Note 160 — POETS OF THE COBBLER’S STALL.

It is perhaps best, on the whole, not to speak of living men in such a work as this. An exception has, however, been made to such a rule in the rare instances of the famous politician, poet, and preacher Thomas Cooper, and the American poet Whittier. If the writer did not feel the necessity of adhering, in the main, to this rule, it would be easy enough for him to cite many instances in proof of the statement that the literary reputation of shoemakers is being well sustained in the present day by writers in prose and poetry, who either have been or still are working at the stall. Most Scottish sutors, one would think, have heard of the author of “Homely Words and Songs” and “Lays and Lectures for Scotia’s Daughters of Industry” (Edinburgh, 1853 and 1856). London craftsmen know and honor the names of J. B. Rowe, a political writer and poet, and John B. Leno, the editor of “St. Crispin,“ and author of the ”Drury Lane Lyrics,“ ”Tracts for Rich and Poor,“ and ”King Labor’s Song-Book” (London, 1867-68; see also “Kimburton, and Other Poems,” London, 1875-76); and the shoemaker of Wellinborough, John Askham, by his “Sonnets of the Months,” “Descriptive Poems,“ and ”Judith” (Northampton: Taylor & Son, 1863, 1866, 1868, and 1875), has made a reputation which is not entirely confined to his own locality, nor to the members of the craft to which he belongs.