NOTTINGHAM PAST PRESENT: NOTED BUILDINGS

KIRKE WHITES COTTAGE, WILFORD, 1915

Henry Kirke White was the son of a Nottingham butcher, and was born in 1785. His early contributions to the 'Monthly Mirror' attracted the friendship of Southey, and he was enabled to become a sizar at St. John's College, Cambridge. His short life was dogged by ill-health, and he died of consumption in 1806. For some little time he resided in the house at Wilford, shown in this drawing, and was so charmed with the sweetness of the village that he desired to be buried in its churchyard, a wish never fulfilled. Although Kirke White's name is a household word in Nottingham, his poetry is now little read. Perhaps his best known composition is his version of the hymn 'Of the Father's Love Begotten'.

Looking at this drawing it is hard to believe that so much quiet and beauty were within a very lew minutes walk of the crowded activity of our great manufacturing city.