The Newtown bee., 1905-03-17
LOCAL AFFAIRS. A ROYAL CASTLE, A FAMOUS SCHOOL, AND A COUNTRY
 CHURChYARD.
WRITTEN FOR THE BEE BY ROSS JEW
 ELL.

itors when the monarch is in residence and of all days in the week Wednesday is the one when least can be seen. The writer of this article was bewailing these facts one July Wednesday in 1900 when a newspaper announced that the Queen would leave Windsor for London at p. m. The result of this piece of intelligence was snap shot of the waiting royal train, made up of white coaches, a sight of Her Majesty at close range, and snapshot of her as her carriage, drawn by a beautiful span of bays and accompa- nied by outriders, issued from the cas- tie gate. The aged Queen bowed to left and right in response to the cheers of her subjects and at least one republican in the crowd deemed it no revocation of native principles to swing his hat high in the air as she passed. Noble Victoria! Surely few such queens have reigned in history.
 "she wrought her people lasting good.
 Her court was pure; her life serens.''
 Just across the Thames from Wind- sor is famous old Eton College. Not far above the bridge are the boat houses and countless student shells in the river recall the world-renowned Eton Boat Song, "Jolly boating weather" A few rods down stream is the cricket field where the older students practice the national game daily. Eton contains many smaller boys who present most unusual ap- pearance in the traditional short coats, white neckties, and high hats. The masters wear the mortar board and gown. Some of the schoolrooms re- tain the high desks and seats without backs of former times while the mas ter's desk is not only high but on a platform. Edward VII was prepared for Oxford at Eton and many another celebrated Englishman has been trained here. A head master of Eton, Nicholas Udall, wrote the earliest reg ular English comedy, Ralph Roister Doister. The poet Shelley was stu dent here and was known among the boys as Mad Shelley"
 But perhaps no other Eton boy has done so much to extend the fame of his Alma Mater as the poet Gray in writing his "Ode on distant prospect of Eton College:"
 "Ye distant spires, ye antique towers.
 
 Where once my careless childhood strayed .
 A stranger yet to pain.'
 The poem presents fine picture of school life, gives a morbid outline of the evils which lie in wait for the boys as they grow older and ends with the celebrated aphorism:
 "-where ignorance is bliss
 'Tisyfolly to be wise."
 The "distant prospect'' was proba- bly, obtained from Stoke Pogis about five miles away. This was the poets home when boy and frequently in later life and here is the ancient churchyard immortalized by him in the most read poem in our language, the "Elegy written in a Country Churchyard.
 ''The curfew tolls the kneI of parting day,
 The lowing herd wind slowly OCT the lea, The ploughman hOmeward plods his weary
 way,
 And leaves the world to darkness and to me- ? The Elegy was written century-and. a-half ago but the cemetery and the little stone church in it's midst have undergone but little change. The 'ivy-mantled tower" remains, though spire has been added, and the "rug- ged elms" and the "yew-tree" still shade the narrow cells of the sleepers. ''The breezy call of incense breathing morn.
 The swallow twitterin1 from the straw
 built shed,
 The cocks shrill clarion. or the echoing horn No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed"
 The aged dame who resides at the gate is a loquacious and agreeable guide,-when her palm has been crossed with shilling. Several beau tiful roses and even a little branch from the yew-tree are not too good fo1 the generous stranger. She has much to say of the William Penn family which owned and still owns the white manor-house on the neighboring hill The Penn pews in the church are back of and separated from the others anc remind one of theatre box A mon ument erected to Gray's memory by this family stands just outside the cemetery. Several stanzas from hi! great poem are engraved upon it.
 The poet is buried near the east enc of the church by the side of his moth CT whom he devoutly loved. Upon hel tombstone is curious inscription placed there by the poet, in which sh' is called the mother of many childrel "only one of whom had the misfortun, to survive her."
 Few great poets have written s little as Gray but that little will no be soon forgotten. Critics may cal the poems commonplace and speak o the poet slightingly as the chief figur in the graveyard school of poets, bu the world will continue to pay it's hom age to him who sang
 "The short and simple annals of the poor. The hero Wolfe with so great an un dertaking on his hands as the captur of Quebec quoted from the Elegy: