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PREFACE.
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PARTLY
from deference to the opinion of a few well-wishers, and partly from an
impression that it would be proper so to do, I beg leave to state that the
author of the following Lyrics is a coal-miner, and that he was sent into
the coal pits of Percy Main, near North Shields, to help to earn his bread
while yet a mere child, and when the sum total of his learning consisted
in his ability to read his A.B.C., or at most his A. B. ab card.
When it is stated that the requirements of the times at that period
necessitated the young to be in the mines from twelve to fourteen hours
her day, it will be seen that they had little leisure for self-culture,
and that only by dint of perseverance, and by not allowing the few spare
moments to remain un-utilized that should present themselves, could those
who had a desire, acquire anything in the shape of education. The
author being possessed with the requisite aspiration, soon had felt what
is thus expressed, and instead of spending his hours on the play-ground,
he devoted his Sundays and other holidays to the acquisition of the
ability to read, and to decipher simple arithmetical questions.
These operations were usually performed in his mother's garret, (he had no
father—the father having lost his life when the writer was a baby "in
arms") whilst he learned himself to write with a piece, of chalk on his
trap-door—a door connected with the ventilation of the mine, and which it
was his duty to attend. In this rude way were his studies pursued,
and with what success may be indicated by the fact, that before he was
eleven years old, he had formed the romantic notion of trying to commit
the Bible to memory, and that he had actually acquired a number of the
chapters by "heart," and was only prevented from proceeding further by the redicule of a grey-bearded wiseacre to whom he had had the temerity to
disclose his project. By the time he was sixteen years old, he had
from a Lindley Murray which had been presented to him by an aunt, and
through much effort and perseverance, acquired a knowledge of the elements
of English Grammar. Other studies chiefly of a scientific nature
succeeded this—then that of poetry—or rather the poetry of celebrated
poets, as Shakspere, Milton, and Burns, for otherwise the love of the
muses had grown up with him from his infancy, and he had actually
practised verse-making, while he was yet a child behind his trap-door.
After the elapse of a few more years, and after making
repeated efforts and in vain to get a suitable situation out of the mines,
he printed a batch of lyrics (1859), which earned him the respect of
several eminent persons in the North of England. Through the
kindness of one of these he was placed into the office of sub-store-keeper
at The Gateshead Iron Works. This was at the commencement of the year
1859, and at the latter part of the year 1863 he was placed, on the
commendation of the same kind friend, as sub-librarian to the Literary and
Philosophical Society, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. This latter office,
which was certainly extremely congenial to his tastes, he only held a few
months , when from the inadequacy of the income to meet his domestic needs
he was necessitated to it give it up, again to find himself a toiler in
the coal mines. In 1871 he again resorted to the printer, and issued
a small volume of poems, which obtained a kindly notice not only from the
Newcastle Chronicle and the rest of the local papers, but also from
many of the London weeklies, including the Literary World and the
Sunday Times, and also a kind word from the Athenæum
and the Spectator; whilst several of the pieces included in this
issue were honoured by a translation into the French tongue and published
in the Beautés de la Poësie
de Anglaise par le Chevalier De Chatelain. The encouragement
thus received has helped to stimulate the author to persevere in his
attempts at self-culture, and the embodiment, when the impulse has come
upon him, of his sentiments and feelings in verse, until he finds himself
in possession of material for the present book—a book which he now
submits to the public in the hope that it may at once prove of some
interest to the peruser, and be the means of rendering some little
personal benefit to himself.
In conclusion, the author would say, that should the present
venture, several of the Pieces of which have already seen the light, find
favour with the public, it may in due time be succeeded by a companion
volume—a book of Songs and Ditties, and in the two brochures thus
offered, would be comprised nearly the whole of his verse that the author
would care to put into print.
JOSEPH SKIPSEY,
Backworth.
August, 1878. |
