New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-05-30
THE RECORD OF FIFTY YEARS
"REMINISCENCES OF A JOURNALIST.
By CHARLES T. coNGDoN'
y XVI
WINDSOR AND STOKE POGIS.

XVI
WINDSOR AND STOKE PoGIs.
n PLEASANT HoLIDAY-wINDsoR cAsTLE-THE AL
pRkr MEMORIAL CHAPEL-THE GINGEk-bHEAO
sosooI OF ARcHITEoTURR-THE TOMB OF
GRAY-ILLUsTRATIoEs OF THE RLEGY WRIT
TEN IN COUNTRY CHURcHYARD.
I am not sure how many of my readers VIII
care to 20 with me but tired OF tne LatIo anu
roar and the rather strepitOus urbanlty OF Lon
don, resolved, one morning ana nne in .uag
inc with only three showers before noon 1t was,
that would make little pilgrimage TO otoA9
Pogis, taking Windsor Castle on my way IY;t Il
did not care much for the royal RESIDENCE SaS
Vonld have been unclvil to the Muse OF ni so
m have neglected It altogether. 1t did no naIm
TO see the terrace upon which George III I meu
tated upon mutton 1 and wen mad to take
look ut the State apartments, anu az VlIS
fne specimens there OF the W VOTES 90 to
Tandyk and RubeDs: l went, OF course 10
Raotber example of the passion tor MAKING MAKING
filings trim and smart which WHITES English
notions of restoration. It is color, color every
where, with hardly bit OF fe9 94 f giayf
md for his Cardinal WOlsey, neither OF whom
CHANGED 10 be buried there. After the DEAN OF
he Prince ConsOrt, it was Furnished up, ana
made brilliant and magnltceDtIy modern IA
memory Of that RersOndaSe TbsTe is NO end
colored marbles There is quite a supernulty
Of brass. alv avs kept in state OF the hlgnest
bolish, 1t is in the same style OF decoration
which makes the Keble Church IN OXI0ru more
like an opera house than tempe OF tle lRing
God. There is a great deal of the pretty, put
nothing of the grand. The generation winch
made a toy shop of the fine old Temple ChuFcn
In London, has not spared other monuments O Of
fine storied past could not help thinking OF
moor Scaliger when the hOusemaid secured MS
shield, and gave pregnant warning that resto-
Eation might be ruin. / am not myself an archI-
tect much more scientific than Mr.; PecksnlI1I,
who put a window into young ChuzzleWlt,s
iiesien for church, and spoiled it; but think
can understand that mere glitter is not gran
1eur If one wishes to know to What deplOr,
able condition the artists hand ana eye ana
sense of structure have come IN Engianu, nc
shonld see the Albert Memorial at South kens-
Spgton, which 60 little out OF my way 10
speak of, as / remember ia gigantic GIN
crack. It is dreadful mixture. There is very
little of the Prince, and great deal or
nageant. il is o Madame Tussaud exhibition
mt of doors, and to be seen gratis. There is a
mob of statues. The painters, the sc9lptOrsS,
especially the musicians, are reglmented IN al
directions, at the corners, on the top at tne
Sottom. eyerywbere! The aforesaid bottom is
Greek. The summit is GOthic-but then there is
$ plenty of color, and of brazen- gold. People
90 to see this snowy thing in crowds; Iencoun-
tered In the vicinity many of my beloved co1n-
tTymen toiling up the steps and coming lei
surely down, aMurray's Modern London" or
a sixpenny guide-pamphlet In hand When
we begin to build such wonders may some
good genius save us from seGonqfha H gotles
memorial of some future President, may we not
give it up to the gamut, as it he had been cam,
poser of music, or to the chisel, as II he had
manufactured statues, or to the easel, as III ne
had smeared canvasses in his timel
have uncOnsciOusly got back to London, at
least as far back as KensingtOn, when by this
time we should have been well on our way to
Stoke Pogs, where rest the ashes OF Thomas
I5ray. 1t was a comfort as came out of the
Albert Memorial Chapel, and reJOlned nature
upon the Terrace, to mutter to myself those
Hne lines which not hundred years ago every
body knew by heart: "The boast OF heraldry,
Che pomp of power, And all that beauty, all
that wealth ere gave, Await alike tn inevitable
hour. The paths of glory lead but to the
grave,n--a verse which sto4nd 1t not bad t6
remember as in the Chapel Royal Lgazed upoI
the helmets, aud banners, and insignia oil many
defunct knight of the Garter L wondered L
posterity would care much Tor GeorSe IN
portraits / had just been gazing at J. | was sur
That a good many would remember the reclus
scholar of Pembroke Hall. the Cambridge Pro
fessor of Modern History, who cared for nothing
but ancient history VINO projected tw t,nt
who spent his life In commenting upon Plat
and studying botany, and in writing letters t.
his friend Mason and who with real tOucl
Of Pindar in his natuEe vas content 1tt 20 n6d
unpoetical govt in the stomach, leaving beh1nt
him CARLOAD of memoranda, and fifty frag
ments of fine things; and yet |, a stranger from
far distant shore, was about to make llttI
pilgrimage to his tomb. and all flor the tsake o
that Elegy Written in Country Churchyard.
which has 80 held its own while hundred
buIkier things have been forgotten SO
turned away from Elton College, where, " re
So made the best of my way to Slough Sta
ton, regardless of FrOgmOre, where lived "Olt
CHARLOTTE cOnsort of Farmer, George,
and of Beaconsfield, where lived Edmund
Burke, though the name is now to he associated
with one OF very different character ant
calibre. 7 didn't even think until aterwar(
that here 1t was that the great astronomer Her
schell gazed at the stars, and perhaps dlsc0yeret
Georgium Sldus. l found myself at SlOugl
Station, and one mile away was Stoke POgis
and the church and the churchyGd:
What pleased me most was 20 feel That wa
literally in the country. l took my way acrOs
green meadows, through sequestered lanes, anC
by the thiclshedge rows, following the genera
direction which had received and knew, II
time, the friendly spire would show INT
the precise point which was seeking. 1t wa
q delicious afternoon with skies OF the bluest
full of clouds which were of the whitest; and
was pleased to notice as went on that the SUI
was westering and that the twilight might flint
me among the old graves. There was such al
absolute quiet after the din OF London, that al
the inhabitants of the hamlet might, for all TIL
noise, have been In the graves which was ap
preaching Soon the well-knOwn tower which
had seen in hundred different pictures sbOwet
itself not far away, and | clapped my hand
as / saw it, welcoming it as an old friend
Striking across field of wheat by q worn foot
path, absolutely seeing nobody and meeting no
body, so complete was the rural seGlqslOn
hardly deigning to look at the great and un
pleasant monument to the poet which is erected
4 In Stoke Park, / was soon where the rude fore
fathers of the hamlet were sleeping, and unde
the shadow of the belfry from which the curfeV
once tolled the knell Of parting day.
The church itself is an interesting but no
remarkable edIfce, old, small, and sOldly bull
In style common enough in England. Moth
ing' aoweye CSuo Of O1 tbe Ot scene NJ VeS
humility Of the edi6ce has prOpriety Of it