The Parlour

With a window onto the Market Place, the Parlour was the social hub of the house. A place to entertain guests, enjoy a peaceful evening in or work on a new poem for publication.

‘We were sitting yesterday after dinner, the two ladies and myself, very composedly, and without the least apprehension of any such intrusion in our snug parlour, one lady knitting, the other netting, and the gentleman winding worsted,’

‘Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast,
Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round,
And, while the bubbling and loud hissing urn
Throws up a steamy column, and the cups,
That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each,
So let us welcome peaceful evening in. ‘
The Task: Book IV — The Winter Evening

Move on to John Newton & the Slave Trade