Putnam patriot., 1923-07-13
LOUISE CHANDLER MOULTON Pomfret-Born Poetess, Friend of the Great
 Victorians
Victorians

A lover of Burns, the Scotch poet, once said to young lady, Did you ever read TO a Field Mouse?' ' 'NoF' she cried in astonishment, T don't see how you could get them to listenr'
 One way to get locality to honor its own prophets is to cry out their fame in far countries. Almost any one will gasp and give heed at men tion of so awesome a poet as Brown ing, or so revered name as Tenny- son: but one whom these celebrated writers delighted to honor, one whose friendship they. prized, Louise Chan dler Moulton, Signifies little in this vicinity, where she was born and where she grew to womanhood.
 Her introduction to Browning took place at breakfast given in her hon. or by Lord Houghton, himself a poet and writer and a parliamentarian of London. It happened that when Browning was presented to the Amer ican, together with several other guests, she did not catch his name. Later, sitting next him at table, she said naively, "They say that Mir. Browning is here. Won't you point him out to mel"
 The poet leaned forward and ad- dressed their host:
 My lord" he said, Mrs. Moulton wants to know which of us is Brown ing You tell her."
 That was before the days when photography had left no celebrity un- known. The acquaintance then begun warmed into warm friendship. ln- deed, until shortly before her death, which occurred some eight years since, Mrs. Moulton was a factor in London literary circles, and her draw ing room there as well as her salon in Boston, was the rallying point for the younger literary set.
 Knew Boston Circle
 Her circle of American friendships extended over our greatest literary period and spanned the whole field from Longfellow, Whittier. Lowell, Emerson, Holmes, to the remote pres ent when she died. But her affilia- tions were closer abroad than at home. The Brownings, Matthew Ar lVlus bhsIt dVtttcs as Hardy, Austin Dobson, Watts Dunton, Barrie, give the scope in time of her English friendships.
 Where then was this poet and dis tinguished woman born. that she should be presented to Patriot read CTS as native of Windham County? On a little farm perhaps two miles west of the Pomfret four corners. This place has always been known as the Chandler place, and until recent ly was owned by the late Benjamin Grosvenor, though it had not been lone d part of his holdings. II is now owned by John Peterson, who lives there.
 Of this place, fifty years or more afterward, Mrs. Moulton wrote, sur rounded by London fogs: My thoughts 20 back to that old
 brown house,
 With it's low roof sloping down tof
 the east,
 And the garden fragrant with roses
 and thyme That blossom no longer except in
 Where the honey bee used to
 feast"
 Il When Louise Chandler Moulton caught this glimpse of her childhood, the lovely country where "Afar in the west the great hills rose, Silent and steadfast and gloomy and
 gray, she touched a responsive chord in hearts that had never forgotten her, Now, alasl nearly all of those who had known her as a girl, and thereafter kept ur n acquaintance with her during ' infreonent returns to Pom fret. are gone. To some of those who knew her well, she was considered a