AN ENGLISH SHRINE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20252, 11 May 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

AN ENGLISH SHRINE.

LITTLE JIM'S " COTTAGE. STILL IN EXISTENCE. MEMENTO OF FAMILIAR STORY. Tho cottage was a thatched one, , The outside old and menfi; Yet everything within that cot Was wondrous neat and clean. In a letter to tho Times Mr. G. P. Sidwell, of Coventry, writes as follows regarding Little Jim's" Cottage, which has been immortalised iti the wcll-kno'.vn poem by Edward Farmer, which at ono time appeared in the school books in use in New Zealand as well as in England:— The cottage, as the years passed, seemed to get older and meaner until in the year 1912 the local sanitary authority condemned it as unlit for habitation. The black-and-white building is situated in a narrow lane leading from Polesvvorth to Dordon Hall, Dordon. It is in the centre of tho Warwickshire coalfield, and is reached from the Walling Street by a turning near Atherstone —a town famous for its Shrove Tuesday footlnll match.

The cottage was the scene of the death of " Little Jim," whose departure from this life has been described innumerable times in tho words of Farmer's poem: "He was a collier's only child, they

called him ' Little -Jim.' " The old ro citation used to run " We are seven " and " You arc old, Father William," very hard in the race for popularity. 'J'he Warwickshire County Council, who had just previously bought the area of land the cottage stood upon for the purpose of small ho'dings, decided to offer it for sale. The peopls of ihe neighbourhood were anxious that the picturesque old place should be preserved as a memento of a story which had almost become a classic in tho third and fourth standards of our elementary schools. The amount to be raised—about £so— not excessive, and the final words of an appeal made at tho time were: " Perhaps, in spito of a hard-hearted, but public spirited, sanitary authority, ' Little Jim's ' cottage may yet be saved." In answer to inquiries made some little time ago, the Rev. A. T. Corfield, vicar of Polesworth, sent tho following reply to me: "The old thatched cottage of ' Little Jim ' is very much in existence', and well taken care of. It. has been bought by .Air. Tranter, who lives there with his wife and daughter. I send you a ' Little Jim ' card. "

In Tamworth churchyard is a monument . bearing tho following inscription distributed on three sides: (1) "To preserve the memory of a talented man, whose genial temperament found one of its favourite expressions in songs of patroitism and philanthropy, his friends

erected this monument"; (2) "To the author of 'Little <lim'"; (3) "In memory of Edward Farmer, many years a resident in Tamworth, who died suddenly, July 10, 1876, aged 67 years, and was interred in the New Cemetery at Derby." Some 40 years ago " Little Jim, or (lie Collier's Dying Child," used to be given as a short spectacle in an itinerant theatre at Coventry and other Midland fairs on the first and busiest day of its visit. One can recall now the mellowed voice of tho old actor standing outlined in the shadow of the proscenium, tho beautiful and affecting tableaux shown behind a transparent curtain, and the droning of tho harmonium when the waggon-top stage was .darkened for the changing of the scenes.