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| Spenser’s House, Hurstwood |
Earlier in the summer we visited Halifax and I picked up a pamphlet covering all literary figures connected with Calderdale. I was so surprised to discover that there was a link between the Elizabethan poet Edmund Spenser and the small Lancashire village of Hurstwood.
I immediately decided that we needed a visit to this village! Although we don't live very far away from this part of Lancashire, we thought an overnight stay at Hurstwood Hall would add to the joy of this unexpected discovery.
Hurstwood cerainly didn't disappoint. The village is beautiful, so close to Burnley but a million miles away. The River Brun meanders its way through the village and there are many old houses and buildings.
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| Hurstwood Hall Guest House |
Hurstwood Hall was an absolute joy. The house dates back to 1579, when it was designed and built by Barnard Towneley, an illegitimate son of the powerful Towneley family.
Spensers Cottage is a short distance from the Hall, and is equally ancient and architecturally stunning.
According to reputable records, Edmund Spenser lived in Hurstwood from 1576 to 1579. He supposedly fell in love with a local girl and left when she rejected him! There is a wealth of evidence to support Spenser's sojurn in Hurstwood and many scholars have attested that The Shepherd's Calendar was written during his time in the village. The poem is an allegory grounded upon pastoral life amid rugged, gloomy, wood-skirted moorlands. It is also written in provincial English and contains a vast number of dialect words which bear closest resemblance to the language of north-east Lancashire. Reverend Alexander Grosart has produced a glossary of the hundreds of dialect words used by Spenser, which can be traced back to this corner of Lancashire in the 16th century. Amongst these words are: brast (burst), clout (rag), stur (party, gathering), scrike (scream) and many, many more.
Hurstwood Hall stands beside the River Brun, and our lovely room, the former chapel, had windows opening onto the garden and the river. With the windows open in the evening, we were lulled to sleep by its melody, little realising that this is exactly what Spenser wrote in The Faerie Queene (book 2, canto 4):
And fast beside there trickled softly downe
A gentle stream, whose murmuring wave did play
Emongst the pumy stones, and by a sowne,
To lull him soft asleepe that by it lay.
Spenser also wrote about the river again in The Faerie Queene (book 3):
And in the midst a little river plaide
Emongst the pumy stones, which seemed to plaine,
With gentle murmure that his cours they did restraine.
So, 400 years after Spenser, the favourite of Elizabeth I, and a magnificent poet, listened to the River Brun and strolled through the village, so did we!