JOHN ROBY.From a Daguerreotype by Beard.
THE
LEGENDARY AND POETICAL REMAINS
OF
JOHN ROBY,
AUTHOR OF "TRADITIONS OF LANCASHIRE."
WITH
A SKETCH OF HIS LITERARY LIFE AND CHARACTER.
BY HIS WIDOW.
LONDON:
LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS.
1854.
PREFACE.
The poetry and tales constituting the main part of thepresent volume, need no apology or introduction. Mostof them were finished for publication by the author.[A]
But in reference to the biographical sketch whichprecedes them, a few words will not be out of place.
A life so private afforded but few materials. Incidentsof early days, tending to illustrate the bent anddevelopment of his powers, are derived from memorandain Mr. Roby's own handwriting, or from well-rememberedconversations. The absence of that unconsciousself-portraiture, which a man's own letterspresent, will be found supplied, to some extent, byshort reminiscences, kindly furnished by friends. Thememoir is not offered as a complete biography. It issimply an outline of a literary life, and of a character;the one as varied in its aspect, as the other was uniformin its tenor. That part of the life which fell under thewriter's own observation, has of necessity been dwelton most at length, and she fears lest too much prominencemay at times have been given to what ispersonal to herself, and the double life be thus toostrongly shown. Yet the shadow that brings out theprincipal object will scarcely be censured. No one canfeel so deeply as herself the inadequacy of her talentsto the subject. To one qualification alone she may layclaim, without fear of the charge of presumption, "thatof the seeing heart," without which it has been trulysaid, "no true seeing for the head is so much aspossible."
The writer will esteem herself happy if, with all theimperfections of detail, she shall, in a measure, havesucceeded in her aim. That aim has been to gather up,with a loving reverence, the scattered products of herhusband's pen, by which the reader may estimate hispowers, and to present a faithful mental portrait of one,with whom the pursuit of literature was no bar to thedischarge of ordinary duties, and whose gifts were theLares and Penates of his own fireside,—one who, astime advanced, learned the secret of self-renunciationand spiritual obedience, and having "left this life for abetter," still, lives "in memory here," as a man of geniusand a Christian.
E. R. R.
December, 1853.