Warburton (Egertonwarburton), Rowland Eyles Egerton

(aka "Rambling Richard")

(1804-1891)

   Born at Moston, near Chester, he was educated at Eton College and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. His clergyman father married the heiress of Sir Peter Warburton, of Arley Hall, Cheshire. Warburton made his life's work the care of the huge estate and the rebuilding of Arley Hall. Known affectionately as "the poet laureate of the hunting field," many of his poems are about the countryside and fox hunting. For the last seventeen years of his life he was totally blind from glaucoma. He died at Arley Hall, which is the now the home of the 11th Viscount Ashbrook, a direct descendant. Some of his publications: Poems, 1833. Hunting Songs and Miscellaneous Verses, 1846 (eighth edition, 1887). Epigrams and Humorous Verses, 1867. Poems, Epigrams and Sonnets, 1877. Songs and Verses on Sporting Subjects, 1879. Twenty-Two Sonnets, 1883. Counsel for Cottagers and a Looking-Glass for Landlords, 1887. Some of his poems: "Farmer Dobbin," "Riding to Hounds," "The Blooming Evergreen," "The Mare and Her Master," "The Roebuck at Toft," "The Stranger's Story."

   Sources: Arley Hall and Gardens (http://www.touruk.co.uk/houses/house-cheshire-arley-%20hall.htm). Carmina Mariana: An English Anthology in Verse in Honour of or in Relation to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Orby Shipley, ed. Burns and Oates, 1894. Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. English Poetry, Second Edition Bibliography. (http://collections.chadwyck.co.uk/html/ep2/bibliography/g.htm). English Poetry: Author Search (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources (http://library.stanford.edu). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The New Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. Christopher Ricks, ed. Oxford University Press, 1987. Welcome to the Home of Viscount and Viscountess Ashbrook: Arley Hall Website (http://arleyhallandgardens.com/home.html).