29 



llronaiti aiatjcatrvoft, of ^sijoUcv. 



Contributed by the Rev. C. Kerry. 



ERBYSHIRE has not only produced many men of 

 talent and mark in the higher and more privileged 

 ranks of society, but many others who in their day 

 were centres of life and light in more humble and 

 perhaps less refined circles. Among these, Leonard Wheat- 

 croft, of Ashover, who flourished during the Commonwealth and 

 two succeeding reigns, holds no inferior position. 



He was clerk of the parish, village tailor, landlord of " The 

 Hand and Shears," and the village songster. From a list of 

 books once forming the library of his son Titus, upon whom 

 the father's mantle seems to have fallen, and at least one of his 

 father's offices, it appears that Leonard was the author of two 

 works; one, entitled "The Bright Star of Love Appearing to 

 Bachelors," and the other, "The Art of Poetry; or, Come, 

 ye Gallants, Look and Buy, Here is Mirth and Melody." " The 

 Bright Star of Love " is lost ; but from the contents of the first 

 portion of the " Art of Poetry," which is wholly given up to the 

 praise of Cupid, it is a loss for which no one need mourn. The 

 latter volume happily exists, and from it the varied compositions, 

 now for the first time presented to the public, have been extracted. 

 The manuscript is the property of the Rev. Nich. Milnes, 

 Rector of Colly Weston, Northants., whose courtesy in submit- 

 ting it to us for publication the Editor desires very thankfully to 

 acknowledge. 



