LITERARY BY-PATHS OLD ENGLAND - 1906 - PREFACE - CHIEF among the charms of the English countryside is the field footpath. It may not offer the most direct route between two given points but as, avoiding the dusty high road, it leads the wanderer over verdant meadows, through fields of golden grain, or amid the still recesses of sheltering woodlands, he will not grudge the lengthening of his journey. Along such pathways, which best afford opportunities for quiet meditation, eye and ear are often greeted by sights and sounds not seen or heard on the more frequented highway. Some such function in the world of literature it is the object of these pages to fill. They are not concerned with criticism, that much-travelled and often dust-enveloped thoroughfare instead, they attempt to seek out the pleasant places in the lives of those authors of whom the several papers treat. Still, it may be claimed that, notwithstanding the avoidance of literary criticism, these chapters offer a considerable amount of new information. In the case of Thomas Carlyle, a visit to his native village resulted in the gleaning of some characteristic and unpublished stories of the sage and his family while the papers on Jolln Keats and Thomas Hood are, thanks to the ki dneosfs my late friend, Mr. Towneley Green, R. I., enriclled with much fresh and valuable material. RIany of the photographs, also, depict either places or documents hitherto unidentified or unpublished. - CONTENTS - LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Selborne from the Hanger . . . . . . . . . . . F rontispiece IN SPENSERS FOOTSTEPS PAGE Althorpe House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Pembroke College. Cambridge . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 The Water-gate of Essex House. London . . . . . . . . 22 Myrtle Grove. Youghal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 9 Title-page of the First Edition of The Faerie Queene . 35 Kilcolman Castle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P O A Grant in Spensers Handwriting . . . . . . . . . . . 4 5 Sixteenth Century Plan of Westminster. showing King Street. where Spenser Died . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 0 Spensers Tomb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2 Edmund Spenser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 4 THE HOME OF SIR PHILlP SIDNEY Penshurst Village . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 1 Penshurst Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 4 Penshurst Place The Ballroom . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 1 Penshurst Place The Picture Gallery . . . . . . . . . . 7 5 Saccharissas Sitting-room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 9 Saccharissas Walk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 MEMORIALS OF WILLIAM PENN Church of All Hallows Barking. London. where William Penn was Baptized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 7 Jordans Meeting-house . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Interior of Jordans Meeting-house . . . . . . . . . . . 9 1 Graves of Penn and his Wives at Jordans . . . . . . . . 9 5 ... Xlll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS THE BIRTHPLACE OF GRAYS ELEGY Stoke Poges Church . . Stoke Poges Churchyard . Stoke Court . . . . . Grays Bedroom . . . . Gr iy9sStudy . . . . . Grays Sunimer-house . . b The Yew-trees Shade . GraysTornb . . . . . Grays hlonument . . . Stoke Poges Manor House PAGE . . 103 . . 105 . . 109 . . 110 . . 110 . . 111 . . 117 . . 118 . . l20 . . 121 GILBERT JVHITES SELBORNE Cottages iri Selborne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-29 The Lythe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 31 The Plestor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 33 Gilbert Whites Horrie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Gilhert JVhites Hol sefr o111 the Rear . . . . . . . . . 137 Gilbert JVhites Sun-dial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 38 eg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...