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Bridgnorth Beacon Articles

Below is a list of all the articles and advertisements which appeared in the first issue of the Bridgnorth Beacon, dated 1st October 1852. The transcriptions can be viewed by clicking on the titles.

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Articles:

1. Notice to Advertisers.
2. Advertisement - Stationery
3. Advertisement - Publication
4. Advertisement - Drapery
5. Advertisement - Bookseller
6. Births, Marriages and Deaths.
7. Notice to readers and correspondents.
8. Bridgnorth Beacon - Our Title
9. Bridgnorth Beacon - Our Objects
10. Report on the Morfe Flower Show.
11. Opinion on emigration for gold-hunting.
12. Report on the harvest.
13. Local Information - Grammar School, Choral Society and Philharmonic Society
14. Local Information - School-masters' Association
15. Local Information - Quatt School
16. Local Information - Religious & Useful Knowledge Society, Mechanics Institution
17. Local Information - Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, etc.
18. Local Information - Sanitory state of the town.
19. Local Information - Militia
20. Local Information - Cholera, and the Fair
21. Petty Sessions - Conviction of Hawker
22. Police Reports - Non-payment of poor rate calls.
23. Police Reports - Drunkenness
24. Letter to the Editor
25. Letter to the Editor
26. Letter to the Editor
27. General Information - England - Politics and the death of the Iron Duke
28. General Information - England - the Advantages of Free Trade.
29. General Information - England - A Royal Teacher.
30. General Information - England - Proposals for new ocean vessels.
31. General Information - Ireland - Erin go Bragh
32. General Information - Ireland - Tenant right.
33. General Information - Ireland - An Irish Mother (a pig tale).
34. General Information - Scotland
35. General Information - America
36. General Information - America - Christianity among the Jews
37. General Information - America - Drinking pact.
38. Ecclesiastical Information
39. Ecclesiastical Information - Methodism, Convocation and the Vicarage of Shiffnal
40. The Press - The Duke of Wellington
41. Literary Extracts - Advice to Theologians
42. Literary Extracts - Fasting Extraordinary (An account of the process for electing new Bailiffs)
43. Literary Extracts - Habits of a Man of Business.
44. Poetry - Introduction.
45. Poetry - The Buried Flower
46. Poetry - The Nightingale

    Poetry.

    (for the Bridgnorth Beacon)

    THE NIGHTINGALE

    At the calm hour of night, when the stars’ pale light,
     Bespangles Heav’ns deep blue zone,
    And the whispering breeze sighs soft through the trees,
     With sweet Eolian tone,
    And the dark glassy streams, reflect the moon-beams,
     Like shadows of by-gone days,
    As bright and as cold, as the pleasures of old,
     Around which fond memory plays.

    Then when all else is still, save the trickling rill,
     Or the low of the distant herd,
    Sounds the sweet rich song, borne by Zephyrs along,
     Of the Heav’n-toned midnight bird;
    And as the thick note, from his tiny throat,
     Awakens the echo round,
    The flowery glades, and the leafy shades,
     Are filled with its matchless sound.

    When each bird is at rest, on its downy nest,
     That sang in the eye of day,
    Then lonely and lorn, on the wide spreading thorn,
     He pours his harmonious lay;
    And still on he sings, till the wild wood rings,
     To chorus his melody,
    Which soft as the lay, that th’ Genii play
     Fades gently clear in a sigh.

    Long ago one night, ’twas a balmy night,
     When earth was calmly sleeping,
    That th’ Nightingale sate, by his brooding mate,
     And tender watch was keeping,
    When the lonely bird, in his wakefulness heard,
     A wonderful sound of joy,
    Which filled the still night, like a flood of light,
     With a wondrous, wondrous joy!

    ’Twas the song of the spheres, reached th’ lone bird’s ears
     As he listened that balmy night,
    And for ever the song, of that joyous throng,
     Is filling his heart with delight;
    And whenever he hears, those starry spheres,
     Hymning their choral praise,
    Then, flows from his heart, his tiny part,
     The sweetest of earthly lays.

    Thus to him was given, a voice from Heav’n,
     An echo of angels’ tongues,
    And as softly he sighs his melodies,
     They heaven-ward float in songs;
    But with op’ning day, from each waving spray,
     Th’ concert of nature rings loud,
    Then th’ celestial strain, is scarce heard again,
     Till night folds earth in her shroud.

    All hail to thee bird! oh! oft have I heard,
     Such strains in a time now fled,
    When a child I would roam, from my village home,
     With Haughmond’s dark shades over head
    ’Tis past as a dream, too bright for a gleam,
     To pause on its onward flight,
    But while mem’ry clear, paint scenes still most dear,
     I’ll wish thee sweet bird, Good Night!

    R. W. Rowley.

    Bridgnorth, Ma 5, 1852

    * these stanzas were suggested on hearing a Nightingale warbling its mellifluent strains from a bush in Cantern Dingle, near this town;—the writer only wonders that such treats are not more frequently experienced in this beautiful locality, so peculiarly the home, where such songsters must love to dwell.

47. Serapiana - Random facts and information.
48. Serapiana - Prescriptions for moods and fits.
49. Serapiana - Anecdote on annexation.
50. Serapiana - Anecdote on the rewards of honesty.
51. Serapiana - An unfinished ode, and printer's notes.

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