Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1891-05-30

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makes the way SUMMER for his
strong, sure tread. With him I see an
other one, firm, calrn, tender, noble,
one who through his labor at Rugby,
swept forever from the British educa-
tional system the rule OF brutality and
dread. noble DIR. Arnold. And that one
who Is first and last, whom your eyes OF
fancy calls from the past to confront
you wherever your human eye may
rest, is Wordsworth. interpreter CT ma
ture to man.
Descending into old Keswick, this
ever-recurring influence of identifca-
tion OF everything connected with tho
lovely region with this now silent
though never voiceless host. is strong
upon you. They walk with you
through these quaint and narrow
streets. They lived. or lodged, or were
guests, In the many gablod. trellised and
tiny paned houses you see. Men like
Scott, Fitzgerald and Tennyson have
eaten at the Same tables, and dreamed
OF the nature-glories here in the same
chambers where you find food and rost.
Though all this loving train OF refec-
tion the pleasing recognition OF the
Keswick of today steals over you 1t is
not much different than in the times
when 500 pack-ponics passed and re-
passed. with their Cumbrian mountain
traffic. 1t is just Bit newer and
brighter in places on account OF tho
throngs that come in summer. You
will Fl nd plenty OF houses, with legends,
In iron set in lintels, in carvings on
oaken ceiling-beams, or wrought in
ancient stucco, that tell OF their
building in the 18th 10th aud
nth centuries. Somo OF tho
most curious old inn-yards OF England
are here. And as to old, old folk. |
never saw SO many In any town ancient
or new. ! sat upon the coping of tho
Greta bridge with one John Rigg. lie
is two years older than this century lie
had wandered he said, when a lad OF IL,
with Southey and the first Coleridge,
over all the fels and through all the
dales about Keswick; and had seen
them all. from Southey TO Wordsworth,
come and sing and go--into tho church
yards of Crossthwaite and Grasmere, OF
away TO other lands; as anywhere away
from Cumbrian shadow and shine
Not moro than a stones throw
from whore We sat, on gem
Ito eminence in the northern
edge of Keswick. stands Greta hall.
Southeys old home 1t is now
occu pied by Mr. John Kennedy. gentle
man, and owned by a maiden lady OF
ripe age and wealth named Gibson. just
ninety years ago Coleridge, who had
. tEs,, saI Aon Ia
inviting him TO share his home with
him, describing the place as follows:
"Our house stands on low hill, the
whole front OF which is one field and an
enormous garden, nine to tbs of which
is nursery garden. Behind the house
is an orchard and a small Wood on a
steep slope, at the foot OF which Is the
river Greta, which winds around and
catches the evening light in front OF the
house. In front we have giant camp
an encamped army OF tent-like noun
tains which, by an inverted arch, gives
view of another vale. On our
right the lovely vale and the wedge
shapel lake OF bassenthwaite; and on,
our left Derwentwater and Lodore
falls afterwards made famous
Southey's playful rhyme Tor bis
dren) full in view, and the fan
noun tains Of Borrowdalc. BehiI
the massive SkiddnY. smooth. q
high, with two cbasams and a ten
ridge in Il o larger" This desert
Is now as true Of Greta Hall al
scenic surroundings as when
written. The beoches surroundi.
mansion are more maj tic:
quaint, square, two-storied,
wlndvwed old place may
trihe grayer; bat tho rocks clam
cav about the over-arching tree
Greta sings over its graceful bt
Swallows; and one can almos
imagine that up there in that
second story library some ono
stand by the broad panes OF th
bow window and drink in the gl
the prospect TO reveal 1t again to
~ sassi.s'. - 80
Southey, the eye follows a wi
struggling half village, half q
street. and is arrested by the
square tower and the low, wide W
one of the oldest churches in Eb ~
1t is nearly q milo from keswick town,
but the heart and feet turn instinc ,iyely
TO it. Crossthwaite church 10 is Jailed,
because its patron. Saint kentigern,
here first set up the cross on this very
spot, then 'thwaite" or wood clearing
OF Derwent vale. In the year 553. That
was nearly I,340 years ago. Portions OF
Its walls are more than 900 ara Old
1t Is rich in conservation crosses. In a
wonderful font Civ, n tor tho rest y. .ne
soul OF SIR Thomas of Eskhead. in
quaint old traceries, in effigies and me-
mortal brasses A great earl lies be-
meath its chancel floor, and knight
whose foot was never out OF his stirrup"
sleeps within its walls. Its choir has
fifty members: its vicar Rawnsley is a
poet; its octogenerian verger. good old
John Beckett, can recall TO you more
peasant memories of Coleridge, OF
whom | o says, III & on'y kept aw
right no waar clevcrest o. lot!' OF
Southworth, OF Shelley and Of Words
worth himself. than can be found
within the lids of books; and 1t Is WIS.,
tied often by the royal family. but for
ali these things none OF US are pilgrims
here Within its hushed aisles. In mar
BILE. lies. and beside its gray old walls
the grave OF, Robert Southey, the poet
whose
Life to heaven was vowed
Through long life and pure"
EDGAR l.. WAKEMAN.