6. Robert Story - Gargrave

To Gargrave Story went in the month of April, 1820, with thirteen shillings in his pocket, and opened a school, to which several of the most influential gentlemen of the place afforded encouragement. With his removal to this village, commences what may not inaptly be styled the second great epoch of his life. He resided there for the long period of twenty-three years, there married, there all his children were born, and there he established his fame as a local poet, and wrote some of his best pieces...

John James, 'Life of Robert Story', p xxxiv-xxxv

This is the description of Gargrave by that mysterious narrator of Love and Literature, 1842 - John James quotes it in full in his 'Life of Robert Story'.

In the north of England, there is not a sweeter village than the one I have in my eye... It is situated in the very centre of a district remarkable for its romantic beauty, and celebrated on account of the natural curiosities it contains. A bridge, rather elegant for the place, and somewhat large for the stream it bestrides, connects the two parts of the village, which would otherwise be separated by the river. On the south side of the river stands the church, the square and tall steeple of which is seen above the trees that surround the quiet burial ground. Along the north side, the principal part of the village extends: some of the cottages with clean white-washed fronts, — some covered with ivy or other evergreens, and some again with flowering shrubs. A branch of the Queen's highway passes through this part of the village, and thus whilst it detracts something from the seclusion, is the means of making its charms more widely known.

The Swan Inn in Gargrave figures very largely in the narrator's account. The narrator is delighted to discover that the famous Bard frequents the Inn...

We were startled... by a full chorus of laughter from the adjoining room. "You seem to have a jovial party," said I. "Yes sir," replied mine host, "there is an adjourned vestry-meeting and Mr.- the Poet has just been reciting 'The Parish Wine'." "What! does he reside here?" I asked. "He does," returned the landlord; "should you like to see him?" "Above all things," I answered.

Love and Literature, 1842, p 15

John James notes that there was a manuscript in Robert Story's papers...

He essayed various kinds of prose composition. A MS. entitled the 'Chronicles of the Swan,' contains a humorous and graphic description of the various characters that assembled in that noted Craven tavern.

John James, 'Life of Robert Story', p lxxxix

We can then follow the years of happiness in Gargrave in the songs and poems, and see there - in very unusual detail - the place of a local poet and lyricist in a small village, and in Yorkshire more widely.

"I married Ellen Ellison, a beautiful girl, but possessed of more valuable qualities than mere personal beauty, as a faithful love of thirty years has abundantly proved. I have many faults, I can hardly charge her with one, and I say this in all sincerity. We had few real sorrows until we came to London. On my marriage, I was altogether so happy, that I began to think Heaven had forgiven me all my sins. The thought brought gratitude, and gratitude became religion."

Quoted in John James, 'Life of Robert Story', p xxxviii

Up to the year 1828, his residence consisted of a mean cottage, but the ability shewn in conducting his school, and the good opinion he had gained from all classes, induced Matthew Wilson, Esquire, of Eshton Hall, the chief land owner of the village, to build for him a commodious house, fitted in every respect for Story's increasing family ; and also to enlarge the school-house, so as to afford sufficient room for the large number of Sunday scholars then under his tuition. These buildings were let to Story at a low rent, as a mark of favour. Story removed to his new house in the latter part of 1828, and has (page 101), happily described it in ' The Poet's Home.'

John James, 'Life of Robert Story' pp xliv-xlv

Until, that is, the national success of the song, 'The Isles are Awake' - then we see national politics acted out at local level, and in local 'faction'.

Below I have attached two documents, the list of electors in Gargrave in 1835 - see Robert Storey (so spelt) - and the list of Gargrave electors in 1837. Robert Story has disappeared...

Parish clerks, at that time, were held to possess a vote, and his name accordingly stood on the Register of voters ; but as he invariably plumped for the Conservative candidate, Mr. Wilson, the Whig magnate, and leader of the district, discovered that the office of parish clerk did not confer the franchise, and caused Story's name to be struck off the Register. Irritated beyond measure at this step, he vowed to possess at all hazards, the right to vote ; and consequently out of the profits of his last publication, purchased for eighty pounds, two small huts in Gargrave, not worth half that sum. A relative had, in his possession, one hundred pounds lying unproductive, and offered to lend Story the money to re-build the cottages. Foolishly he accepted the offer, and built, at an expense of one hundred and fifty pounds, three new cottages, which let for sixteen pounds a year. After incurring the usual expenses of mortgages, and reaping no benefit, except the barren one of an elector, the property which in all had cost him two hundred and seventy pounds, finally came to the hammer in 1843, and sold for two hundred and ten pounds to satisfy his creditors.

John James, 'Life of Robert Story' pp l-li

We can follow some of the detail of Robert Story's Gargrave struggle in the Conservative newspapers. The Lancaster Gazette in 1838 gives information about the rebuilding of the CONSERVATIVE COTTAGES, and the text of a little rhyme - or curse - that Story placed in the foundation stone.

'Here rest for ever firm and strong

Base of a structure built by song.'

For all I know the curse is still there, in that foundation stone in Gargrave.

I have attached below the detail and the full page from the 1838 Lancaster Gazette.

And I have found in The Lancaster Gazette, Saturday, October 09, 1841 an anguished letter from Robert Story - underneath an advertisement, soliciting subscriptions for a proposed book, Love and Literature, he writes 'To Conservatives', bitterly describing his experiences in Gargrave.

Again I have attached, below, the original page from The Lancaster Gazette, plus an enlargement of this extraordinary letter.

Then we have the intervention by Robert Story's political friends, the flight to London, and the job in the Audit Office.

One last look at Robert Story's literary legacy as it has appeared in the literary and historical record. Below are the relevant pages from the books by Brian Maidment and Martha Vicinus - where I first met Robert Story.

David Radcliffe has put a poem by Robert Story on his web site, Spencer and the Tradition...

http://spenserians.cath.vt.edu/TextRecord.php?action=GET&textsid=40096

'Lines on seeing a favourite Tree felled and lopped'

From The Magic Fountain, with other Poems, 1829, by Robert Story

Where shall the blackbird now, the speckled thrush,

Or throstle sweet repair? When May returns,

And in the snow-white thorn

The female warms her young,

Where shall the partner of her care and joy

Find his accustomed bough, from which to pour

The melody he means

Shall thrill his feathered love?

Very much about Gargrave, and his local networks - yet in some ways the most political of Robert Story's many political songs and poems.

Patrick O'Sullivan

April 2013