it is a long street of houses for the most part of suburban appearance, running along the main road, with a fork at the further end, along the road to taunton, where stands a modern jubilee clock-tower beside the old village lock-up. the clock-tower seems to most people a poor exchange for the small but picturesque old market-house that until comparatively recent years stood in the middle of the street, with a streamlet running by.

to leland, writing in the reign of henry the eighth, stowey was “a poore village. it stondith yn a botom emong hilles.” the situation is correctly described, and no doubt the condition of stowey was all that leland says of it, but no one could nowadays describe it truthfully as “poor,” although it would be altogether correct to write it down as desperately commonplace. there is nothing poetic about the village at this time o’ day, and its position on a much-travelled main road has brought a constant stream of fast-travelling motor-cars and waggons, together with a frequent service of great western railway 147motor-omnibuses, with the result that a loathsome mingled odour of petrol and fried lubricating oil and a choking dust pervade the long street all the summer. the local hatred of motor-cars—a deep-seated and intense detestation of them and those who drive them and travel in them—is, perhaps, surprising to a mere passer-by, who may just mention the subject to a villager; but it is only necessary to stay a day and a night in stowey, and then enough will be seen and heard and smelt to convert the most mild-mannered person to an equal hatred.

they are naturally tolerant people at stowey, and not disposed to be censorious. if you do not interfere with their comfort and well-being, you are welcome to exist on the face of the earth, as far as they are concerned, and joy go with you. they even tolerate the notorious agapemoneites of spaxton, two miles away, the dwellers in the abode of love; and are prepared, without active resentment, to allow the rev. hugh smyth-pigott to style himself jesus christ and to cohabit with any lady—or any number of ladies—he pleases, and to style the resultant offspring power, or glory, or catawampus, or fried fish, or anything that may seem good to him, with no more than a little mild amusement. “they doan’ intervere wi’ we, and us woan’ intervere wi’ they,” is the village consensus of expressed opinion, greatly to the wrath of certain good bridgwater folk, who come around, raving that the agapemoneites ought to be swept off the 148fair land of the quantocks, and when none will take on the office of broom, denounce all as laodiceans, neither hot nor cold, and so fit only to be spewed out. but it surely rests rather with spaxton and charlinch to perform the suggested expulsion; and even then, anything of the kind would be distinctly illegal, for it is part of the law of this free and enlightened and christian country that any man may, if it pleases him to do so (and he can find others of the opposite sex to join him), set up a harem, and even proclaim himself the messiah, without let or hindrance. the law no more regards him as a fit target for soot, flour, or antique eggs, or even for tar and feathers, than a respectable person.

the “abode of love,” founded in 1845 by the notorious “brother prince,” a scoundrelly clergyman who appears never to have been unfrocked, is a mansion maintained in the most luxurious style, but completely secluded from the highway, upon which it fronts, by substantial walls. in the time of “brother prince,” the flagstaff surmounting the strong, iron-studded gateway, and supported by the effigy of a rampant lion, was made to fly a flag bearing the holy lamb, but this practice appears to be now discontinued.

many inquisitive people nowadays visit spaxton to view the exterior of the place where these notorious blasphemers live. none find entrance, for recent happenings have made the inmates extremely shy of strangers. it is notorious that 149a raid was made upon the place one night towards the close of 1908, and that pigott, the successor of brother prince, narrowly escaped being tarred and feathered by some adventurous spirits, who came down from london and, chartering a motor-car, drove up from bridgwater to the abode. climbing the walls, they “bonneted,” with a policeman’s helmet filled with tarred feathers, the first man they met. this, however, proved to be only an elderly disciple, and not pigott himself; and the intruders found themselves presently in custody, and were next day brought before the magistrates at bridgwater, and both fined and severely reprimanded. the magistrates were bound to observe the law and to punish an assault; but the attempted tarring and feathering aroused a great deal of enthusiasm at bridgwater, where the only regret expressed was that it had not been successful.

no one can complain that clerical opinion in that town is not freely ventilated. here is an extract from a sermon preached by the vicar of st. mary’s:

“near to our town for some years past, alas, has sprung up one of the most unhappy and miserable heresies that the world can show. of course there have been heresies very brilliant and very beautiful. but here is a heresy foul, horrible, and bad, and a heresy with not one single redeeming point in it. a few years ago the head of this movement, now living in the little village under the shelter of the beautiful 150quantocks, made public proclamation in london that he was the very lord jesus christ, and that he should judge the world. this man escaped at the risk of his neck—for however lethargic some people might be, these londoners were not—to the quiet of the country. here the old heresy, with a new name and with new horrible details, came into prominence again. it had quietly settled down, and men hoped that it would have died out, but the events of the past six months have revived it all again. none can pretend to be ignorant of what has happened, and none could pretend to be ignorant of the awful and blasphemous claims that have been made in the name of a wretched child born into a wretched world.”

but although nether stowey is tolerant of all these things, it is not calm when motor-cars are under discussion. it would raise licences to ￡50 per annum, reduce speed to ten miles an hour on the open roads and three miles in villages and towns, and both heavily fine and award long terms of imprisonment to any who transgressed these suggested limits. also, nether stowey suggests the reintroduction of turnpike-gates; or, to speak by the card, “tarnpayke-ge?ts.” by all this, it will be perceived that automobiles have become a nuisance, a terror, and a source of injury to nether stowey; as they have to countless other villages similarly circumstanced.

151the motor terror

upon the pleasant country road

the motor-lorry runs;

its build is huge and clumsy, and

it weighs some seven tons.

and when its cylinder backfires,

it sounds like gatling-guns!

hark! down the village street there comes

the motor “charry bong”:

and, gracious heavens! how it hums!

’tis tall, and broad, and long;

and see its mountain-range of seats,

filled with a motley throng.

old giles, who hobbled down our street,

now he’s in—paradise.

a panhard took him in the rear,

and shattered both his thighs,

they gave the chauffeur “three months’ hard”

when tried at next assize.

the motor-bus, with skid and lurch

and awkward equipoise,

now fleets on sundays past the church,

with hideous whirr and noise.

you cannot hear the parson preach;

it drowns the organ’s voice.

and children from the sunday school

hang on behind, before

our little billy lost his hold:

now he’s (alas!) no more!

they rolled him pretty flat. his soul’s

gone to the distant shore.

152racing, toot-tooting, slithering,

the private owner goes;

the dust he raises fills the eyes,

his petrol-reek the nose;

his face he hides behind a mask:

he wears the weirdest clothes.

now thanks to thee, thou callous fiend,

for the lesson thou hast taught:

thus hast thou shown us how our lives

and comfort are as naught,

so you may, reckless, go your way

and take your murd’ring sport!

the coleridge cottage, nether stowey

the cottage at nether stowey occupied by coleridge, from 1797 to 1800, stands at the further end of the village, and is, indeed, the last house on the minehead road. it duly bears an ornamental tablet proclaiming the fact of the poet’s residence here in those critical years. sentiment, however, is not a little dashed at finding the house to be an extremely commonplace one; now, owing to a succession of alterations, enlarged and made to look like an exceedingly unattractive specimen of a typical suburban “villa” of the first half of the nineteenth century, when stucco was rampant and red brick had not come into vogue. a scheme appears at the present time to be under contemplation by which the house is to be purchased and presented to the nation, as a memorial of the poet. it is to become something in the way of a “coleridge reading room,” or village institute; but at the moment of writing, it is a lodging-house. a few years ago it was the 153“coleridge cottage” inn. such have been the varied fortunes of this home, for those short four years, of “the bright-eyed mariner,” as wordsworth calls him. when it is further said that a storey has been added to the house, and that the thatch of coleridge’s time has been replaced by pantiles, it will be considered, perhaps, that the value of it as a literary landmark can be but small. coleridge himself had no love for it, as may be seen in his later references to nether stowey, in which he refers to it as a “miserable cottage,” and “the old hovel.” but the years he passed in this place were the most productive of his career. it was while walking along the 154hills to watchet, that he composed “the ancient mariner” and the first part of “christabel.” close at hand, at alfoxden, was wordsworth, poetising on primroses and the infinitely trivial; and at stowey itself was the amiable thomas poole, literary and political dilettante, friend and host of this circle in general. southey sometimes came, and friends with visionary schemes for the regeneration of the social system, then in some danger of being overturned, following upon the popular upheaval of the french revolution, severely exercised the conventional minds of the local squires and farmers with their unconventional ways and rash speech.

the habits of these friends, accustomed to discuss and severely criticise the doings of the government, often to dress in a peculiar manner, and to take long, apparently aimless walks in lonely places, no matter what the weather, when honest country folk were cosily within doors, or asleep and snoring, presently attracted the notice of the neighbours, to the extent that whispers of those suspicious doings and this wild talk were conveyed to the local magistrates, and the government eventually thought it worth while to send down an emissary to keep a watch. the spy chanced to be a person with a long nose. he readily enough tracked their movements along the hills and dales of quantock, and overheard much of their talk: probably because the friends knew perfectly well that they were under suspicion and were being watched, and were 155humorously inclined to make the spy’s eavesdropping as fruitful as they could of incident. prominent among their jokes was the discussion, in his hearing, of spinosa: that philosopher’s name being pronounced for the occasion “spynosa.” this the long-nosed one took to be an allusion to himself. coleridge, he reported to his employers to be “a crack-brained talking fellow; but that wordsworth is either a smuggler or a traitor, and means mischief. he never speaks to any one, haunts lonely places, walks by moonlight, and is always ‘booing’ about by himself.” the curious notion of the amiable wordsworth being mischievous is distinctly entertaining.

nether stowey.

the friends were generally gay and light-hearted, in spite of philosophising upon ways and means of setting the world right by moral suasion; 156and picnics punctuated the summer days. one of these, at alfoxden, has attained a certain fame. there were present on this occasion: coleridge, william and dorothy wordsworth, and cottle; the good-natured, providential cottle, friend in need of literary babes and sucklings. the provisions consisted of brandy, bread-and-cheese, and lettuces. coleridge, in his clumsy way, broke the precious brandy-bottle, the salt was spilled, a tramp stole the cheese, and so all that remained was bread and lettuces.

the “journals of dorothy wordsworth,” the poet’s sister and companion at alfoxden and elsewhere, have been published, but it cannot be said that they add greatly to one’s intellectual appreciation of the society formed by these friends, nor do they impress the reader with the mental powers of the lady, or with her knowledge of country life. here and there are such passages as “saw a glow-worm,” or “heard the nightingale;” as though such sights and sounds were things remarkable in the quantocks. to have been deaf to the nightingale in his season, or not to have noticed the glow-worm’s glimmer: those would have been incidents of an evening’s walk much better worth remarking for their singularity in these still unspoiled hills.

but let us have a few specimen days from dorothy wordsworth’s diary, to taste her quality. march 1798, for example, will serve:

“28th.—hung out the linen.”

“29th.—coleridge dined with us.”

157“30th.—walked i know not where.”

“31st.—walked.”

and then “april 1st. walked by moonlight.” what utter drivel and self-confessed inanity; exasperating in its baldness, when an account of what coleridge said on the occasion of his driving with them would have given us reading the world would now probably be glad enough to possess!