West Country Poets

GEORGE LYDE (1601-1673)

This clergyman, who was born at Berry Pomeroy, Totnes, Devon, and who held the Vicarage of Widdecombe-in-the-Moor during a long life, is principally known in connection with the extraordinary accident by lightning which occurred to his church in 1638, of which he published an account in verse, that obtained enormous circulation.  PRINCE curiously says of him:  'He was the sixth of ten sons, each of whom had no less than five sisters.'  His life was quite uneventful, except for the singular visitation in his parish, which made him so well known.  He was in the pulpit at the time of the occurrence, and narrowly escaped.  Although so noted at the time, the composition was but poor poetry. - J.R.C.
*Prince, p.569

Transcribed by Sandra Windeatt from: Wright, W. H. K.,(1896) West-Country Poets: Their Lives and Works. London: Elliot Stock, pp.48-51