Homes and Haunts of the Most Eminent British Poets, Vol. 1 (of 2)Howitt, William
History
Homes and Haunts of the Most Eminent British Poets, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Howitt, William
Literary landmarks -- Great Britain; Poets, English -- Homes and haunts
you have him rolling along slowly from Cobham toward Bath, drawn by the
very horse on which Lord Derwentwater rode in the Rebellion, but then
employed by Lord Cobham in rolling the garden. He looks in at Lord
Deloraine's on the Downs. He lies one night at Rowsham, the seat of
Colonel Cotterell, near Oxford; "the prettiest place for water-falls,
jets, ponds inclosed with beautiful scenes of green and hanging wood,
ever seen." Then at Mr. Howe's in Gloucestershire, "as fine a thing of
another kind, where Nature has done every thing, and luckily, for the
master has ten children." Then he calls at Sir William Codrington's, at
Durhams, eight miles from Bath, where he thus describes his
entertainment: "My reception there will be matter for a letter to Mr.
Bethel. It was perfectly in his spirit. All his sisters, in the first
place, insisted that I should take physic preparatory to the waters, and
truly I made use of the time, place, and persons to that end. My Lady
Cox, the first night I lay there, mixed my electuary; Lady Codrington
pounded sulphur; Mrs. Bridget Bethel ordered broth; Lady Cox mounted
first up stairs with the physic in a gallipot; Lady Codrington next,
with the vial of oil; Mrs. Bridget third, with pills; the fourth sister
with spoons and tea-cups. It would have rejoiced the ghost of Dr.
Woodward to have beheld this procession." But two years before his death
he was again at Stowe, when he says, "All the mornings we breakfast and
dispute; after dinner and at night, music and harmony; in the garden
fishing; no politics, and no cards nor novel reading. This agrees
exactly with me, for the want of cards sends us early to bed."
This was the way he describes spending the latter part of his life:
"Lord Bathurst is still my constant friend, but his country seat is now
always in Gloucestershire, not in this neighborhood. Mr. Pulteney has no
country seat; and in town I see him seldom. In the summer I generally
ramble for a month to Lord Cobham's, or to Bath, or elsewhere."
Such were the homes and haunts of Pope. In his life, one thing is very
striking. How much the literary men of the time and the nobility
associated; how little do they now. Are our nobility grown less
literary, or our authors less aristocratic? It may be said that authors
now are more independent, and can not flatter aristocracy. But no man
was more independent, and proud of his independence, than Pope. But I
leave this question to wind up this article with a glance at Twickenham
as it is.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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