John Taylor makes it home from Wales (7.9.1652)
On this date in 1652 John Taylor the Water Poet made it back home to the Poet's Head (formerly the Crown) in Phoenix Alley, Long Acre near Covent Garden in London. Did his wife Alice welcome him home I wonder? Had she been busy running the place while he was away? John Taylor doesn't say.
The last blog update left John Taylor lunching in Cardiff. Taylor stayed that night in Llanrumney nearby before setting off with his horse early the next morning to Usk via Newport. That day was the 24th of August, his birthday. He was 74. He mentions passing through 'Carbean' on the way to Usk as well, which I'm guessing was Caerleon. Is this a typo or did Taylor actually not know the name of the place? It's prominence now as a place of Roman remains was apparently unknown to Taylor.
Taylor went on from Usk to Monmouth where he enjoyed the market fair. From there he went on to Gloucester, where he was born. He says that 'very few did know me; I was almost as ignorant as he that knew nobody'. Taylor's family had obviously dispersed by this time. From Gloucester he went on to Barnsley where he narrates an interesting story, concerned with 'profane walking':
I wrote about this anecdote in a book chapter on the travel writer (see especially pp. 145-47). The Royalist Taylor obviously enjoyed ridiculing those who were so strict about Sundays, but this does put Taylor's own travel adventures in context. According to his account, he never seems to have travelled on a Sunday either.
The Water Poet probably stayed for a few days again in Abingdon as it wouldn't have taken him all the remaining time to get to London. He probably stayed again with his nephew (find out more about him from a previous post). I find it amusing and intriguing that Taylor doesn't mention staying with family relations on this journey. Did Taylor promise not to mention his nephew in his account for some reason? Was he the embarrassing uncle?
When Taylor got home his 'travail' wasn't over. He still had to write up his account and then get it printed. After that he had to find those who had promised to pay him for his account. Taylor bulked out his publication with an additional 'short abbreviation of the history and chronicles of Wales'. This was based on a previous work, as Taylor explains:
Taylor, thus, puts his own journey and observations in the context of a much larger history of Wales. It also suggests that Taylor wasn't too worried about his travel account being too long, because otherwise he wouldn't have had room for this addition.
In Popular Literature: A History and Guide, Victor E. Neuburg jokes that 'One cannot resist the thought that John Taylor may well have been the originator of our present-day "sponsored walks" - although I suspect that it would be difficult to find evidence that Taylor devoted the proceeds to any causes other than his own!' (pp. 98-99). Taylor, however, can surely be celebrated for being the originator of so much, as a working-class writer, social observer and war correspondent. But his ability to fashion himself as a celebrity through publicity stunts and publishing is also significant. Neuburg comments that 'More than an other popular writer of the seventeenth century, Taylor epitomized the author who was as well known for his flamboyant life-style as for what he wrote' (p. 100).
In our own time of sponsored walks, runs and other activities, as well as social media and celebrity, Taylor's work seems more relevant than ever. And yet it is not easy to read him in print. Neuburg comments that the 1869 and 1878 Spencer Society reprints of Taylor's work are not satisfactory, and I would add, not readily available. The reprinted facsimiles are 'no substitute for the critical edition of John Taylor that is required' (p. 278), Neuburg adds. That was back in 1977.
This pilot project has aimed to bring Taylor to a new audience through social media and an online modern-spelling edition. Thankfully, at least a user friendly old-spelling edition of Taylor's travels in Stuart Britain is available: John Chandler John (ed.), Travels through Stuart Britain: The Adventures of John Taylor the Water Poet, Stroud, Sutton, 1999. 308pp.
Catch up on the project through the John Taylor website and visit the project over on twitter #WaterPoet2017 and on Facebook.
I'm looking forward to my own journey later in the month, when I will take part in the first ever John Taylor conference. The Water Poet travels on.
