Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

66

has given place to a much larger structure; but a room which tradition has fixed on as Pope's Study " forms a part of the present building. The tree at some distance from the house, under which he is said to have been accustomed to compose, and which bore the inscription " Here Pope sung,' was blown down several years ago. There are other noticeable places and pleasant walks, but they have been already referred to generally, in speaking of Windsor Forest, within the precincts of which they chiefly lie.

On the Eton side of the river is Slough, in which is the house that was occupied by Herschel, the eminent astronomer, and after his death by his equally eminent son. Near Slough is Upton, whose venerable and deserted church and quiet churchyard are often said to have suggested the imagery of Gray's famous Elegy: but that honour is more justly claimed for the churchyard of Stoke-Poges, some two or three miles north of Upton. Stoke is altogether intimately associated with the memory of Gray. In early life he spent his College vacations there, and as long as his mother lived he was a frequent resident in the house in which she dwelt with her sister; and there he wrote a good deal of his poetry. The house, known as West-End Cottage, is still standing, but it has been altered from the "compact box of red-brick with sash windows," which he describes, into a smart modern-looking villa. Of Stoke ManorHouse, the scene of his Long Story,' only a portion of one of the wings remains. The churchyard, as has been said, is unquestionably the spot that has the fairest claim to the Elegy written in a Country Churchyard:'-and it is the appropriate

6

6

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][merged small]

resting-place of the remains of the poet. Burnham is another beautiful locality with which the name of Gray is associated; the reader of his letters will hardly need to be reminded of his lively notice of Burnham Common and Beeches. The common and the almost unrivalled beech-woods remain as when he described them, and appear as lonely now as then, and even more venerable. Burnham is about midway between Stoke and Hedsor, and, except for its connexion with the name of Gray, would have been more properly mentioned when at the latter place-if mentioned at all.*

We will now return to the Thames. The best and pleasantest way to pursue our ramble is to pass through the Playing-fields of Eton College,† and take the field-path to Datchet. To float along the stream between Eton and Datchet bridges is pleasant enough, but the ordinary path on the right bank of the river is very wearisome to the pedestrian, whose view on that side is closed by the monotonous park wall, which extends the whole distance, while on the opposite side there is little in the level banks to relieve the attention.

No weariness will be felt in a stroll through the

*By some mistake of writer or printer, in the notice of the neighbourhood of Hedsor (i. 196), Waller's residence at Beaconsfield is called Hull Court, instead of Hall Barn.

†There have been many changes in Eton College since the brief notice of it appeared in the first volume. The New Buildings for the Collegers (not Oppidans, as was written by a slip of the pen), including a handsome school library, have been completed, and the greatly improved system of examinations brought into full exercise; improvements of the highest value, and conferring great honour on the liberality of the College authorities. The Chapel has been admirably restored: and, lastly, the Montem has been abolished.

66

College Playing-fields. Beautiful are they in themselves, and beautiful in their associations. Over the broad smooth meadows numerous ancient elms stand apart in solitary grandeur or ranged in formal groves and avenues. The spires and antique towers " of the College, more or less concealed by the thick foliage, crown the westward prospect. Alongside the fields wanders the "hoary Thames his silver-winding way;" and beyond, in all its matchless majesty, rise the stately turrets of Windsor Castle. The fine manly boys recall the memory of those old Etonians who have figured prominently on the wider playing-fields of the world; and make one think of Gray's poetry -perhaps also of Charles Lamb's good saying: in either case we shall not fail to regard little victims" with interest-if it had been possible not to feel interest for them on their own account.

66

"the

The field-path to Datchet will afford some pretty glimpses across the river, with Windsor Castle rising from among the noble trees of the Home Park; it will also yield to the bookish pedestrian some recollections. Falstaff's misadventure in the buck-basket at Datchet Mead does not, however, as the name might suggest, belong to this side of the river. "The muddy ditch at Datchet Mead, close by the Thames' side," into which the Fat Knight, who has contributed so largely to the world's stock of enjoyment, was so unceremoniously thrown while "glowing hot, like a horse-shoe hissing hot," and where he had been drowned but that the shore was shelvy and shallow "-that notable spot was on the opposite bank, near the end of Datchet Lane.

The recollections connected with this part of the

river are chiefly piscatorial. Within the whole extent of angling memory, or the reach of tradition, has the Thames about Datchet been a favourite haunt of Thames fishermen. Here it was that honest Izaak was wont to fish for "a little trout called a samlet or skegger-trout, that would bite as fast and freely as minnows, and catch twenty or forty of them at a standing."* He used to fish here along with his famous friend, "that undervaluer of money, the late Provost of Eton College, Sir Henry Wotton; a man," continues the inimitable and kind-hearted old gossip, "with whom I have often fished and conversed; a man, whose foreign employments in the service of this nation, and whose experience, learning, wit, and cheerfulness, made his company to be esteemed one of the delights of mankind: this man, whose very approbation of angling were sufficient to convince the modest censurer of it, this man was also a most dear lover, and a frequent practiser of the art of angling." It was on one of the occasions, when they were thus fishing here together, that "Sir Henry, when he was beyond seventy years of age, made that description of a part of the present pleasure that possessed him, as he sat quietly in a summer's evening on a bank a-fishing

"While stood his friend with patient skill
Attending of his trembling quill;"

which that friend repeats as a proof of " the peace, and patience, and calm content, that did cohabit in the cheerful heart of Sir Henry Wotton ;" and which he calls" a description of the spring, which † Ib. chap. i.

* Complete Angler, chap. iv.

« ZurückWeiter »