Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1902-01-17
.oBERT souThErsc CHURCH
Worshipinx Place OF the Great Mas
ter Of English Verse.

worshipinx Place OF the Great Mas
ter OF English Verse.
Few pilgrims to Keswick who care
for English literature fail to see Greta
Hail and Cresthwaite church. The
house that sheltered, as did Greta
Hall. at the same time two such men
as Robert Southey and Samuel Taylor
Coleridge is worthy OF interest and
honor. But a greater honor belongs to
the memory of the man who could live
amicably under the same roof with the
brilliant but erratic Coleridge, of whom
Southey once said. 'Coleridge when
ever he sees anything in the light OF a
duty is unable to perform it,"
Standing on a summit OF hill that
slopes gently down to the banks of
the river Greta and commanding n
magnificent prospect of Lake Derwenta
water. Greta Hall attracted the discern
ing eye of Coleridge, and in 1900 he
went with his wife to make It his
home for few years. Thlther be per-
suaded Southey, who had married his
wife's sister, and in 1908 the Southeys.
their hearts sore over the loss of their
little Margery. went also TO make it their
lifelong home. What fruitful study.
what high thinking, what brilliant COLI
versation, went on in that quiet retreat
during the years that the two intel
lectual giants dwelt in their humble
castle. entertaining such visitors as
Charles Lamb. Hazlitt Shelley and
Wordsworth!
Hardly less interesting than their eld-
ers were the children who played
about this old house-Hartley Cole
ridge, the iovable and precocious, who
used to say when he ha6 pain in his
stomach, I've got the collie; read me
the gospel and epistle;' Sara, who
afterward edited her fathers "Biogra-
phia Literaria," and the philosophical
little Derwent, who when he was ask
ed by his father who made him re
piled, James Lawson, the carpenter,
father" and to the question, What
did he make you OFF, replied, 1.-THE
stuff he makes wood Of; he sawed me
OFF, and did not like It."
Cresthwaite church, the parish
church of Keswick. stands quite out
side the village, little beyond Greta
Hall. northward. 1t is quaint, sedate
structure, having q great square tower
with heavy buttresses and a battle
mented summit. The church is dedi-
Gated TO st. Kentigern, who when a
boy, according to the legend, restored
to life a robin killed by his school
mates and who is said TO have planted
the cross in the valley Of the Thwaite
in A. ID. 553. The church stands I'm
the open with the mountains looking
down upon it and n lake In front and
is surrounded by an ample churchyard
strewn with gravestones. Southey is
buried near the tower, on the north. a
spot selected by himself to show his
disregard OF the old superstition
against burial on the north side Of the
church. A well worn path leads TO the
simple square tomb under which re-
pose the bodies Of the poet, his wife
and daughter and Elizabeth Thomp-
son, 'for fifty years the faithful serv-
ant and attached friend of Robert
Southey and of his children" as the
Inscription reads.
Within the church is as quaint and
serious as without. The pews are no
longer painted different colors. accord
Ing to the whim OF the occupants, as
Southey describes them, but otherwise
there has been little change for CEN
turtles Southey's square box pew is
near the chancel. There he used to be
seen towering above the rest OF the
congregation with his eyes closed and
his fine face turned UPWARD, solemnly
repeating the creed. Near the spot
where he worshiped for so many years
is the fine marble efligy OF the poet by
Tough, recumbent figure with the
right hand laid upon an open book.
The epitaph beginning
Ye wales and hills whose beauty hither
drew
The poets steps and fixed him here, on
you
His eyes have closed.
was written by Wordsworth.
A fine spirit was Robert Southey-
conscientious, unselfish, faithful. not
only true scholar and poet. but. what
Is far more, true man. His devotion
to the fatherless children of Coleridge
as well as to his own family will never
fail to win an admiration deeper than
even the greatest poetry can awaken.
1t Is a Just tribute that Walter Savage
Lander paid him in the lines:
No firmcr breast than thine hath heaven
To poet sage or hero given:
No heart more tender. none more Just.
To that he largely placed In trust;
Therefore shalt thou, whatever date
or years be thine. with soul elate.
Rise up before the eternal throne
And hear In Gods own voice. ''weli
done"
New York Commercial Advertiser.