Hard to imagine on this benign-sea, sun-blessing afternoon the gloomy Reverend Lyte, sitting here complaining of 'change and decay in all around I see'.
Change, yes – there's a fleet-sized marina and devil's hordes of body-exposed tourists between here and his church. He'd have had to walk with blinkers on. But decay, no. The vicarage-hotel is newly painted, lawns mown, geranium pots dead-headed and watered. Cup Final crowds who croon 'Abide With Me' congregate here for continental breakfasts, camembert baguettes and cream teas. But, of course, Lyte was writing in winter: 'Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day'.
David Perman is a publisher, biographer, local historian and poet. He runs the Rockingham Press, his biographies include ScoƩ of Amwell: Dr Johnson’s Quaker CriƟc (Rockingham, Ware 2004). He was hon. Secretary of the Ware Society for fourteen years and the Įrst hon. Curator of the Ware Museum.
The Reverend Henry Francis Lyte (1793Ͳ1847), incumbent of All Saints Church, Brixham (Devon), lived in what is now the Berry Head Hotel and there he wrote the hymn ‘Abide with Me’.
‘Berry Head Hotel’ is published in David Perman’s collection Scrap Iron Words (Acumen Publications, Brixham 2014).