William Barnes, Poet and Priest

Within the woodlands, flow'ry gladed,
By the oak trees' mossy moot,
The shining grass blades, timber-shaded,
Now do quiver underfoot;
And birds do whistle overhead,
An water's bubbling in its bed;
And there, for me, the apple tree
Do lean down low in Linden Lea.

William Barnes was a writer, poet, minister and philologist. He wrote much of his poetry in Dorset dialect and the above lyrics, which Vaughan Williams set to the tune we know as Linden Lea, are from his poem My Orcha'd in Linden Lea but rendered into standard English.

This was taken outside St Peter's Church in Dorchester, while we were visiting the area for my 60th birthday.