Unpublished holograph poem (signed 'J. F. Hollings') by the Leicester poet and local historian James Francis Hollings, entitled 'Edgehill', regarding the English Civil War battle, 1642.

Author: 
James Francis Hollings (1806-1862), poet and local historian, President of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society [Leicestershire; English Civil War; Battle of Edgehill, 1642;]
Publication details: 
Without place place or place, on paper with watermarked date 1831. [Leicester, 1830s?]
£220.00
SKU: 12556

3pp., 4to. Bifolium. On wove paper watermarked 'R TASSELL | 1831'. 56 lines, arranged in seven eight-line stanzas. Presentable, despite wear and age, closed tears along crease lines, and traces of yellow-paper mount on blank reverse of second leaf. There is no sign that this item was ever published, which is surprising, as it is a superior effort, written with some conviction, the subject being one on which Hollings was regarded as an authority. In 1839 he delivered to the Leicester Mechanics' Institute his authoritative paper titled 'The history of Leicester during the great civil war', which was published the following year by the Leicester firm Combe and Crossley. The first stanza of the present item reads 'The wakened day is streaming | Around the green hill's brow, | Where Autumn's sickly beaming | Has tinged the yellow bough: | Calm speeds the gentle river, | With sparkling glories bright; | And where the tall reeds quiver, | Each blade is bathed in light.' The last stanza: 'Mourn realm of meeds unfaded! | Mourn Land of pleasant hills! | Yon field which Eve hath shaded | Is but the sign of ills - | And for one House which weepeth, | A thousand shall lament, | Before the red sword sleepeth, | And Battle's wrath is spent - | [signed] J. F. Hollings'. A tiny note in the top left-hand corner, in a contemporary hand, reads: 'The battle was not [last word underlined] fought on Sunday, I think'.