The Elk advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Elk Co., Pa.) 186?-1868, 1867-04-11
Seletted St(isttllanp
From The Peoples Magazine.
AN EDITORS HOLIDAY.

1t was seven o'clock and sunny
morning when [ turned my back on
the honeysuckle and rose covered porch,
beneath whose pleasant shade sat Polly
and Horny, sedately eating their currauts
and cherries fresh with the dew, which
always adds delicious favour to fruit
gathered and eaten before breakfast -
The tempting red punches ana rosy lips
reminded me of that charming line of
Tennyson's-
Maud with the sweet purse mouth, when
my father dangled the grapes
And | thought the picture was a no
less charming one in which the actors
were both children, ond one of them had
his battered staaw hat stuck all around
with clover and wind flowers and ripe
grasses, by the tasteful little hand of his
tiny sister. With hurley " Goodbye,
Horny! goodbye, Polly, my lamb !" 1
strobe away to meet the iron.horse,
having a mile to walk across our breezy
common, and less than twenty minutes
to do it in. But Polly--irrepressible
Polly-is not to be defrauded of her
dues. Out of the porch, currants and
cherries forgotten, across the forbidden
lawn (thus early in the morning), and
along the winding path, now hidden by
the shrubs, now in full view, with hair
and ribbons streaming, she flies, scream.
ing after " Papa" So few precious
moments are lost Ono, not lost, but
stamped upon the memory with an added
brightncss), }, while the envied kiss " is
hastily given, and then l depart in
peace for Wraysbury, in quest Of an
Editors Holiday"
And why an " Editors Holiday ?"
and why "Wraysbury?" Because an
editors holiday always means some kind
OF acorh which may conduce to the
amusement or instruction of his readers !;
and at the distance of a mile, more or
less, from Wraysbury, Is situated the
parish church of Horton, memorable
for its connection with the history of
Milton. 1t was to Horton that Millions
parents retired in the decline of life, and
from thence the poet dates much of bis
correspondence in the interval between
632 and 1898. 1t was there, in 1857,
that his mother died, and there, imme-
Giately in front of the chancel, she lies
buried. 1t was in his new home at
Horton, after leaving college, that our
immortal poet made that intimate ac-
quaintance with Nature to which his
minor poems are indebted for their es-
sential charms. Here he wrote his
Sonnet TO the Nightingale, his incom-
parable companion pieces, the Allegro
and Ienseroso, his Arcades, and his
Comus. Reader, if the first three of
these pieces are not fresh in your men,
ory, take your volume of Milton, and
having filed your imagination with the
"sweet images Of nature they suggest,
tell me if could have turned my short
holiday to better account than by visit.
ing the rural scenes which inspired
them, and if my friend the artist could
have found a prettier subject for his
pnncil within the same distance of
London.
Leaving Wraysbury Station, and pas
sing over a rustic bridge spanning the
dark waters Of the Colne, we find our
selves on a level road which runs white
before US, with hawthorn hedge and
broad shallow ditch on either side, nearly
at tar os the eye can reach. Already,
perhaps, we are in the footsteps of Mil
ton, for there can be no doubt that
these wide shallow bitches, almost chok.
ed with water plants and rushes, are of
ancient date; and if SO, no important
change, or change at all, can have taken
place in tie roads and foot paths. On
the left are seen, at intervals between
the trees, 4" the towers and battlements
of Windsor Castle, which are alluded to
as feature of the. landscape in the Al
lcgro. The Scotch thistle and various
umbellifcrous plants, Millelolium and
1" Jack in the hedge" Cookies and PIN
pernels, grow abundantly by the road,
side and on either hand stretch the
rich fiat pastures of Buckinghamshire,
bordered with pollard wythys and Mil
toms hedge-row elms." A pleasant
saunter of about quarter of an hour
brings us to where a cross road reveals
some signs of village, so hidden from
view, however, that we require the as
surance of countryman that Horton
Is all along bere," before proceeding ..on |
our way with confidence. In a few
minutes more, after passing the Five
Bells and the adjacent smithy on the
lett of the road, and handsome lodge
on the right, we find ourselves opposite
the ivy-clad church. Farther on still |
we come to fine old elm in the middle
Of an open space where three roads meet,
and though the houses have to be look,
ed for in the hooks and corners around.
there is evidence enough that this is the
grcnd sguare-shall we call it ?-of the
village of Horton. For a mile further
the road again runs white and straight
to Colnbrook and having resolved to
n Il IL