The Footnote A true story. The incident described in the poem is mentioned in, among other places, Michael Braddick’s God’s Fury, England’s Fire: a New History of the English Civil Wars. The Curlew As the poem indicates, the words attributed to George Fox (1624-91) are adapted from entries in his journal: see George Fox, The Journal, ed. Nigel Smith (Penguin, 1998) pp.13-35. That the Quakers “would not come into no great towns, but lived in the fells like butterflies” was an accusation made by Thomas Ledgerd, an alderman of Newcastle upon Tyne. Fox proved him wrong by visiting the city in 1658 and challenging him to an open debate: when Ledgerd declined, Fox asked “Who was the butterflies now?” (p.254). Fox claimed that when he was an eight-year-old boy he was visited by God: “Be as a stranger unto all” was His command.

scumfish: stuffy, stale (pron. scumf-ish) Brantwood Senilia The speaker is John Ruskin (1819-1900), and many lines and images in the poem have been adapted freely from his writings. See The Works of John Ruskin, edited by E.T. Cook and A. Wedderburn, Vol. II p.34; IV p.86, p.148; XII p.311; XXIII p.22, p.36, p.306-08, p.334; XXV p.13, p.63, p.232, p.238, pp.245-46; XXVII p.70, p.127, pp.130-31, pp.335-36; XXIX pp.30-31, pp.37-38, p.175, p.382, p.385, pp.392-93; XXXV pp.132-33; XXXVI p.504; and XXXVII p.107, p.117, p.156. I also made use of a phrase from an unpublished letter by Ruskin to his sister Joan, which is quoted on p.246 of the second volume of Tim Hilton’s excellent biography.

“My dear little birds…”: Ruskin wrote many letters to the girls at Winnington Hall School, to be read out to them by their teacher, and this is how he usually addressed the girls.

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