Hannah Wallis

To Mrs. ?, on the Death of her Husband

From The Female's Meditations; Or, Common Occurrences Spiritualized, in Verse (1787), reprinted in Eighteenth Century Women Poets. Ed. Roger Lonsdale. OUP, 1989.

...Here Sally did with Tommy walk,
Young Jenny was with me;
We cast our eyes on Wellings Farm;
And Primrose Hill would see.

I do remember on our way
We through a field did pass,
Where quantities of grasshoppers
Were jumping in the grass...

We soon ascended Primrose Hill,
And did those buildings view,
Which sure have stood in ancient times,
And many that were new...

'Wellings Farm' must have been Willans Farm in Marylebone Park. Little is known about the author, but it can be deduced from her verse that she grew up in a village near Chelmsford in Essex. The editor adds that 'in March 1789 the Monthly Review merely quoted four lines from her book as evidence that this "poor Methodist" would "never write tolerable verse." But some readers at least may find that her blend of naive reminiscence and simple piety has a certain homely immediacy'.