The John Clare Peterborough Manuscript MS A47 contained the original text of Clare’s long poem ‘Birds Nesting’. We owe Eric Robinson and the ‘Clarendon’ team a great debt, as if they had not struggled to copy the poem many years ago, it would only have survived in fragments and in very inaccurate copies by earlier scholars. Of course, it is possible that Eric made mistakes but comparisons can easily be made with readings made by the Tibbles in the 1930s, and readers can judge for themselves. Perhaps one day the original manuscript will surface again, but in the meantime, it is a real privilege to bring their transcription to the public eye in this little volume.
What happened to the manuscript? We do not know, nor when exactly it disappeared. What we do know, however, is that it was loaned to an unnamed scholar by a senior member of the Peterborough Museum Society, and left in a railway compartment between Peterborough and Cambridge. Was it swept away as waste-paper or is it still being hoarded by some miserly soul? If the latter, we plead for its restoration to the Peterborough Central Library Clare archive, where it can be conserved for future generations.
In this volume everything is, as it was transcribed, by Eric and the team. This long poem contains some of Clare’s very best verse on birds and their nests. Written at a time when his first volumes of poetry had been published in London by Taylor and Hessey, and when Clare was enjoying the height of his popular fame during his lifetime. It breathes a freshness, immediacy and assurance not excelled elsewhere in his writings.
It’s been a joy to type this text from Eric’s ancient notes, and to realise afresh that Clare really meant it when he says ‘So happy at my heart to day / That from the world I wish to live (ll. 533-4).
The book is dedicated to Professor Eric, who died on his 95th Birthday on the 8th March 2019.
Birds Nesting (Arbour Chapbook No. 13) is available from me at £4.00 + £1.00 postage and packing (UK): email me on arborfield@pm.me
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