Last year saw the brief, but very successful, return to Ware of its “Great Bed”, so it is perhaps an appropriate time to celebrate another Ware legend – one immortalised in the poem The Diverting History of John Gilpin. The poem tells the story of a City draper bound for the Bell at Edmonton, who finds himself at the mercy of his borrowed horse and is carried all the way to Ware.
There are several local and tangible reminders of this famous jaunt. One is Gilpin House at 84, High Street, Ware. Another is a stained glass window installed in the late 1880s at Amwell House, which features scenes from the poem. On the south side of Ware there is a street of Victorian cottages running off London Road, originally called Mount Street, but later renamed Gilpin Road. The photo above shows the former John Gilpin pub, owned by McMullens and built in 1969, which stood next to the junction of Gilpin Road and London Road. A recent housing development at St Margaret’s includes a road called Gilpin’s Gallop.
This article looks at the story of John Gilpin and how the poem came to be written. It also examines the thorny question of whether the story has any historical basis.
William Cowper, the poet
William Cowper (1731-1800)
The author of John Gilpin’s “diverting history” was William Cowper, the famous poet, hymn-writer, letter-writer and translator. Two branches of the Cowper family were closely associated with the Hertford district. They were descended from Sir William Cowper, the 2nd Baronet (1639-1706). His elder son William (1665-1723), on succeeding to the baronetcy, was elevated to the peerage as Baron Cowper of Wingham, Kent. He served as Lord Chancellor for two periods between 1707-18, and was created Viscount Fordwich and Earl Cowper. He also played a leading role in the affairs of Hertfordshire where he served as Lord-Lieutenant, and he eventually decided to establish his family seat within the county at Cole Green.
The 2nd Baronet’s younger son Spencer (1670-1728) was famously implicated in a trial for the murder of a Hertford Quaker, Sarah Stout, in 1699, but he was honourably acquitted and rose to become Attorney-General to the Prince of Wales, Chief Justice of Chester, and a Judge of Common Pleas. Some of his descendants dwelt at Hertingfordbury and Tewin Water: in particular, Henry Cowper (1758-1840) who became Clerk Assistant of the Parliament and Clerk to the House of Peers, and was a major benefactor in Hertford.
Spencer’s second son John became a clergyman and served as rector of St Peter’s Church in Great Berkhamsted. It was there that William, the future poet, was born on 26 November 1731. He was one of seven children, though only he and his brother John survived infancy. He was educated at various schools, but chiefly at Westminster School where he enrolled in 1742. He then trained for the law and in 1763 was offered a Clerkship of Journals in the House of Lords, but the strain of the examination brought about a breakdown in his mental health and he spent several months in a private asylum at St Albans.
William eventually recovered and in the autumn of 1765 he made the acquaintance of William Cawthorne Unwin (c.1745-86), a graduate of Christ’s College, Cambridge and a fervent evangelical. Unwin was the son of the Reverend Morley Unwin and his wife Mary. Morley had formerly been rector of Grimston in Norfolk, but in 1742 had left the duty in the charge of a curate and had moved back to their former home in Huntingdon, where he prepared pupils for university. William Cowper was introduced to the Unwins in October 1765 and was so taken with them that he became a paying boarder in their home.
In June 1767 Morley Unwin died after falling from his horse. Some two months later William moved with Mary and her daughter Susanna to Olney, a small market town in north Buckinghamshire, where they eventually settled into a house called Orchard Side. The move to Olney was prompted by the Unwins’ acquaintance with the local curate, the Reverend John Newton, a former slave trader and now a member of the evangelical wing of the Church of England. Newton invited William to contribute to a hymnbook which he was compiling, and which was eventually published in 1779 as the Olney Hymns.1
William meanwhile continued to live with the Unwins and in late 1772, following Susanna’s marriage to the vicar of Dewsbury, there was intense speculation in the Olney locality that the marriage of William and Mary would shortly follow. This prospect was abruptly dispelled by a recurrence of William’s insanity. Mary cared for him with great devotion and over the following months he gradually recovered. She then did all in her power to encourage him in his writing. In 1779 the Reverend Newton left Olney and Mary, anxious to keep William’s mind occupied, suggested that he should write a satirical poem on The Progress of Error. Seven more such pieces followed and were published in 1782 under the title Poems by William Cowper, of the Inner Temple, Esq.
Mary, however, was not William’s only muse. In 1781 he made the acquaintance of Lady Anne Austen, a widow in her early forties whose sister was married to the Reverend Thomas Jones, the curate in the neighbouring village of Clifton Reynes. Anne’s husband had been a baronet and prior to his death in 1772, they had lived in France and England. Anne had then led a genteel if frugal life, and over time was drawn towards evangelicalism. According to one account, William happened to be sitting by the window at Orchard Side when she came out of a draper’s shop opposite the house, accompanied by her sister, and being much struck by her beauty, he asked Mary to invite both ladies to tea.
Their highly charged relationship was to last for three years. Anne was a sophisticated lady who could be both charming and domineering. She acted as the muse for several of his pieces, including John Gilpin, but most especially The Task, published in 1785, which is generally considered to be his most substantial work. Unfortunately, William chose to show his appreciation by sending Anne some over-gallant pieces of verse, which Anne interpreted as a romantic overture. She was thus highly affronted when William subsequently rejected her thinly veiled proposal of marriage. This happened on at least two occasions and led to bitter quarrels. William’s association with Anne Austen was naturally viewed with disfavour by Mary Unwin, and she was no doubt delighted when Anne finally left Olney in May 1784 and went to live in Bath. Though she made several visits to her sister in Clifton in the late 1780s, Anne never saw William again. She later married a Frenchman, Baron Tardiff, and lived in France where she died in 1802.
Mary had no qualms, however, about William’s cousin Harriet, Lady Hesketh, who first visited him at Olney in June 1786 and supported him financially during his final years. It was at her suggestion that they quitted the gloomy Orchard Side at Olney and moved to the nearby village of Weston Park. They subsequently moved again, this time to Swaffham in Norfolk and then to East Dereham. William’s mental state finally collapsed in 1793. Lady Hesketh offered to pay for him to have the best professional care, but Mary refused and nursed him herself to the detriment of her own health. She died in 1796. William lived for another four years, but finally died of dropsy on 25 April 1800 and was buried at St Nicholas Church, East Dereham.
The making of John Gilpin’s Ride
The writing of John Gilpin’s “diverting history” took place in October 1782. It appears that Anne Austen, on calling in at Orchard Side one day, found William in a melancholy mood. In an effort to relieve his gloom, she related the adventure which she remembered hearing in her childhood. Cowper was very much struck with the tale and throughout the following night he kept waking up in fits of laugher. He at once set about drafting the poem and had it published anonymously in the Public Advertiser the following month. William only claimed authorship of the poem when The Task was published in 1785.
The poem’s full title was: The Diverting History of John Gilpin, showing how he went farther than he intended and came home safe again. It was a spectacular success right from the start. William wrote in 1785 that it was “hackney’d in ev’ry Magazine, in every News paper and in every street.” John Henderson, an actor from Bath, who in his day was almost as famous as David Garrick, used the poem in very popular public readings at the Freemasons Hall in Great Queen Street. It remained popular with succeeding generations, who enjoyed it simply as a piece of exuberant farce. In the late 19th century, however, antiquarians began to look closely at the possible historical origins of the tale, and in 1903 the journal Notes & Queries received a full postbag of comments and conjectures on the subject.
The whole debate, of course, hinged on a key question: was the tale remembered by Anne Austen from her childhood based upon an actual historical event? If it was, then who was the historical “John Gilpin”? Several candidates were put forward over the years. One such person was Jonathan Gilpin who died at Bath in 1790, leaving £20,000 to his daughter. Another was John Gilpin of Colliers Water, Croydon, who had lived much earlier. According to Dr Wilfred Hooper, lecturing to the Cowper Society in 1909, he was recorded in 1642 as being a member of the Artillery Company of London and was residing at the Golden Anchor in Cheapside “at ye corner of Bread Street.” The most favoured candidate, however, was a Mr Beyer, a linen draper who traded near the junction of Cheapside and Paternoster Row. He died in 1791 at the age of 98 and, according to Lucius G. Fry, his infamous ride took place in about 1750. However, a letter in the Morning Post of 6 April 1896, signed “Correspondent”, stated that Mr Beyer “was inclined to obesity. One wonders indeed what this Mr. Beyer thought of the whole affair when it came to be heard abroad, for at the date of the appearance of the ballad, 1782, he had still 9 years to live and although he had reached the age of 89 was still, we suppose not too old to be “a butt.” It is certainly true that, in the numerous illustrations which accompanied the poem, John Gilpin was usually depicted as having a markedly rotund figure.
“Correspondent” also observed that John was “an oldish man to subject himself to such violent equestrianism…his condition, however, as a train-band captain fitted him for a ride in which other men would have suffered severely.” Throughout the centuries able-bodied male citizens had been expected to take up arms whenever the nation was in peril. During Tudor times they were organised within locally raised “Trained Bands”, where they were given basic training in drill and the use of arms. (Actually, by the time William Cowper came to write his poem the term “Trained Band” had been replaced by “Militia”.)
The circumstances surrounding Gilpin’s ride also gave rise to much speculation. The events described in the poem are broadly as follows. Gilpin, a draper living in the City of London, decides to celebrate his wedding anniversary by taking his wife to dine out in the country at The Bell at Edmonton. He hires a chaise to transport his wife and three children, plus his sister-in-law and her child. Since there is no room in the chaise for Gilpin, he borrows a horse from a friend who is simply referred to throughout the poem as “the calender” (a dresser of cloth). This man is described as Gilpin’s neighbour so he presumably has premises in the City, though at the time of the ride he is residing at his home in Ware. Gilpin’s family depart in the chaise, but Gilpin is delayed by a sudden influx of customers into his shop.2 He finally manages to get away, and at first all goes well, the horse proceeding at a steady walk. However, once the road surface becomes smoother, the horse breaks into a trot and then into a gallop. Gilpin is quite unable to control it and is carried through Islington and on up the highway to Edmonton. The horse carries him straight past The Bell where his family are gathered on the balcony, and keeps on galloping northwards until it finally comes to a halt outside the calender’s house in Ware. After a brief conversation with the calender, Gilpin turns the horse round, intending to ride back to Edmonton, but at that moment the horse is panicked by a braying ass and breaks into a gallop. Once again Gilpin is carried helplessly down the highway, past The Bell and deposited back where he started outside his shop in the City.
We are thus expected to believe that Gilpin’s horse was capable of galloping non-stop for a total of 23 miles from the City to Ware, and then after a brief pause, to gallop a further 23 miles back to the City. This is clearly impossible. The horse could not have kept going at such a pace for more than 10 miles or so, which means it would have staggered to a halt somewhere in the vicinity of Edmonton. It would have been in no state to gallop on to Ware, let alone turn round and gallop back to the City.
In addition to that, we’re expected to believe that the Gilpin family were able to cover the 10 miles to Edmonton in their fully laden chaise and settle themselves in on the balcony of The Bell well in time to see Gilpin go galloping by. This too would have been impossible.
Roughly speaking, the speed of a horse when proceeding at a walk is between 3-4mph; at a trot 8-10mph; at a canter 10-17mph; and at a gallop 25mph. On that reckoning Gilpin’s family, travelling in the chaise at 3mph, would have taken about 3½ hours to get to Edmonton. We’re not told how long Gilpin was delayed by the customers at his shop, but let’s assume it was 30 minutes. We’re told that his horse started off “full slowly pacing”, but once on a smoother road it began to trot and then broke out into a gallop. We may assume, therefore, that the horse travelled at about 10mph for the first mile or so, but after that its speed increased to something in the order of 25mph. On that reckoning, Gilpin would have passed his family in the chaise in the vicinity of Islington. Overall, his ride from the City to Ware would have taken him just over an hour. If we assume that he paused at Ware for 10 minutes before galloping back to London, then his family would still have been on the road by the time he passed back through Edmonton. In fact, he would have passed them about a mile to the north of Tottenham.
The actual route taken by Gilpin is also somewhat puzzling. “JFT”, one of the contributors to Notes & Queries in 1903, pointed out that the most direct route for anyone travelling from the City to Edmonton was via Poultry, Cornhill, Bishopsgate Street, Shoreditch and Kingsland Road. John, however, chose to take a more circuitous route via the western end of Cheapside, St Martin Le Grand, Aldersgate Street and Goswell Street, and then on through Islington to Stoke Newington. His horse, of course, was not his own but one borrowed from his friend the calender, so perhaps that was its normal route.
“Correspondent”, writing in the Morning Post in 1896, observed that, in the words of the poem, Gilpin “came unto the Wash/Of Edmonton so gay” prior to passing The Bell. “Correspondent” pointed out that the Wash lies to the north of The Bell. Gilpin could only have reached the Wash first if he had been approaching Edmonton from the north. However, on reaching Edmonton, the horse, without apparently deviating from its course, kept galloping for a further 12 miles to Ware. Had it been facing south, the horse would have carried him back to the City.
Another puzzle is why Gilpin should trouble himself with taking his own wine to Edmonton. “St. Swithin”, another contributor to Notes & Queries in 1903, posed the question: “When citizens of credit and renown, like the hero, went for a day’s holiday intending to dine at a respectable hostelry like the Bell at Edmonton, was it normal for them to…import their own wine and to incur the liability of a charge for corkage?” Once again, this is clearly a device whereby Gilpin ends up with two stone bottles hanging either side of his saddle and on seeing these, the bystanders assume they are weights and that he’s taking part in a race.
Gilpin’s arrival at Ware is also highly puzzling. He has just been brought at full gallop on a runaway horse all the way from London, but is apparently not the least distraught. Instead he indulges in a merry quip with the calender. Furthermore, the calender pays not the slightest regard to Gilpin’s traumatic experience. His only concern is that his friend should have lost his hat and wig, and he immediately goes indoors to find replacements.
John Gilpin’s “diverting history” clearly contains a hefty amount of artistic licence. Nonetheless, the poem does throw up some intriguing questions about William Cowper’s familiarity with the countryside around Ware. Thera Alcock writes in The Streets of Ware that the poem was written after William had paid a visit to his friend, the Quaker John Scott, who lived at Amwell House. If so, then this may well have given him the idea of including Ware in the poem and making it Gilpin’s destination.
John Scott played a leading role in the improvement of the roads around Ware, both as a turnpike trustee and as a road builder. He was also a stern critic of the craze for gambling and the laying of wagers, which during the 18th century became a national pastime, if not an addiction. Scott was therefore incensed when he discovered that the new turnpike roads, which he had done so much to promote, were being used for horse racing. This idea too may have been picked up by William Cowper while staying in Ware.
There is also the question of Gilpin House at 84 High Street, Ware which local tradition says was the house occupied by the calender. The building consists of two wings, one dating from the 15th century, the other a 17th century addition. It is said that during the 18th century the building was the home of a draper who gave his name to the adjacent Rankin Square. Certainly, the memorial inscriptions in St Mary’s Church did once contain three entries: Humphrey Rankin, died 1771 aged six; John Rankin, died 1778 aged 56; and William, died 177- aged 50. Did William Cowper, therefore, base the calender on a member of the Rankin family? This has long been a Ware tradition, but according to David Perman in A New History of Ware, “there is no historical source for that belief.”
One final thought concerns John Gilpin’s family. “Correspondent” wrote that “one is rather puzzled by Mrs. Gilpin. John was ‘her dear’, John kisses a ‘loving wife’, there is an allusion to their 20 years of married life and yet, when her husband is run away with she values him at apparently no more than half a crown.” The half-a-crown is a reward put up by Mrs Gilpin to the youth who drove the family to Edmonton, which he will receive when he brings her husband back safe and well. The youth rides back and forth along the turnpike in Gilpin’s wake, but he fails to stop him before Gilpin is finally brought to a halt outside his shop in the City – which means that the Gilpin family has been left stranded at Edmonton without either John or their driver. We can only assume that they were brought home safely at some stage.
Notes:
1 The collection includes the most famous of Cowper’s hymns, Light Shining out of Darkness, which begins “God moves in a Mysterious Way …”
2 The fact that John Gilpin was delayed by his customers is rather puzzling. If he was planning to take his family out for the day, then he would presumably have kept his premises closed or else left one of his assitants in charge. Clearly, the incident is simply a device for delaying Gilpin’s departure, thus allowing his family to get to Edmonton before him.
Sources of Reference
A Correspondent “A National Hero in Danger” published in the Morning Post 6 April 1896
Alcock, T. 1990 The Streets of Ware Ware
Family History Society 2008 Hertfordshire Monumental Inscriptions – St Mary, Ware, Hertfordshire
Hayley, W. 1803 Life & Letters of William Cowper Chichester
King, J. 1986 William Cowper – a biography Durham
Perman, D. 2010 A New History of Ware Ware
Taylor, T. 1833 Life of William Cowper London
Walford, E. c.1878 Old & New London (Vol. 5) London
Wright, T. 1921 The Life of William Cowper London
Notes & Queries 9th Series Vol. XII 1903
Hertfordshire Mercury 19 December 1969
Acknowledgements:
The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance given by the staff of the Enfield Local Studies Library & Archive, and by Connie Taylor of Hertford Museum in regard to the equine aspects of the story.
The illustrations reproduced below were drawn by H. Fitz-Cook and engraved by J.C. Whymper. They appear in a Victorian version of The Diverting History of John Gilpin published by Longmans, Green & Co, date not specified.
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