The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-05-03

though still the most miserable, years of his
Daleful slavery to q deadly drug. Beside
him, IN this wrath procession Of
INTELLECTUAL GENT
OF the lake region, appears that one who of
all English men of letters existed in the
dream-life madness of opium, Thomas de
Quincy. Down there in one of Keswick's
cottages Shelley passed, with his girl-wfe
Harriet. the only happy hours of his unfor-
tunate life. Sturdy, iconoelaste, yet true
and Christian If hereto, Harriet Martineau
stands bright and clear in the picture
among The blossoms of Ambleside Good
Felicia Hemans, with tnge of sadness in
her patient face, Is near. Sunny-hearteG,
gTeat-brained Professor Wilson CHRISTOPHER
NOrthl with his huge frame and benign
face, as II the very spirit Of the lovely re-
gion Shdne from his kindly eyes, makes the
way SUMMER for his strong, sure tread,
With him l see another one, firm, calm, ten
der, nOble-One who through his labor at
Rugby swept forever from the British edu-
cational system tbs rule of brutality and
dtead-noble DIR. Arnold, and that one
WHO Is nrSt and last, whom your eyes of
fancy calls from the past to confront you
wherever yeur human eyes may rest, is
w ordSworth, Interpreter of nature to man.
Descending into old Keswick, this ever
recurring influence of Identification of
everything connected with the lovely re-
glon with this now silent though never
VoleeleSs host, is strong upon you. They
walk with you through these quaint and
narrow streets. They lived, or lodged. OF
were guests, IN the many-gabled, trellised
and tlny-paned houses you See Men like
Scott, Fitzgerald and Tennyson have eaten
at the same tables, and dreamed of the
nature-gloTies here in the same chambers
where You End food and rest. Through all
this loving train Of reflection the pleasing
recognition OF the Keswck of to-day steals
over you. 1t is not much different than IN
the times when 500 pack-ponies passed ana
'repassed with their CumbriaE mountain
traffic. Ii is just bit newer and brighter
in places on account of the thr0ngs that
come in summer You will find plenty of
houses. with legends, 10 iron set in lintels,
IN carvings on Oaken eelling-beams. or
wrought in ancient stucco, that tell of their
building in the fifteenth, sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries Some of the
most curious old Vineyards of England are
here. And as to old. old folk, | never saw
50 many in any town ancient or new. | sat
upon the coping Of the Greta Bridge with
one John Rigg. He is two years older than
this century. He had wandered, he said,
when a lad of twelve, with SOuthey and the
first COleridge, over all the fels and through
all the dales about Keswick; ana had seen
them ali, from SOuthey TO Wordsworth.
come and sing and gO-into the churchyardS
y
other lands; as anywhere away from Cum
brian shadow and shine seemed to his dim
old thought
Not more than stones throw from where
we sat, on o gentle eminenee in the northern
edge of KesWick, stands Greta Hall,
S0uthey's old home. 1t is now occupied by
Mr.. John Kennedy, gentleman, and owned
by
A MAIDEN LADY OF RIPE AGE,
And wealth, named Gibson. Just ninety
years ago, Coieridge. who had occupied
Greta Hall, wrote S0uthey inviting him
to share his home with him, describing
the place as follows: "Our house stands
IS one hetd and an enormous garden,
niRe-tentEs Of which is nursery garden.
Behind the house is an orchard and a small
wood on steep slope, at the foot of
which is the river GTeta, which winds
round and catches the evening light in
front OF the house. In front we have a
giant camp-an eucamped army OF tent
ike mountains which, by an inverted
arch, give a view OF another vale. On
our right the lovely vale and the wedge
shaped lake of BasSeuthwaite; and on our
left DeTWentWateT and L0dOre (Jhe falls
afTerwaTd made famous by S0uthey's
playful rhyme for his childTen) full in
view, ana the fantastic mountains of BOr-
rOwdale, Behind is the massive Skiddaw,
smooth, green, high, with two chasmS and
tent-like ridge in the larger" This descrip-
ton is now as true of Greta Hall and its
scenic surroundings as when it was written.
The -beeches surrounding the mansion are
more majestic; the quaint, square, two
stOfied, bay-windOWed old place may be
trifie grayer; but the rocks elamOr and cav
about the OYerarchlng trees, the Greta sings
over its graceful bend Of shadows, and Que
can almost Imagine that up there in that
second-stOry library some one must stand
hrrr an nF sha ha
and drink IN the glory of the DrOspec; to re-
yeatit again 10 men, Just as then.
Turning from the old home of Southey.
the eye follows a winding, struggling half
village. half country street, and Is arrested
by the huge square tower and the low wide
walls Of one of the oldest churches in En-
gland. Ii Is nearly mile from heSWick
town, but the heart and feet turn instinct
lively TO il. CTOssthWaite Church il is called,
because its patron, Saint kentigern, here
first set UP the cross on this very spot, then
a. " thwaite" or woOd-clearlng Of Derwe emit
vale, in the year 553. That was nearly 1910
years ago. Portions Of its walls are more
than 1000 years old IL is rich in
conservation crosses, in a wonderful
font given for the rest of the soul
of Sir Thomas of Eskhead, in quaint old
traeerIes, in efigies ana memorial brasses.
A great Earl lies beneath its chancel
floor, aud a knight whose foot was never
cut of his stirrup sleeps within IFS walls.
Its choir has fifty members; its vicar,
Rawnsley, is poet; its octogenarian yetger,
good old John Beckett, can recall to you
more pleasant memories of CoIerdge. of
whom ne says, "If t on'y kept aw. right
he waur cleverest O. lott" of Southey. of
Shelley and of WadSyorth himself. than
can be found within the lids of books, and
it is visited often by the royal family. But
for all these things none of US are pilgrims
here. Within its hushed aisles, in marble.
lies, and beside its graz I'D walls is the
grave Of Robert Southey, that poet whose
Life to heaven vowed
Through a long life and pure"
eF5cy,7yTfoBr 1901 /