Herbert Road runs between Queen Alexandra Road and St Michaels Road
Since Herbert Road is either on, or adjoining, Bemerton Heath, it’s probably named after the poet George Herbert. He was vicar of Saint Andrew’s Church in Bemerton from 1630 until his death in 16331.
George Herbert’s life
George Herbert was born in Montgomery in South Wales in 1593. His father died when he was only three years old, and his family seems to have moved several times after that – to Shropshire, Oxford, Charing Cross and then to Chelsea.
Herbert went to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1609. He graduated in 1613, and became a fellow in 1616. Herbert was appointed Cambridge University orator in 1620.
The post of Cambridge University Orator could be seen as political stepping stone – Herbert’s predecessor, Francis Nethersole, had gone on to be a Secretary of State, and the post brought Herbert into contact with figures such as the earl of Buckingham, the Prince of Wales, and King James I himself2.
Herbert explained to his stepfather3, who had presumably commented on the position being a ‘good career move’, that the post ‘hath no such earthiness in it, but it may very well be joined with Heaven’.
In any case, Herbert went on from the post at Cambridge to become the Member of Parliament for Montgomery, his birth place, in 1624.
Within the next year or so he seemed to have had a pivotal change of heart. His brother Henry Herbert replaced him as Montgomery’s Member of Parliament, and George was ordained.
In 1626 Herbert was appointed canon of Lincoln Cathedral.
In 1628, following the death of his mother, Herbert went to stay with Henry Danvers, the earl of Danby, at his home at Dauntsey in Wiltshire. Henry Danvers was the brother of George Herbert’s stepfather. While there he met Jane Danvers, whom he married in March 1629.
The couple lived with Jane’s mother until 1630, when Herbert was offered the position of rector of ‘Fugglestone-with-Bemerton’ near Salisbury.
Bemerton can be seen as a ‘humble parish’4. In many ways it was, but as the Dictionary of National Biography says ‘it is misleading to overlook the courtly connections which led Herbert and his wife to Bemerton’5.
The ‘courtly connections’ were George Herbert’s relations at Wilton House.
Stretching the point perhaps, there was also an artistic tradition at Wilton. Herbert was (according to the DNB again 6) ‘working in the poetic tradition of Philip Sidney and his sister Mary’. The Sidneys had lived and worked at Wilton – Mary’s husband was the second Earl of Pembroke.
In the early 1630s, while at Bemerton, Herbert wrote ‘A Priest to the Temple’ (also known as ‘The Country Parson’). This was something like an instruction manual for the village priest.
From what we can tell, Herbert was himself a model priest. He had both the church and the vicarage largely rebuilt, at his own expense. According to George’s brother Edward Herbert, the priest was ‘a little less than sainted’ by the people of Bemerton.
George Herbert was not to live for long at Bemerton. He died on the 1st March 1633. He is buried at St Andrews.
George Herbert’s proverbs
Herbert’s proverbs7 were published in ‘Outlandish Proverbs, Selected by Mr G. H.‘ in 1640 and then re-published as ‘Jacula prudentum in 1651.
These are some of my favourites:
Hell is full of good meanings and wishings.
God’s mill grinds slow, but sure.
Help thyself, and God will help thee.
The mouse that hath but one hole is quickly taken.
A dwarf on a giant’s shoulders sees farther of the two.
Other proverbs have entered the language as idioms – ‘his bark is worse than his bite’, ‘have your cake and eat it’ and ‘not worth the candle’ are derived from Jacula Prudentum
George Herbert’s poetry
Herbert wrote many poems. This is one of them:
VIRTUE
WEET day, so cool, so calm, so bright!
The bridal of the earth and sky–
The dew shall weep thy fall to-night;
For thou must die.Sweet rose, whose hue angry and brave
Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye,
Thy root is ever in its grave,
And thou must die.Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses,
A box where sweets compacted lie,
My music shows ye have your closes,
And all must die.Only a sweet and virtuous soul,
Like season’d timber, never gives;
But though the whole world turn to coal,
Then chiefly lives.
George Herbert and Vikram Seth
There is a lovely article on the Times website by the author Vikram Seth, who now owns George Herbert’s house in Bemerton.
Seth discusses coming to see Herbert’s house when it came up for sale. He says he had no intention of buying it but simply wanted to look around. Seth writes:
At the beginning I felt Herbert’s presence hourly, both within the house and outside. As time passed, I began to think of it as being somewhat more my own, but still, indefinably, shared. 8
If you’re at all interested in George Herbert or Vikram Seth I’d recommend looking at the article in the Times. It includes three poems written by Seth in response to Herbert and to the location. The article is available, at the time of writing, through this link:
Reproduced courtesy of Francis Frith.
A note on President George Herbert Walker Bush and his family
Something I stumbled across in ‘researching’9 was that the elder President George Bush was called George Herbert10 Walker Bush11.
George Bush’s grandfather was George Herbert Walker12. His grandfather was George E Walker.
It could be that the combination of the names ‘George’ and ‘Herbert’ were a reference to the poet. I’ve not been able to find out an awful lot about George Herbert Walker’s father David Davis Walker 13, so it’s diffcult to say how likely this is. As far as I can see there are no other ‘Herberts’ in the Bush family tree.
More on George Herbert
Finally, I would highly recommend the following, if you are interested in George Herbert.
The George Herbert and Bemerton website is run by The Friends of St. Andrew’s Bemerton
and The George Herbert in Bemerton Group. As well as the website, the Group runs events to promote the memory of George Herbert.
The Group was instrumental in the publication of a lovely book called ‘George Herbert in Bemerton’, which is extracted from Ronald Blythe’s ‘Divine Landscapes’.
‘George Herbert in Bemerton’ was published by Hobnob Press.
Footnotes
- Alternatively, it could be named after the Herbert family, who own Wilton House – I’ve written a little about them in the post on Pembroke Road [↩]
- King James, according to Isaak Walton, saw Herbert as the ‘jewel of that University’, and asked that one of Herbert’s epigrams should be written down for him. Coincidentally, I’m currently listening to a podcast about the King James Bible – one of the speakers says something to the effect that King James was ‘exceptionally skilled at flattery’ [↩]
- George Herbert’s stepfather was John Danvers – one of the men who would later sign the death warrant of Charles I (see Sir John Danvers, regicide, 1588-1655) [↩]
- For example, Vikram Seth uses this exact phrase in his article for The Times – see Three poems inspired by George Herbert Vikram Seth TLS [↩]
- Helen Wilcox, ‘Herbert, George (1593–1633)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/13025, accessed 1 April 201115 March 2011] [↩]
- Helen Wilcox, ‘Herbert, George (1593–1633)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/13025, accessed 1 April 2011] [↩]
- I’m not entirely sure whether epigram or proverb is the better word in this context. Epigram seems to me more appropriate when it is clear who has written or said it, but proverb seems to be appropriately ecclesiastical for George Herbert. [↩]
- Three poems inspired by George Herbert Vikram Seth TLS [↩]
- I’m not entirely sure that the googling that I do for most of the material here should really be dignified with the word ‘research’ but I can’t think of a more appropriate one [↩]
- Ancestry of George Walker Bush – President Bush Family Tree [↩]
- His son, the younger President was George Walker Bush [↩]
- Ancestry of George Walker Bush – President Bush Family Tree [↩]
- David Davis Walker – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [↩]
