Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-10-30

still to the south, CLEAN Of simmer
ing blue dnts Of an extensive artificial
sheet of water. Behind it, to the right,
is lofty pillar nearly 100 feet in
height, surlnounted by heroic figure
of Sir Edward Coke: Elizabeths attor-
ney and chief Justice Of the kings
bench, whose career and writings
are familiar to the legal profession
throughout the world. Through mar
riage he was once lord OF Stoke Manor.
But the princely manor house which
ends the vista, and whose white colon
na1es gives the impression that lawn
and forest enchant the eye to rest upon
some far, fair palace built by fairy
hands, was the work Of the Penn fam
lily, principally of John Penn, the foun-
der's second son by his second wife.
An Americans vivid fancy prompts
proprietary, or kindred, feeling here;
in England better memorial of this
great family than the tablet TO Admiral
Penn, in ST. Mary Radcliffe church,
Bristol, or the grass-choked grave of
the grand old quaker, William Penn,
in lonely Jordan's meeting house grave
garth.
Squarely before you, to the west, not
800 yards away, an exquisite gem OF
scenic reality in the setting OF this un-
equaled rural picture, stands old Stoke
Poges church. surrounded by its hall
lowed churchyard, fadeless in the mem
DRY and heart of man for just four lines
OF the tenderest poetry ever penned-
Beneath those rugged elms, that yew trees
shade
whe,e heayes the turf in many mold'rug
Each In his narrow cell forever laid
Tue rude foretathers OF the hamlet sleep.
At an old world shrine will your
heart leap and thrill with supremely
gratified expectancy. There Is Ella
ton, indeed intoNication, in the perfec-
ton Of your realization. | am sure
your experience is a universal one. Elk
pressions falling from the lips Of diff
tering types OF Americans In my pres
ence, on different occasions, fully Illus
trate this. One was by prim Ohio
matron, who looked upon the old and
new manor houses and then the little
church and yard In a mltter-of-fact
way for q time, and then said briskly
to her handsome daughter standing
near:
III Gray had ever written about this
place different than he did, he would
have been plaguy fool; and that's ali
re got to say about II ~
a plain New England schoolma'am
came. She had walked from Slough to
save carriage hire. She had toiled and
scrimped many years to get to few of
these old world shrines.
"Oh, she said with tears of low fill
ing her gray, fine eyes, TO have
worked and saved my whole life with
the surety OF finding it SO true to nv
heart picture OF it all, would have
indeed been a lifelong pleasure y
A wealthy ranchman from Wyoming
VINO came IN carriage, mind Won, and
tipped" everything and everybody
from slough TO Stoke, not forgetting
myself in his kindly feeling, because I
was able to point out q few triHing
things he might have overlooked,
voiced the same idea in different
way:
II used to parse that stuff of Gray's
when ! was boy down in our Mohawk
Nniley village school, till the internal
glm1nerlng landscape OF every kind
OF grammar was eternally fading from
my sight. But 1t worked up a regular
longing to sometime come and soTt ot
slhnu around where Gray loaied. Now
that I'm here the whole thine tatns
hold OF me hard. My friend, that fel.
low Gray, rounded up things here
squareln Hs'N
And so he did. Poetry is truly reve.
latlon through melodions words Rnt
II must be true, not false revealment.
or you and and the Wyoming genuine
eritie are certain to stop al the ugly
bars OF unreality and flaw, ~
You will saunter lovingly among tho
graves Tor a little, meantime getting
acquainted with old Joseph Lowell foTr
many many years the sexton here and
MS wife; both nearly seventy wears of
age. but chirpy as crickets and brown
anu hard As nuts. They are maxine a
nlt OF hay among the mounds Ms IL
their right and their only fee. aside
rom that from burials. for which
Joseph gets -four bob ishillingsl H1r
inc ,,,, oig uus, an two for tho littie uns
=, ne ne church itself is little Old nm.
PIC OF stone and wood, low and vide
, Ml.s y, ag 70, low gables facing the east and
graaually merging into one peak AZ the
west end. Il has one Of me oddast
south porches to be found 10 En eGess'
On the north side Is huge low to ,,.er'
! nearly a large rs dc body ofths