author
R. O. (Robert Orde) Fenwick
A little-known early nineteenth-century satirist, R. O. Fenwick turned a fashionable literary target into a lively comic adventure. His 1809 poem The Goblin Groom playfully parodies Walter Scott’s Marmion with a fox hunt, supernatural touches, and a dramatic finish on Flodden Field.
1 Audiobook
The Goblin Groom: a Tale of Dunse
by R. O. (Robert Orde) Fenwick
About the author
Robert Orde Fenwick (c. 1786–1855) was the son of a Northumbrian landowner and an amateur writer associated with the literary and social world of the early nineteenth century. Contemporary commentary described him as an accomplished fellow satirist with a humorous, entertaining mind, writing under the nickname “Augustus.”
Fenwick’s best-known work, The Goblin Groom; A Tale of Dunse, appeared in Edinburgh in 1809. The poem was written as a parody of Walter Scott’s Marmion, which had been published the previous year, and follows a comic fox hunt across Flodden Field, the site of the famous 1513 battle. Available library records suggest that Fenwick may not have published another work.