John Clare is a very worthwhile subject for a Mudcat thread. He was a "peasant poet" who collected many folk songs and who published books containing hundreds of English folk tunes, as well as being a decent fiddle player himself. He was also an early environmental activist who catalogued the beginning of the destruction of his rural environment as the Industrial Revolution and injurious farming practices took hold. It could be that the ravages he saw going on around him contributed to his long-time mental ill-health.

A good read from 11 years ago in the Guardian about him: John Clare, the poet of the environmental crisis – 200 years ago by George Monbiot.

At least you can do links, Dick! ;-)

As a postscript, I noted that one of his incarcerations was at High Beach in Epping Forest, just a couple of miles from where I lived for a few years. There's a great pub there!