THE POETICAL WORKS OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, VOL. 8 (Completed)

1841 EPITAPH

IN THE CHAPEL-YARD OF LANGDALE, WESTMORELAND

Composed 1841.--Published 1842

[OWEN LLOYD, the subject of this epitaph, was born at Old Brathay, near Ambleside, and was the son of Charles Lloyd and his wife Sophia(née Pemberton), both of Birmingham, who came to reside in this part of the country, soon after their marriage. They had many children, both sons, and daughters, of whom the most remarkable was the subject of this epitaph. He was educated under Mr. Dawes, at Ambleside, Dr.Butler, of Shrewsbury, and lastly at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he would have been greatly distinguished as a scholar but for inherited infirmities of bodily constitution, which, from early childhood, affected his mind. His love for the neighbourhood in which he was born, and his sympathy with the habits and characters of the mountain yeomanry, in conjunction with irregular spirits, that unfitted him for facing duties in situations to which he was unaccustomed, induced him to accept the retired curacy of Langdale. How much he was beloved and honoured there, and with what feelings he discharged his duty under the oppression of severe malady, is set forth, though imperfectly, in the epitaph.--I.F.]

One of the "Epitaphs and Elegiac Pieces."--ED.

By playful smiles, (alas! too oft

A sad heart's sunshine) by a soft

And gentle nature, and a free

Yet modest hand of charity,

Through life was OWEN LLOYD endeared

To young and old; and how revered

Had been that pious spirit, a tide

Of humble mourners testified,

When, after pains dispensed to prove

The measure of God's chastening love,

Here, brought from far, his corse found rest,--

Fulfilment of his own request;--

Urged less for this Yew's shade, though he

Planted with such fond hope the tree;

Less for the love of stream and rock,

Dear as they were, than that his Flock,

When they no more their Pastor's voice

Could hear to guide them in their choice

Through good and evil, help might have,

Admonished, from his silent grave,

Of righteousness, of sins forgiven,

For peace on earth and bliss in heaven.

This commemorative epitaph to the Rev. Owen Lloyd--the friend of Hartley Coleridge and of Faber--is carved on the headstone over his grave in the churchyard at the small hamlet of Chapel Stile, Great Langdale, Westmoreland. The stone also carries the inscription, "To the memory of Owen Lloyd, M.A., nearly twelve years incumbent of this chapel. Born at Old Brathay, March 31, 1803, died at Manchester, April18, 1841, aged 38." See a letter of Wordsworth's referring to Lloyd amongst his letters in a subsequent volume. In a previous edition, I erred by giving this poem an earlier date. Professor Dowden has shown the true one conclusively.

Writing from Rydal on 11th August 1841, to his brother Christopher, Wordsworth said, "I send you with the last corrections an epitaph which I have just written for poor Owen Lloyd. His brother Edward forwarded for my perusal some verses which he had composed with a view to that object; but he expressed a wish that I would compose something myself. Not approving Edward's lines altogether, though the sentiments were sufficiently appropriate, I sent him what I now forward to you, or rather the substance of it, for something has been added, and some change of expression introduced. I hope you will approve of it. I find no fault with it myself, the circumstances considered, except that itis too long for an Epitaph, but this was inevitable if the memorial was to be as conspicuous as the subject required, at least according to the light in which it offered itself to my mind."--ED.