The Press.
London, England, 1857-01-17 00:00:00

66

Poets and Statesmen: their Homes and Flaunts
in the Neighbourhood of Eton and Windsor.
By William Dowling, Esq., of the Inner

Temple, Barrister-at-Law. London : Wil-

hams.
IT is no wonder that men of imagination and
genius should have resided in the neighbour-
hood of Windsor and Eton. How is it pos-
sible to be insensible to the diversified beau-
ties of that favoured district? The imperial
castle of Windsor, its architectural mag-
nificence, its unequalled situation, and its
grand historical associations ; form a combina-
tion of attractive delights, such us few places
in the civilised world can surpass. And then
the beauty of Eton, its shape' and its fields,
the fine and majestic expanse of the Thames,
the unsurpa-scd beauty of the wooded heights
of Cliefden, the stately splendour of Stoke-
park, the wonderful view from Cooper's-hill,
at the foot of which lie the plain of Runny-
mede and Magna Charta Island ! No marvel
that men of literature—the poet, the orator,
the historian, the lawyer—should have de-
lighted in the neighbourhood of Windsor as
their dwelling-place. It certainly is a novel
and pleasing idea to group men of renown
together, as it were a family in their country
residence. It is one link more, and a solid
one, to unite together the glorious brother-
hood of genius and learning.

The first name in the volume before us is
that of Milton, who lived for six years. after
he left Cambridge, at Horton. It is a village
about; a mile to the east of Datchet. The
poet's house was standing till the year 1795,
when a man (how are we to describe him ?)
pulled it down to build a new one on the site,
as if he might not have bought a site any-
where else ! The single consolation we have
is this, that he ruined himself—or, at all
events, did himself irretrievable damage—by
his sin against poetical sentiment and natural
feeling. There is, or was, at least, a few years
ago, a square, ugly, brick building in the
garden, which was called Milton's pigeon
house ; and at the back of the house there
used to be, but we suppose old ago has now
made away with it, a piece of the stump of an
apple tree, under which, when it was a tree,
tradition recorded that Milton used to sit and
write poetry. Wo have gazed on that stump
with more veneration of heart than Friar ever
bestowed on the most precious relic of his
patron saint. Close to Milton's house you
get a beautiful view of the eastern side of
Windsor Castle. The poet composed the
" Comus," " Penseroso," and " Allegro," at
Horton. Doubtless he was gazing on Windsor
Castle and forest when he wrote—

Tow'rs and battlements it lees
llosom'd high in tufted trees.

It is remarkable that all four of the poets to
whom memoirs are given in this volume were
politicians as well as poets—Milton, Cowley,
aid Denham; but, then, they lived in
an age when it. was scarcely possible to avoid
being dragged into the vortex of politics.
Cowley's house at Chertsey is still standing
In the sketch which Mr. Dowling has given of
Cowley's character, we are rather surprised
that he has not referred to his powers as a
prose miter. If Cowley was not a first-rate
poet, he was undoubtedly a first-rate writer of
prose. His essay "On the Government of
Oliver Cromwell" is, in our judgment, one
of the most magnificent compositions in the
language.
Pope passed the earlier and, as we take it,
much the happier• years of his life at Binfield,
a beautiful neighbourhood to the west of
Windsor. His house is still standing. His
friend. Lord Bolingbroke, lived at Dawley, the
grounds of which are now intersected by the
Great %Vestern Railway, close to West
Drayton. The poetical rank and genius of
Pope has been so fixed and determined in the
judgment of men, that it would be superfluous
to say anything on the subject. We may,
however, remark that Mr. Dowling merely
mentions Pope's "Imitations of Horace,"
witnout continent, in the catalogue of his
works. TO our minds they are to be classed
amongst the very best of his works.
There is a family monument of the Denhams,
now on a staircase in the modern building of
Egham Church, in which the poet figures as a

THE PRESS.

child dressed in a scarlet cloak. The family
house has been pulled down. Dennam's
verses have thrown a poetical halo round
Cooper's-hill ; and Cooper's-hill, from its ex-
treme beauty and celebrity, has assisted to
elevate the poetical powers of Denham.
Mr. Dowling states that Waller's house at
Hall Barn, near Beaconsfield, " appears to
" have remained in the possession of the
" Wailers until the end of the last century "
The truth is, the present lineal descendant
and heir of the poet sold the house to the late
Sir Gore Ouseley, after whose death it passed
into other hands. It was sold about twenty-
five years ngo. Waller is buried in the church-
yard at Beaconsfield. .But a greater mart than
he lies within the church—Burke. His house,
" Gregories," stood on the opposite, or northern,
side of the town of Beaconsfield. It was burnt
down—not without some suspicion of having
been destroyed intentionally—forty-three years
ago. Burke lies buried under the pew next
in front of the reading-desk ; and an oval slab
over the south door of the church recites the
name and day of the death of this wonderful
man. And that reminds us of the extraordi-
nary and unintelligible fact, that no public
monument has ever been raised to Burke.
Public monuments commemorate third and
fourth rate naval and military men ; West-
minster Abbey E: warms with statues in honour
of men who were mere mediocrities ; but no
testimony of public honour and gratitude
commemorates the man who, in the marvel-
lous combination of depth of philosophic
thought, sublimity of imagination, extent of
knowledge, variety of erudition, fertility of
rhetoric, almost superhuman intuition of the
causes and consequences of political action,
and unrivalled richness of imagery, never was
equalled in the English Senate—never was sur-
passed in any legislative assembly in the world.
In the statue gallery of famous men now being
erected in the lobbies of the House of Com-
mons, is no pedestal to be surmounted by
Burke? Is Burke not worthy to fill a niche
in Westminster Abbey or St. Paul's ? We
trust this charge of ingratitude will not be
brought with justice much longer against the
British nation.
But to return to the volume before us. The
sketches of Fox, Canning, Lord Grenville,
and Lord Wellesley, are given 1% ith great
vivacity and interest. We have, however, no
room for detailed notice or extracts. But we
have not yet alluded to a remarkable feature
of the volume. It is illustrated by nineteen
engravings in steel, by E. Radclyffe, from
drawings made for the work by C W. Radclyffe.
These engravings aro specimens of extreme
delicacy, taste, and beauty; they are, indeed,
exquisite works of art. Mr. Williams, the
publisher, some few years ago, produced a
singularly beautiful volume, containing the
poems of Gray, prefaced by a beautiful Spen-
serian poem by Moultrie, with a memoir by
Mitford, and illustrations executed by the
same artists who have so gratefully adorned
the present work. The two volumes together
form a very delightful addition to the library
or drawing-room. The illustrations are by no
means mere unmeaning appendages to the
printed matter ; they do in reality and
in truth illustrate what they beautify ; nor are
the literary sketches at all unworthy of the
art by which they are commended and em-
bellished.

Wirbylower. By the Author of " The House of
Elmore." London : Hurst and Blackett.
AMONG our books this week we have had
one of the best novels it has lately been our
fortune to meet with. In noticing " The House
of Elmore," some months back, we spoke of it
as a crude production, but displaying great
promise, and containing passages of marked
ability. It showed an original mind, from
whose matured and disciplined power much
might be expected ] " Wildflower] is a
great advance upon that production. The plot
is ingenious and novel, and the characters are
sketched with a masterly hand. " Martha Badge"
is not inferior in her way to the " Old Tiff " of
Mrs. Stowe. She is the faithful servant of an
old office-keeper in a Government department,
and when he Idies she takes charge of his
grandchild " Wildflower "—whose real name, I

SATURDAY)

Anice }fern, would have been a more appro-
priate title for the book—and cheerfully enters
an almshouse, that her savings may be de-
voted to the child. The contrast between her
stern appearance and rigid manner, and the
warmth of her affection, is highly effective.
When the child is ill, Martha is almost wild
with despair
If she goes, she goes," cried Martha, flinging up her
arms as she trudged back to the office, " I shan't believe
in any good, in anything, in anybody."
She looked up at the dark sky with an appealing gaze ;
"0 take my old life, and spare this little flower."
This kind of writing is always touching. It
is natural, or it would not affect so strongly.
It strikes a chord which makes sweet music
in every heart; and it is so lovely, that it in-
vests with grace and beauty the most repulsive
shape in which humanity can appear. It is
to the modern masters of fiction that we owe
the most striking developments of the senti-
ment. With many admirable points, the book
is not free from the grave charge urged against
novels in general, that they are not true toilife.
This truth may be of two, kinds, inward and
outward ; truth as regards the emotions of the
mind and heart, and truth as regards the ordi-
nary course of events and actions. The first
kind of truth this fiction of "Wildflower" pos-
sesses. Suppose the characters to be placed
in such positions as the author places them
in, and their conduct is natural ; but the
positions themselves have not the probability
of the ordinary course of events. It seems
to us very unlikely that Mr. Stanmore could
have been thrown into such contact with
Avice as is here represented, or that many of
the leading circumstances of the tale could
have occurred. How far this kind of impro-
bability, which pervades most fictions, exer-
cises an injurious effect, may be subject for
discussion. Generally we think the effect of
fiction which tritely represents the play of
natural affections, healthy. In modern times
the female portion of society have advanced
much more rapidly in moral sentiment and
purity of feeling than the male. We do not
know that men are much better than they
were in the days of Bluff King Hal, but there
can be no doubt of the vast improvement in
female character ; and perhaps this improve-
may be partly traced to the gentle influences
which stories of the affections are calculated
to cherish in the female heart. The moral
tone of " Wildflower" is elevated, and many
of the passages are of striking beauty. We
read it from beginning to end with pleasure.

Who's Who in 1857. Edited by C. H. Oakes.
London : Bailey Brothers.
THIS is a neat and portable little almanac, which
every " town man" and every respectable family
ought to possess. It gives the fullest information
on the aristocracy, the Parliament, the public offices
the universities, and all places of business. No one
who owns this little volume need ever be at a loss to
find out all about anybody who is " anybody "
throughout the metropolis. We recommend to the
author the preparation of a companion volume, to be
entitled " What's What !"

The Ear in Health awl Disease. By William Harvey,
F.R.C.S., Surgeon to the Royal Dispensary for
Disemei of the Ear. Second Edition. London:
Renshaw.

WE are pleased to see a seccnd edition of this
admirable work. It forms a most welcome acces-
sion to our stock of knowledge on the subject, and
has extensive claims on the gratitude of all persons
afflicted with that most disagreeable ailment, deaf-
ness All affections of the ear are most irritating
and depressing, and in Mr. Harvey's work will be
found, as we have before observed, all that medical
or surgical science has yet discovered iu the way of
alleviation.

Dotts Parliamentary Companion for 1857. London :

Whittaker.
THIS little book has existed now for exactly a quarter
of a century, and during that time has attained such
a reputation as to make any comment at the present
time superfluous. During the twenty-five years of
its existence, we read in the preface that " nine
" Administrations have been summoned to the
" Councils of the Sovereign, six Parliaments have
" been elected, and five have been dissolved." Many
imitators have sprung up, but all have been infected
by a political spirit, and failed consequently in
obtaining equal support.

6.