Norwich bulletin., 1915-10-19
TOOK AUDIENCE ON
 LITERARY PILGRIMAGE.
Professor Phelps of Vale Opened Leo.
 lure Course In Slater Hall.

Professor Phelps of Vale Opened Leo. lure Course In Slater Hall. Slater Hall was well filled on Mon | day afternoon at o'clock, when the opening number of the Popular Lec- ture Course was held. the lecturer be- | ing William Lyon Phelps, Ph. D., Lamson professor of English litera- | ture in Yale, and the subject, A Lit- erary Pilgrimage in England. Profess sor Phelps was here last year and needed no introduction to his audi ence, many of whom had heard him | speak on his previous visit. The audi | ence was in harmony with his lecture, | delivered in easy flowing language, as l was very evident from the closeness with which they followed him on his l tour throughout the British Isles. From the rolling, sloping country of | the Sussex Southdowns, where hum | dreds of thousands of sheep peace | fully gra2e he transported them to the wild, desolate wastes in the north west and then to the majestic, yet, | literally, terrible Lands End. The Carlyle, Burns and Scott countries in l Scotland, the River Wye, Of which Tennyson speaks in his Tn Memori- am" and the sands of the River Dee, of which Tennyson sings in Call the Cattle" were among the more inter esting places referred to by Professor | Phelps.
 Prefacing his lecture, Prof Pfkslps said: I have never had the slightest | intention to be the first to reach the | top Of a mountain; l would rather be they are remote, but because they are | well known. I would stand on a | street corner in London rather than | see the largest icebergs, or the long, 1 est string of mountains in the world and I am in a position to judge as l have seen both.
 England is a country almost exactly | the size of Michigan or North Caro- 1 lima, that is it contains about 50,0 square miles. Michigan has hardly any variety but in England you have nearly every variety of scenery, ex- cepting the snow capped mountains and Of course you have them iT winter. In Devonshire there is hardly a square inch of level ground 1t is all up hill and down and the property is divided by beautiful hedgerows. The Sussex South downs have rolling country, slopins down to the channel and here may be seen hundreds of thousands O, shire moors to the northwest you ge' in wild, desolate country. Int Englishman doesn't have to leav, his own country to get variety anC so Englishmen can't be blamed foI not being great travellers. Tn,
 
 They are more like that we cal creeks.
 After visiting the home of Rober Herrick, in a remote spot in Devon. shire, Prof. Phelps went up to tn, Lorna Doon country in North Devon As you walk through that country said Prof. Phelps, it does seem tha every single view that greets the tl1 is trying to illustrate the book
 Lands End. said the speaker, il | rnf IA terrible places in the world. It i a place that makes England's isola tion more real to you. The Rive , Wye, of which Tennyson speaks o in Tn Menoriam" is a beautiful lit tie river, and there is but one wa, to see it, that is, by row boat. Hir couple of boat men to row vol down. Parts of the river are yer narrow and other parts are so shal low that the boatmen have to pol and you can hear the bottom of tn boat scraping the riverbed.
 After speaking of the wonderfu ] and magnificent oathedrals, Prof Phelps spoke of his visit to the Rive Dee. The tide was away out, he said and l couldn't help thinking of Ten ] nyson's ballad, Call the Cattle. Tn tn } north of Ireland, Prof. Phelps saw tn turf or peat fire and he has a piec or bog butter said to be 260 years old During the warning times two or thre hundred years ago the Irish hotise wives buried their butter when tn soldiers appeared. Either thes people were all killed or else the forgot the places where 1t was burie and 1t is often dug up with the pea In a perfectly preserved state.
 Across the border in Scotland. the southwest. is the country of Rob ert Burns, in the south the countr or Carlyle and in the southeast tn Sir Walter Scott country. Pro Phelps said he was amazed at tn size or the rooms fin which the peopi of those days lived. He said he coul see how the room Carlyle was Dor In held him at that time, but he can see how 1t held anyone else.
 Prof. Phelps spoke in a humoror vein Of the din1culties and disappoint
 menus ne encountered while trying { near inc famous nightingale sing. was at midnight and at the home of
 friend In SUEsex that he first hear
 The EonE ef this mysterious bird. Th
 wonder a5su- the song of the night ! ;ngale is not it's beauty, but it's mys tery, said Proe. Phelps. It is the mol :. famous bird in English literature, a i the poets have sung it. While goin 70 church the following day Pro
 two other of the nlst famous birs in English literature. One was u :. cuckoo.
 m bringing his lecture to a clos
 Prof. Phelps spoke of a number
 interesting rcvslists and poets he m
 during his tou-
 Principal Eanly 4. TirreIi of u
 Norwich F.rae Academy welcomed u . large audience and after speakiI j. briefly of the course introduced PrC
 Phelps
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