Rev John Bidlake – local schoolmaster and poet
John Bidlake was born in Plymouth, the son of a jeweler, and educated at Christ Church College, Oxford, where he received his BA, MA and DD In the last decade of the 18th century until his death he was the Headmaster of Plymouth Grammar School. He was curate of Plymouth's Stonehouse Chapel from 1785 to 1812. In 1811 he gave the Bampton Lecture: The truth and Consistency of Divine Revelation, With Some Remarks On The Contrary Extremes Of Infidelity And Enthusiasm: In Eight Discourses.
He was a prolific poet, but he drew promiscuously on Thomson, Shenstone, Pye and Poole. When writing about Nature he was immersed in the parallels between national identity, literature and landscape that was evidenced by the visitors and contributors to Mount Edgcumbe. His collected poems were published in 1794; he penned Verses written at Mount Edgcumbe portraying a local reaction to the evolving landscape architecture of Mount Edcumbe.
In his poem Bidlake captures the genesis of Mount Edgcumbe as a deer park. It did not have one unique designer such as Kent, Brown or Repton, though some of their hallmarks have clearly been incorporated indirectly; this piece of research aims to assess all the practical, strategic and literary influences on its development. Inevitably this will involve following a historical timeline because the canvas was painted in many layers by many different artists over an extended period of time. Throughout the long century there were visitors to Mount Edgcumbe; writers brought their experiences of other estates in prose and literature, then expressed their views in turn on what they found. Artists came with their pads and at the same time could show features from other gardens. The influence of these people is not always easy to determine, but essential in plotting the developments. To speak about Mount Edgcumbe as a canvas is to use terminology borrowed from a later Picturesque period, but it essentially encapsulates the bare landscape estate prior to 1547 on which layer upon layer of landscaping was placed.
Amidst the woods the trembling deer
Impetuous rush, all wild with fear;
Oft turn to gaze with jealous eye
As from destructive man they fly.
His published works included seven volumes of poetry, a number of sermons and "discourses" a five-act tragedy in verse, a "moral tale," and an introduction to the study of geography.
1790 A sermon, preached before the Society of Free and Accepted Masons Haydon, Plymouth
1794 The poetical works of J. Bidlake Murray & Harding, London
1796 The Sea, a poem in two books Published by T. Chapman (London)
1797 The country parson, a poem. Published by T. Cadell Jr. & W. Davies, (London)
1802 A Sermon and An Oration John Murray, Fleet St. London.
1802 Youth, a poem Messrs. Murray and Highley, London.
Fr G Carpenter
