Wales and the Bristol Channel seen from Dowsborough at the top of the Quantocks
'Beneath the wide wide Heaven'
Wales and the Bristol Channel seen from
Dowsborough at the top of the Quantocks
Now, my friends emerge
Beneath the wide wide Heaven--and view again
The many-steepled track magnificent
Of hilly fields and meadows, and the sea,
With some fair bark, perhaps, whose Sails light up
The slip of smooth clear blue betwixt two isles
Of purple shadow!
From 'This Lime-Tree Bower My
Prison'
S T Coleridge, 1796
'Quantock's airy ridge'
beloved Friend!
When, looking back, thou seest, in clearer view
Than any liveliest sight of yesterday,
That summer under whose indulgent skies,
Upon smooth Quantock's airy ridge we roved
Unchecked, or loitered 'mid her sylvan coombs,
Thou in bewitching words, with happy heart,
Didst chaunt the vision of that Ancient Man,
The bright-eyed Mariner, and rueful woes
Didst utter of the Lady Christabel.
From Book 14 of The Prelude (1850 version), Wordsworth
addressing Coleridge.
'Hark the little vesper bell'
Cannington Church, adjoining Clifford Hall, the
Conference Location
O sweeter than the
Marriage-feast,
'Tis sweeter far to me
To walk together to the Kirk
With a goodly company.
To walk together to the Kirk
And all together pray,
While each to his great father bends,
Old men, and babes, and loving friends,
And Youths, and Maidens gay.
From 'The Ancyent Marinere' S T Coleridge, 1798.
'Drinking Versus Thinking'
The Globe Inn
(also adjoining the Conference location)
My Merrymen all, that drink with
glee,
This fanciful
Philosophy,
Pray, tell me, what good is it?
If antient Nick should come and take
The same across the Stygian Lake,
I guess we ne'er should miss it.
From 'Drinking Versus Thinking
or, A Song Against the New Philosophy',
S. T. Coleridge, c.1801.