1885 Manuscript Copy of a Jean Inglow Poem, signed by Hastings Mayor John Howell

On offer is a handwritten copy of a poem by the British poet, Jean Inglow (1820-1897) but not in her writing. It is dated 1885 and signed by John Howell (c1825-1893) on the bottom right. 

The page contains two stanza's from this Inglow poem - A Cottage in a Chine.

We know they music made
In heaven, ere man's creation;
But when God threw it down to us that strayed It dropt with lamentation,
And ever since doth its sweetness shade With sighs for its first station.
Its joy suggests regret— Its most for more is yearning;
And it brings to the soul that its voice hath met,
No rest that cadence learning,
But a conscious part in the sighs that fret
Its nature for returning.

BIO NOTES:

John Howell was the founder of John Howell & Son the leading building and engineering company in Hastings, Sussex in the 1860s. The firm engineered churches and other public buildings in the area to the designs of innovative architects, including Holy Trinity Church in 1860 to the design of Samuel Sanders Teulon and St. Johns Church, Hollington in 1865-1868 for Edward Alexander Wyon. John Howell Jr (1851-1903) constructed the old Gothic Revival Hastings Grammar School building to the design of Jeffery and Skiller in 1883. Howell Senior was a campaigner on behalf of the Liberal party and held a prominent political position in the town from the 1860s to the 1880s. He came to Hastings as a fatherless boy and was the Mayor of Hastings by 1878. 

Poem is written on one page, 4to. Dated and signed by Howell at bottom right. Overall Fair+.