Crowland Abbey print of approx 1861. Clare wrote earlier:
(This stone was at ‘Brotherhouse’ a boundary marker midway between Crowland and Cowbit : see Peter Cox item in John Clare Society Newsletter dated Oct 2018 (nbr 134))
The sonnet above is from ‘Northborough Sonnets’. The following sonnet is from ‘The Midsummer Cushion’. Crowland was originally called Croyland at the time of Guthlac (673-714). This abbey was quite local to John Clare, he would have known its ruins well. The first sonnet mentions the Saint in whose name the abbey was originally built. It was ruined and rebuilt for a third time, finally to be ruined again. Still very much with us today and a suitable tourist attraction as a religious, monumental or Clare destination.
Built in memory of St Guthlac, a local religious hermit who became famous in his lifetime and more so after his death.
A small number of churches (Astwick, Market Deeping, Passenham, Fishtoft) are dedicated to him in the region are also worth visiting.
His sister, St Pega, has one church (Peakirk) dedicated to her.
This post is all because I like John Clare as a poet and a man and I live near a St Guthlac church, one of very few in the country. Guthlac was written about extensively in the ‘Exeter Books’ and perhaps adds colour to a fascinating region.
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