New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-03-04
AN ECCENTRIC PARSON.

THE VICAR OF MORwENsTOw. A Life of Robert
stephen Hawker BY :. Barring GOULD eyo' PIP.
49, Thomas Whitaker.
Once read. it is not easy to forget the music of
Hawker's Song of the Western Men" from which
Macaulay quoted in speaking of the trial OF the
seven bishops
Out snake the captain brave and bold,
merry wight was he, 49, >. >,
"ThOuQh LOudOn's Tower were MlchaeI 5 mold,
Wen set Treawney free
Well cross the lamar hand to hand,
The Exc shall be no stay,
Well side by side. from strapd to strand,
And who shall bid US nayf
What! will they scorn Ire, Pol, and Penf
And shall Trelawney del
Then twenty thousand Cornish men
VIII know the reason why.
II was long before the authorship of the ballad
became widely known, although Mr. Hawker a
constant contributor TO English periodicals, writing
prose full of rude strength and pathOs and poetry
which was often poor.
Hawker in his youth was a handsome boy, with a
lively imagination and an infinite capacity for wild
pranks When he was twenty and wished TO go
through the University his father could not find
means to send him; so the youth straightway mar
RED his godmother, who had taught him his letters,
was one year older than his mother, aud had a
pretty penny of her own. At the end of the houey-
moon in 1924 the pair returned to Oxford the bride
riding on plllion behind her handsome black-eyed
Young lord. BY all the laws of romance this mar
rage ought to have turned out badly but it in
truth a happy one. Mrs. Hawker was a woman of
sweet and winning nature, with sense of humor
that helped TO make her cOmpanonship a refresh
Inent and delight. When after forty years of hap
puess together hs white-harel Charlotte died,
Hawker nearly wen" with her under an attack of
brain fever-and it was not until two years after
that he was married again, to pretty young Polish
girl.
he (taruia of
the most romantic spots in Britain: its scenery
asfantastic and wild as its inhabitants strange
rough and daring. Many of them were wreckeTs
and smueglers men OF reckless and cruel nature
Not far off was Cloyesly and Stow. which Will be
remembered by the readers of Westward HO "
places which first became known TO Kingsley
through Hawker who explored them with him, and
who with his wild tai of the must have given
his brother-plrson many suggestion for his striking
story. Over his queer parishioners the dueerer
priest alternately dOmineered and sOTowed.
His kindness was overlooking as sunshine. On cold
winter nights he would suddenly become possessed
by the idea that some Of them suffering, may
hap from cold and hunger and straightway would
he call his servants and, laden with blankets and
food 90 forth to rouse the coagers and bestow good
woolIen and cold pie upon them. He often, through
his profuse charity found himself almost destitute
especially at the times when shipwrecked folk were
cast upon that dangerous coast. His hospitality
unbounded. Sometimes his larder was empty, he
had fed so many visitors in of his letters he
speaks of having entertained one hundred and fifty
in summer. Children he adored, and adored
In return There could probably be greater proof
OF their appreciation than the fact that when they
were aing and could not he induced by their
mothers to swallow the nauseous physic, the vicar
was ALWAYS sent for and the medicine was taken
fr-m his hand without demur. Every day was the
stawart man TO be walking about the parish
with train of youngsters at his heels to Whom he
would relate by the hour tales OF hobgoblns pixies
wreckers, and Arthurian knights. For animals he
had much tenderness and apparently made them
know it the very birds OF Morwenstow bee anne
Quite tame and iuttercd round him for food. He
had grove in which he very anxious to get
rocks to dwell SO going into his church he knelt
and prayed that it might be So Then full OF faith
be set up a ladder aud carefully removed TO
rarely used chimney of his house the nests Of the
jackdaws which had already built in the grove.
" Jackdaws.o sand he. | make you a promise If
you will give UP these trees rocks you shall have
the chimney Of my bue-room ia secuta secatoram."
His biographcr relates that the birds took him at
his word aud filled the chimney with their piles OF
sticks which serve as nests. Somehow rocks were
persuaded TO settle among The tree tops ofs grove,
aud there the colony dwe)ls to this day. He had
ZEN cats, nine of which usually followed Mm to