John Holland (poet)

John Holland (14 March 1794 – 28 December 1872) was an English poet, newspaper editor and writer on mining, botany, geology, topography and metallurgy.

Holland was born in a cottage in the grounds of the ancient Sheffield Manor in Yorkshire and initially trained by his father to follow him as a maker of optical instruments.

These eventually brought him to the notice of a local poet, James Montgomery, editor of the Sheffield Iris, who published both articles and poems of his in the paper, although commenting on the latter's "inaccuracies and imperfections" and remarking that "they would be twice as good if they were as short again."

Throughout his journalistic life, he wrote numerous works on botany, geology, local history and topography, in addition to biographies and sermons.

In the preface he confesses he is "neither a Geologist, a Collier, nor a Coal Merchant...", and prays for the reader's indulgence, until a more qualified author can undertake a similar survey.