LONDON POEMS

BY  ROBERT BUCHANAN

AUTHOR OF
“IDYLS AND LEGENDS OF INVERBURN,” “UNDERTONES,” ETC.

ALEXANDER STRAHAN, PUBLISHER
LONDON AND NEW YORK
1867

____________________________________

TO

WILLIAM HEPWORTH DIXON.

“Nostrorum sermonum candide judex. . . .
Curantem quidquid dignum sapiente bonoque est.
Non Tu corpus eras sine pectore.”
                                                               HORACE, Epp. I. 4.

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     MY DEAR DIXON,—This book is inscribed to you; and lest you should ask wherefore, I will refresh your memory. Seven years ago, when I was an ambitious lad in Scotland, and when the north-easter was blowing coldly on me, you sent me such good words as cheered and warmed me. You were one of two (the gentle, true, and far-seeing George Henry Lewes was the other) who first believed that I was fitted for noble efforts. Since then you have known me better, and abode by your first hope. Nor have you failed to exhibit the virtue, not possessed by one writer in a hundred, of daring to express publicly your confidence in an unacknowledged author.
     One word concerning the present volume. “London Poems” are the last of what I may term my “poems of probation,”—wherein I have fairly hinted what I am trying to assimilate in life and thought. However much my method may be confounded with the methods of other writers, I am sure to get quartered (to my cost, perhaps) on my own merits by and by.
     Accept these poems,—given under a genuine impulse, and not merely in compliment. Of your fine qualities I will say nothing. Your candour may offend knaves and your reticence mislead fools; but be happy in your goodness, and in the loving homage of those dearest to you.—And believe me,

Always your Friend,

                ROBERT BUCHANAN.

BEXHILL, SUSSEX, June 1866.

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CONTENTS.

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LONDON POEMS —                                                                             PAGE

     BEXHILL, 1866,          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .           3

     THE LITTLE MILLINER,       .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .         11

     LIZ,         .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .         27

     THE STARLING,          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .         45

     JANE LEWSON,          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .         55

     LANGLEY LANE,        .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .         91

     EDWARD CROWHURST; OR, “A NEW POET,”              .          .          .          .         97

     ARTIST AND MODEL,           .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .       137

     NELL,                .          .          .          .          .           .          .          .          .          .       149

     ATTORNEY SNEAK,            .          .          .           .          .          .          .          .        161

     BARBARA GRAY,                 .          .          .           .          .           .          .          .       175

     THE LINNET,             .          .          .          .            .          .           .          .          .       181

     LONDON, 1864.                   .          .          .             .          .          .          .          .       187

     MISCELLANEOUS—

     THE DEATH OF ROLAND,               .          .          .          .          .          .          .        197

     THE SCAITH O’BARTLE,                 .          .          .          .          .          .          .         216

     THE GLAMOUR,                    .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .         247

     THE GIFT OF EOS,                .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .         256

GLOSSARY OF A FEW SCOTTICISMS USED IN “THE SCAITH O’BARTLE,”            271

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[Notes:

The English edition of London Poems was published in 1866. This is a transcription of the American edition which was published the following year.

The Latin quotation in the dedication to William Hepworth Dixon is extracted from the following passage in Horace’s Epistles:

Albi, nostrorum sermonum candide iudex,
quid nunc te dicam facere in regione Pedana?
Scribere quod Cassi Parmensis opuscula uincat,
an tacitum siluas inter reptare salubris,
curantem quicquid dignum sapiente bonoque est?
Non tu corpus eras sine pectore; di tibi formam,
di tibi diuitias dederunt artemque fruendi.

Albius, kind critic of my satires, say,
What do you down at Pedum far away?
Are you composing what will dim the shine
Of Cassius' works, so delicately fine,
Or sauntering, calm and healthful, through the wood,
Bent on such thoughts as suit the wise and good?
No brainless trunk is yours: a form to please,
Wealth, wit to use it, Heaven vouchsafes you these.

(Translated by  John Conington, M.A.)

William Hepworth Dixon (1821-1870), historian and travel-writer, was the editor of the Athenæum from 1853 to 1869.

The Chatto & Windus 1884 edition of ‘The Poetical Works of Robert Buchanan’ includes several additional poems in its ‘London Poems’ section (and assigns the Miscellaneous poems elsewhere). These extra ‘London Poems’ have been added at the conclusion of the original 1866 version.]