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
"This Monument, in honor of
THOMAS GRAY,
Was erected A.D. 1799,
Among the scenery
Celebrated by that great Lyric and Elegiac Poet.
He died in 1771,
And lies unnoted in the adjoining Church-yard,
Under the Tomb-stone on which he piously
And pathetically recorded the interment
Of his Aunt and lamented Mother."
This monument is inclosed in a neatly-kept garden-like inclosure, with a
winding walk approaching from the shade of the neighboring trees. To the
right, across the park, at some little distance, backed by fine trees,
stands the rural little church and churchyard where Gray wrote his
Elegy, and where he lies. As you walk on to this, the mansion closes the
distant view between the woods with fine effect. The church has often
been engraved, and is therefore tolerably familiar to the general
reader. It consists of two barn-like structures, with tall roofs, set
side by side, and the tower and finely-tapered spire rising above them
at the northwest corner. The church is thickly hung with ivy, where
"The moping owl may to the moon complain
Of such as, wandering near her secret bower,
Molest her ancient, solitary reign."
The structure is as simple and old-fashioned, both without and within,
as any village church can well be. No village, however, is to be seen.
Stoke consists chiefly of scattered houses, and this is now in the midst
of the park. In the churchyard,
"Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade,
Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap,
Each in his narrow cell forever laid,
The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep."
All this is quite literal; and the tomb of the poet himself, near the
southeast window, completes the impression of the scene. It is a plain
brick altar tomb, covered with a blue slate slab, and, besides his own
ashes, contains those of his mother and aunt. On the slab are inscribed
the following lines by Gray himself: "In the vault beneath are
deposited, in hope of a joyful resurrection, the remains of _Mary
Antrobus_. She died unmarried, Nov. 5, 1749, aged sixty-six. In the same
pious confidence, beside her friend and sister, here sleep the remains
of _Dorothy Gray_, widow; the tender, careful mother of many children,
ONE of whom alone had the misfortune to survive her. She died, March 11,
1753, aged sixty-seven."
No testimony of the interment of Gray in the same tomb was inscribed any
where till Mr. Penn, in 1799, erected the monument already mentioned,
and placed a small slab in the wall, under the window, opposite to the
tomb itself, recording the fact of Gray's burial there. The whole scene
is well worthy of a summer day's stroll, especially for such as, pent in
the metropolis, know how to enjoy the quiet freshness of the country,
and the associations of poetry and the past. The Great Western Rail-way
now will set such down in about one hour at Slough, a pleasant walk from
Stoke.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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