William Hayley

Who now remembers William Hayley of the big house here, Blake's patron? He was a Sussex squire who wrote much small poetry in his day, and had more real sense than those who offered him the laureateship, for he refused it.

Hayley was a Sussex man through and through. Born at Chichester in 1745, he settled down, about the age of 30, at Eartham Hall, and lived there all his life, much respected, with many friends. Before that, after leaving Cambridge, he had tried to write for the stage and failed. He consoled himself by writing many poetical Epistles to his friends, and by patronising artists and poets. His Epistle on History was addressed to Gibbon, and one on Painting to Romney.

John Howard, the prison reformer, received an Ode, Admiral Keppel an Epistle. His poem The Triumphs of Temper, in six cantos, ran through twelve editions, and is his best known.

Hayley was a good admirer and wrote lives of Milton, Cowper and Romney. The best thing he ever did was to get a pension for Cowper, and Blake he gave a great commission to illustrate a book.

It was Pitt whom Hayley persuaded to put Cowper on the pension list, and it was Pitt who made Hayley the offer of the laureateship, and when he refused it gave it to the poet Pye. Southey, who succeeded Pye and rescued the laureateship from being preposterous, said of Hayley that everything about him was good except his poetry.

In and about the church of Felpham lie Hayley and Dean Jackson, the Greek scholar who retired here from Oxford and said to Squire Hayley that they would be good neighbours by seeing little of each other.

He was tutor to the sons of George the Third, and one of the boys used to say that he would give them such knocks on the forehead with his silver pencil that the blood would flow. The east window in Felpham is in his memory, and there is a charming statue of him in Oxford cathedral.

It was Hayley who brought William Blake to Felpham.

He had built himself a villa here on the death of his only son; it is Turret House, behind the great flint walls near the church. Here the literary squire, broken hearted by the death of his promising boy, lived like a hermit out of the world, gathering only genius about him. Hayley was rich and Blake was poor, and the little rich man brought the great poor man from London to illustrate his books.

Blake did heads of poets for Hayley's library, and worked for three years in his cottage carrying out the squire's commissions, but in the end he could stand the squire no longer; he was pestered by Hayley's genteel ignorance and polite disapprobation.

He came back to London and Hayley died and was buried. His thirty-line epitaph is by his friend Mrs Opie, but more appealing are four of the few good lines that Hayley ever wrote. They are addressed to the swallows who were leaving the eaves of Turret House for their annual migration:

May God, by whom are seen and heard Departing man and wandering bird, In mercy mark us for his own And guide us to the land unknown.

The big house where Hayley lived and died, and the cottage where Blake lived and worked for him, are both as they were when Blake fell out of love with his patronising friend. Blake's cottage has rooms which must be still much as they were when he sat in them toiling at his amazing pictures.

Hayley was businesslike in his dealings with his publishers. During his later years he wrote his own memoirs at a length which made two volumes, and arranged, at the age of 67, that the publisher should pay him an annuity for them for the rest of his life. He drew the annuity for eight years, and when he died, in 1820, the manuscript was handed over to the publisher for publication.

A curious man, over-sensitive to the verge of being ridiculous he was an excellent talker and was in all the literary gossip of his time.

 

 

 

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