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Robert Walker
1709 -
How was it that such an obscure if worthy Christian came to be remembered?
'Him, the
WONDERFUL, Our simple shepherds, speaking from the heart,
Deservedly have styled.'
It
must have been this that interested Wordsworth, who not only wrote about him in his
Duddon Sonnets and 'The Excursion' but also described him in prose. The poet's imagination
was caught by the simplicity and, indeed poverty, of his life, yet the resourceful,
loving and persevering pastoral care which he gave.
Born at Undercrag, Seathwaite,
in 1709, he was the youngest of twelve children. Taught in his native Seathwaite
chapel he later received his education from Henry Forest, curate of Loweswater, where
he became schoolmaster until he obtained the curacy of Seathwaite in 1735. There
he remained for the rest of his life as parson, schoolmaster, doctor and wisecounsellor
to the whole district. He ran a small farm. He sheared his own
sheep on a slab of
stone that is still just outside the door of his church.
When he first went to Seathwaite
the stipend was £5 a year and his cottage.
In 1755 it had risen to £20, yet all the
time he managed to save and he left a little fortune to his heirs. He did this by
dressing and living as a peasant himself, by frugality, by working his little farm
and by spinning.
He was 'scrivener' to the district too, and earned small sums that
way. We are told that at spinning 'he was a great proficient', and that he could
teach and spin at the same time. 'His seat was within the rails of the altar, the
communion table was his desk and he employed himself at the spinning wheel while
the children were repeating their lessons by his side'. It is hardly the picture
that a later piety would find edifying, but the character of the man shone through
all he did. When the Bishop of Chester, in whose diocese Seathwaite then was, proposed
to join Seathwaite and Ulpha parishes to obtain a better stipend, Walker refused
lest he should be suspected of cupidity. He made no charge for his schoolmastering
but 'such as could afford gave him what they pleased'. He was expert on plants fossils
and astronomy.
No wonder Wordsworth was impressed and no wonder the great actor Sir
Lewis
Cass and husband of Dame Sybil Thorndike was proud to be 'great-
He died in 1802 and was buried at Seathwaite. His wife had died
a few months earlier at the same age of 93. No doubt Wordsworth idealised him a little
but there is other evidence confirming the nobility of his life and his beneficent
influence as the gospel teacher.
'Whose good works formed an endless retinue:
A pastor
such as Chaucer's verse portrays;
Such as the Heaven-
And
tender Goldsmith crowned with deathless praise!'