William Howitt

William Howitt (1792–1879) was an English writer, born at Heanor in Derbyshire and brought up a Quaker. He wrote widely on country life, travel and history, and with his wife Mary Howitt produced many volumes of verse and prose.

His best-known poem is “The Departure of the Swallow”, a short lyric that Stedman placed among the English song writers in A Victorian Anthology (1895).