76 
In 1848 Tennyson visited Morwenstow and confided to Hawker 
his intention to write a poem dealing with Arthur and his 
court. The Idylls of the King were not published until 1869 ; 
Hawker’s poem was issued in 1864. • Hawker’s blank verse 
is like his shore — strong and rugged, or like some giant oak 
knotty and gnarled. The figures in the poem stand out 
bold and clear. Tennyson’s Holy Grail, although containing 
many of his polished phrases, does not rank among the best 
of the series known as the Idylls. 
Hawker published anonymously a short poem known as 
the Trelawny ballad. Many writers, among whom were 
Scott, Macaulay and Dickens, spoke of this as a spirited 
specimen of the popular ballad, unique as occurring so late 
as 1688, before which time the ballad had fallen into contempt 
in England. The only part of the ballad that comes down 
from Jacobite days was the refrain, which was probably 
originally written in 1627 and used again at the Revolution 
in 1688. 
“ And shall Trelawny die ? 
Here’s twenty thousand Cornish men 
Will know the reason why.” 
The setting of the ballad is Hawker’s own. 
It was at Morwenstow that for two score years remote 
from towns, Hawker ran his godly race. During that long 
period he rarely crossed the boundary of his moorland parish. 
Not more than thrice in his life did he travel on a railway. 
He was over sixty when he visited London. In the first 
twenty years at Morwenstow he spent his own money, and 
his “ poor dear unselfish and unmurmuring wife’s portion,” 
in constructing bridges, restoring the church, erecting a school, 
and building a vicarage. For thirty years he supported 
the school well-nigh single handed. Constantly in his letters 
we meet with pathetic reference to his “ long mean degrading 
money fears.” He would dispose of some of his farm stock 
that he might feed the poor folks at Christmastide. A lady 
whom he never saw sent him donations for parochial objects 
and generous help for himself. She preserved every one of 
his letters to her. 
Hawker’s prose works contain eloquent descriptions of 
Cornish characters and customs. There are many humorous 
autobiographical sketches. There arc thrilling accounts of 
wrecks and wreckers and pathetic records of wondrous deliver- 
ances from death by water. In sixty years there were more 
than eighty wrecks in the locality. It was the Vicar’s custom 
