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    T ANCASHIRE has lost one of its foremost

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    It Often Happens That Zealous Public Off...

    hearing of the case in hunting up definitions of ' stationery , ' with the result that he had

    come to the conclusion that the word was somewhat elastic , though its meaning had

    altered considerably since the time when bookseller and stationer were synonymous terms .

    He read out in court the definition which the 4 Encyclopedia Britannica ' gives of the word ,

    and in the end we are glad to be able to add that common-sense triumphed , book-covers

    were declared not to be stationery , and judg = ! ment was given for the plaintiffs with costs .

    mS * , m

    Ar00504

    May i 5 , 1890 The Publishers' Circular 555

    T Ancashire Has Lost One Of Its Foremost

    T ANCASHIRE has lost one of its foremost

    J- ^ representative men by the death , a fortnight ago , of Edwin Waugh , at the ripe age of

    seventy-three . He was a native of Rochdale , and was apprenticed to Thomas Holden , then

    the chief bookseller of that town . In after years Edwin Waugh was accustomed to declare

    that the clergy of the district and a number of local politicians were wont to assemble in his

    mas of l The ter's Traditions shop . Mr of . Rob Lancashire y the banker ' —and — Canon author

    Raines , afterwards Vice-president of the Chetham Society , were frequenters of the place ;

    and when the boy was hardly tall enough to look over the counter , he seems to have acquired a

    taste for literature by listening to the talk of his master ' s customers . His wages were

    halfa-crown a week , and—there was no clamour for an Eight Hours Bill in those days he

    had to be at everybody ' s beck and call from seven o ' clock in the winter , and six in the

    summer , and he was never allowed to quit the shop until after nitfe at night . For no less

    than 17 years Edwin Waii ^ h , who was altoge gether uier the the architect architect of ot his Jus own own fortunes fortunes .

    worked with a blithe heart at the printer ' s , caae .

    A lonely moorland district and a ' ofty and picturesque range of hills are in the immediate

    neighbourhood of Rochdale , and the scattered villages and hamlets are inhabited by a sturdy

    warm-hearted race , distinguished by humour and poetic sensibilities . From youth to the

    verge of old age , Edwin Waugh , who has been called the ' Laureate of Lancashire / was

    accustomed , whenever he could escape from the town , to ramble in this picturesque region ,

    making friends wherever ho went with the weavers and peasants . From the moorlands

    and the ocean he drew much of his inspiration as a poet , but perhaps he owed still

    more to his **¦ intimate » * acquaintance . A , with the joys joys aand na sorrows sorrows of ot the the poor Door . . In In 1847 1847 . he he

    quitted the printing case , and settled in Man , - chester as Assistant-Secretary to the

    Lancashire Public School Association—a society

    T Ancashire Has Lost One Of Its Foremost

    which did much to bring about the Elementary Education Act of 1870 . Mr . Waugh ' s

    first contributions to literature appeared in the Manchester Examiner , and in 1855 these

    fugitive pieces were collected and published in volume form with the title of ' Sketches of

    Lancashire Life and Localities . ' In the same year «/ « - ^^ ^< -mr ^ m * appeared •**^ m jr M ^^ - x ** T ^ k ^ —i ^ ^ b " ^^ -iw ¦> ¦ . the ^* . ^ h ^ m ^ exquisite -In * ^* - ^ m ^ . j . • —* -- ^ - ^— - ^ r -w dialect — - — — — ¦ -- « ^— - ^ v — — ¦ ballad -w- ^ v ^¦ ^ - ^— ¦ ^ WT

    4 Come whoam to thi childer an' me , ' a poem which made the name of Edwin Waugh a

    household word , not merely in England , but in America and the Colonies .

    Year by year , and more particularly during the dark and disastrous period of the Cotton

    Famine , Edwin Waugh ' s genius ripened ; and critics who , as a rule , regarded with a careless

    eye dialect-poets , were compelled to admit that that this this humble humble , sself ell- -taught taught , , Lancashire Lancashire

    , singer possessed unquestionable literary art , and was able at will to stir the deepest

    sympathies of the common heart . Probably Edwin Waugh wrote too much rather than too

    little ; but , alas , necessity was laid upon him , and it was not until life was far spent that he

    conquered comparative leisure . It is pitiful to think of such a man hawking his own books

    round Manchester , but there was a period in his life when his battle for bread at the point

    of pen ran so hard that he was compelled to do so . Edwin Waugh ' s collected works were

    published in ten volumes in 1883 , and in the same year Mr . Gladstone placed his name on

    the Civil List for a pension of x' 00 a year . Personally , Edwin Waugh was a charming ,

    witty , open-hearted man ; and it says a great deal for him that , in spite of his struggles , ho

    remained sunny and genial to the last . His prose writings , which cliietiy consist of stories

    and sketches in the Lancashire dialect , are full of shrewd observation , fresh and unforced

    humour , and simple pathos . They , together with his poems , reveal the characteristic

    kindliness of the man , and will long serve to keep his memory green wherever literary strength

    and simplicity are appreciated .

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    ? Sir Edwin Arnold will shortly •/ Apublish < tn

    epic poem entitled ' The Light of the World . ' # * *

    Wo hear that Sir Arthur { Sullivan is busy with a new opera M . ' , which is expected *• to be

    ready for the winter season . # # #

    Messrs . Chapman & Hall will issue shortly , with illustrations' Old Sea WingsWaysand

    Words , ' by Mr . Robert , C . Leslie . , ,

    m

• Citation
  • Publishers’ Circular (1880-1890), May 15, 1890, page 555, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/pc/issues/tec_15051890/page/5/