The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-03 00:00:00

Milton's House in Barbican.

This interesting relic of the poet Milton is now being
taken down to make way for the extension of the Metropo-
litan Railway from the Victoria-street station to Finsbury-
circus, and probably within the next few days will have
altogether disappeared. Of late years such parts of the
house as remained intact—namely, the study, the school-
room, and the kitchen—have been used for mercantile pur-
poses, and the part of it which faces Barbican has long been
a dyer's shop. It is known as No. 17 in the street, and is
situated a few paces from the north-east corner of Alders-
gate-street on the right hand, leading towards Finsbury-
square. It was here that Milton resided just prior to his
becoming Latin secretary to Cromwell, and about the time
of his reconciliation with his first wife, Mary Powell. He
was then about 37 years of age. "About this time (1645),"
wrote Dr. Johnson in his memoir of the poet, "he had
taken a large house in Barbican for the reception of scholars
—but the numerous relations of his wife, to whom ho
generously granted a refuge for a while,occupied his rooms.
In time, however, they went away, and the house again,
said his nephew Philips, now looked like a house of the
Muses only,though the accession of scholars was not great."
The schoolroom and study were a good way back,from the
present line of the street, and were probably selected by
Milton on that account, as he had previously chosen a house
in Aldersgate-street, as Johnson tells us, at the upper end
of a passage, that ho might avoid the noise. It is likely
to have been a house situate in a garden, of which there
were many handsome ones at that time in the parish of
Cripplegate, in which it stocd. All that remains of it
now are detached portions of the oak panelling with
which the schoolroom and study were lined, and remnants
of latticed windows, the walls being nearly razed to the
ground. In taking down the building a small coffin was
found embedded in one of the walls, containing what is said
to be the skeleton of a monkey in perfect preservation. BY
an agreeable coincidence, while the house of the poet of
"Paradise Lost" is being destroyed in a utilitarian ago, the
venerable church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, hard by, in
which his remains are interred, is undergoing a partial res-
toration. It is a very venerable and interesting fabric, being
upwards of 750 years old, having been founded in 1090 by
Alfrane, the first master of St. Bartholomew's hospital, and
Abbot of Nimes, in France. Besides
of Milton, it has a historic interest as
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the church in which the marriage of Oliver Cromwell was
solemnised, and in which the remains of Fox, the martyro•
logist, Speed, and many other worthies are interred. There,
too, the burial of Defoe is registered, although he was not
interred in the church or the adjacent cemetery, but in the
neighbourhood. The original structure was at first small,
but was at different times greatly enlarged, until at length,
in 1545, it was casually destroyed by fire. The present edi-
fice was then erected, and escaped the great fire of London
in 1666. It is therefore among the oldest of the churches
in the city of London, and is celebrated not more for the
ashes of distinguished persons which repose within its
walls as for itself, being a fine specimen of Gothic architec-
ture, richly adorned with monuments and many memorials
of antiquity, furnished with a peal of not less than 14 of the
finest bells, to which aro attached a set of chimes which play
every third:hour and vary every day. It has been recently
decorated with some handsome stained glass windows, the
gifts of old parishioners. In the adjacent cemetery are
some fine remains of the old wall of London, and part of an
ancient bastion.