and the magnanimity of a lofty character, I know not one in whom was better manifested the indefinable distinction, the life-long selfrestraint, the intense purpose, the grave selfrespect, the lofty disdain for all which was sordid and ignoble which marks the sincerity of the sons of God. He was, as Wordsworth says of him, 'Soul awful-if this world Has ever held an awful soul.'" Allhallows Church. On the spot where Allhallows Church stood the street has recently been rebuilt; and in the front wall of one of the houses there is a bust of Milton, and underneath this inscription : Milton Born in Bread St. Baptized in Church of Which stood here ante The Portraits of Milton. A very full account of the portraits of Milton is to be found in a paper by Mr. J. F. Marsh, and published in the "Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire," entitled, "On the Engraved Portraits and Pretended Portraits of Milton,' Liverpool, T. Brakell, 1860 It contains twelve plates from the engravings of Milton. The sumptuous edition of Milton's "Poetical Works," in 3 vols., folio, published by Boydell in 1794-1797, contains many beautiful engravings; four being portraits of Milton-that by Jansen of him as a boy of ten; an engraving from the portrait taken of him at twenty-one; one from the drawing by Vertue, apparently based on the Faithorne likeness of 1670; and an absurd-looking portrait, with an imperial, by Van Plas, which Marsh classes with the pretended portraits. In the Second Edition of "Paradise Lost," 1674, there is a good likeness (after Faithorne's) by Dolle, and underneath is—“Ætat 63, 1671." There is also a chapter on the portraits in that remarkable work, "Ramblings in the Elucidation of the Autograph of Milton," by S. Leigh Sotheby, 1861. Milton's Cottage, Chalfont St. Giles. Chalfont St. Giles is now much more accessible than it was a few years ago, as since 1889 a branch of the Metropolitan Railway runs from Gower Street to Chalfont Road, just three miles from Chalfont. It is a pleasant walk, and conveyances can be had in the village to meet or return to the trains. The village is very picturesque, and contains many houses and cottages which must be very little altered from what they looked when Milton made this his retreat in the year of the plague. The Cottage, the "pretty box" that Ellwood took for him, is the last house in the village on the left-hand side of the road leading to Beaconsfield. It stands at right angles to the road, the entrance being at the side. To the right of the door is the room which tradition has assigned as that occupied by Milton; it is about twenty feet by fifteen, and the ceiling is not more than seven feet high. It is now preserved by trustees, and furnished with some old articles of furniturean old oak and walnut table, old oak stools, old dog-irons, kettle and hangers; five small cannon-balls found in the roof of the church in the rectory garden, supposed to have been fired by Cromwell's troops; and six ancient pikes, formerly kept in the belfry of the church. In a glass case are some old editions of Milton's works, and on the wall three portraits of Milton. There is also a copy of "Paradise Lost," illustrated by Gustave Doré, of Milton's Poetical Works by Masson, and Sotheby's Ramblings in the elucidation of the Autograph of Milton." 66 The Church of Chalfont St. Giles, which is very old, is in the centre of the village and not far from the Cottage. In it there is a mural tablet with the following inscription:-- From Heaven He to his own a Comforter will send, The promise of the Father, who shall dwell, His Spirit, within them, and the law of faith Working through love, upon their hearts shall write, I, who erewhile the happy Garden sung, THESE PASSAGES WERE WRITTEN BY JOHN MILTON WHILST RESIDING IN THIS VILLAGE, A. D. 1665. The former was selected by Joseph M. Gurney, the latter by the Rev. Canon Lloyd, for 24 years Rector of this Parish, in whose memory the adjoining organchamber and organ were erected, A.D. 1883. In the copy of Bentley's "Paradise Lost" (1732), which belonged to Mitford and is now in the British Museum, there are inserted some engravings, one of which is Milton's Cottage engraved by T. Phillips; also a pencil drawing of it, and underneath is written, "As it stood in 1823. It is now the house of a travelling chair-maker." J. B. MILTON'S COTTAGE, 18 Dec. 1891. |