• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES GIFT OF WILLIAM P. WREDEN Yol. II SEEING EUROPE WITH FAMOUS ^. AUTHORS mm SELECTED AND EDITED Wfffp': WITH mm IXTRODUCTIONS, ETC. FRANCIS W. HALSEY Editor of "Creal Epochs in American History" Associate Editor of "The World's Famous Orations" and of "The Best of the World's Classics," etc. IN TEN .| VOLUMES ILLUSTRATED ® Vol. II GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND Part Two FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY NEW YORK AND LONDON Copyright, 1914, by FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY [Printed in the United States of Amerieal II V . CONTENTS OF VOLUME II Great Britain and Ireland—Part Two rV—ENGLISH LITERARY SHRINES— (Continued) PAGE Stoke Pogis—By Charles T. Congdon 1 Hawoeth—^By Theodore F. Wolfe 7 Gad's Hill—By Theodore F. Wolfe 14 Rydal Moukt—By William Howitt. 20 Twickenham—^By William Howitt 22 V—OTHER ENGLISH SCENES Stonehenge—By Ralph Waldo Emerson . 27 Magna Charta Island—By Mrs. S. C. Hall 30 The Home of the Pilgrim Fathers—^By James M. Hoppin 33 Oxford—^By Goldwin Smith 37 Cambridge—By James M. Hoppin 44 Chester—By Nathaniel Hawthorne .. .. 51 Eddystone Lighthouse—By Frederick A. Talbot 54 The Capital of the British^ Saxon and Norman Kings—By William Howitt . 61 V 611583 COiYIENTS VI—SCOTLAND PAGE Edinburgh—By Robert Louis Stevenson . 67 HOLYROOD—By David Masson 75 Linlithgow—By Sir Walter Scott .. .. 78 STiRiiiNG—By Nathaniel Hawthorne . 83 Abbotsford—By William Howitt 86 Dryburgh Abbey—By William Howitt. 92 Mehrose Abbey—By William Howitt . 98 Carlyle^s Birthplace and Early Homes— By John Burroughs 104 Burns's Land—By Nathaniel Hawthorne . 108 Highland Mary^s Home and Grave—By Theodore F. Wolfe 122 Through the Caledonia Canal to Inverness —By H. A. Taine 128 The Scotch Highlands—By H. A. Taine . 132 Ben Lomond and the Highland Lakes— By Bayard Taylor 134 To the Hebrides—By James Boswell . 140 Staffa and Iona—By William Howitt.. .. 143 CONTENTS YII—IRELAND PAGE A Summer Day in Dublin—By William Makepeace Thackeray 149 Dublin Castle—By Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall 157 St. Patrick-'s Cathedral—^By Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall 160 Limerick—By Mr. and Mrs. S. C Hall. 162 From Belfast to Dublin—By William Cul- len Bry^ant 167 The Giant's Causeway—By Bayard Taylor 172 Cork—By William Makepeace Thackeray . 176 Blarney Castle—By Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall 181 MucROSS Abbey—By Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall 184 From Glengariff to Killarney—By Wil- liam Makepeace Thackeray 186 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS VOLUME II FRONTISPIECE Pkincess Street and Scott's Monument, Edinburgh preceding page 1 Stratford-on-Avon Interior of Trinity Church, Stratford Anne Hathaway's Cottage_, Near Strat- ford Room in Stratford in Which Shake- speare Was Born Newstead Abbey, Byron^s Ancestral Home Stoke Pogis, the Scene of Gray's "Elegy'' Oxford Eddystone Lighthouse St. JVIartin's Church, Canterbury Edinburgh Castle and National G-allery Old Gkeyfriar's Church, Edinburgh HoLYROOD Palace, Edinburgh Vlll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FOLLOWING PAGE 96 Stirling Castle Ruins op Holyrood Abbey^ Edinburgh ;Melrose Abbey Glastonbury Abbey Craigmillar Castle, Scotland Dunbarton Rock and Castle Limerick Castle St. Patrick-'s Cathedral^ Dublin The Giant's Causeway Blarney Castle MucROSS Abbey The Lakes op Killarney Sackville Street, Dublin The Gap op Dunloe sti;atfu];d-un-a\ox (See Vol. I for article on Stratford) u tStf'^ [i iM i>: IXTERIOR OF TRINITY CHURCH, STRATFORD ^'~ Within the Chancel is Shakespeare's Grave ANNE HATIIAWAY^S COTTAGE^ NEAR STKATFORD ROOM IN 8THA'l'K()i>'l> IN WHICTI STTAKESPEARE WAS BORN Courtesy J. B. Llpplncott Co. STOKK I'OriTS^ TTTK SPF.XE OF GT?AY^S '''eLECJY^' EDIXBURGH CASTLE AXD XATIOXAL GALLERY OLD GREYER L\RS CHURCH^ EDIXBURGH 1 a rv; ENGLISH LITERARY SHRINES (Continued) STOKE POGIS* BY CHARLES T. CONGDON It was a comfort as I came out of the Albert Memorial Chapel, and rejoined nature upon the Terrace, to mutter to myself those fine lines which not a hundred years ago everybody knew by heart: "The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth ere gave. Await alike th' inevitable hour. The paths of glory lead but to the gTave,"— verse which I found it not bad to remember as in the Chapel Royal I gazed upon the hel- mets, and banners, and insignia of many a defunct Knight of the Garter. I wondered if posterity would care much for George the Fourth, or Third, or Second, or First, whose portraits I had just been gazing at; I was sure that a good many would remember the recluse scholar of Pembroke Hal, the Cambridge Pro- fessor of Modern History, who cared for noth- ing but ancient history; who projected twenty *From "Reminiscenses of a Journalist." By special arrangement with, and by permission of, the publish- ers, Houghton, Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1884. Mr. Cong- don was, for many years, under Horace Greeley, a leading editorial writer for the New York "Tribune." II— 1 SEEING EUROPE WITH FAMOUS AUTHORS great poems, and finished only one or two; who spent his life in commenting upon Plato and studying botany, and in writing letters to his friend Mason; and who with a real touch of Pindar in his nature, was content to fiddle- faddle away his life. He died at last of a most unpoetical gout in the stomach, leaving behind him a cartload of memoranda, and fifty frag- ments of fine thing's; and yet I, a stranger from a far distant shore, was about to make a little pilgTimage to his tomb, and all for the sake of that "Elegy Written in a Country Church- yard," which has so held its own while a hun- dred bulkier things have been forgotten. The church itself is an interesting but not remarkable edifice, old, small, and solidly built in a style common enough in England. Noth- ing, however, could be more in keeping w^ith the associations of the scene. The very humility of the edifice has a property of its own, for anything more magnificent would jar upon the feelings, as the monument in the Park does most decidedly. It was Gray's wish that he might be buried here, near the mother whom he loved so well; otherwise he could hardly have escaped the posthumous misfortune of a tomb in Westminster Abbey or St. Paul's. In such case the world would have missed one of the most charming of associations, and the great poem the most poetical of its features. For surely it was fit that he who sang so touchingly of the dead here sleeping, should find near them his last resting-place; that when the pleasant toil in libraries was over, the last folio closed by those industrious hands, the last man- 2 ENGLISH LITERARY SHRINES uscript collated, and the last flower picked for the herbarium, he who here so tenderly sang of the emptiness of earthly honors and the noth- ingness of wordly success should be buried humbly near those whom he best loved, and where all the moral of his teaching might be perpetually illustrated. I wondered, as I stood there, whether Horace Walpole ever thought it worth his while, for the sake of that earljr friendship which was so rudely broken, to come there, away from the haunts of fashion, or from his plaything villa at Strawberry Hill, to muse for a moment over the grave of one who rated pedigrees and peerages at their just value. Probably my Lord Orford was never guilty of such a piece of sentimentality. He was think- ing too much of his pictures and coins and eternal bric-a-brac for that. A stone set in the outside of the church in- dicates the spot near which the poet is buried. I was very anxious to see the interior of the edifice, and, fortunately I found the sexton busy in the neighborhood. There was nothing, however, remarkable to be seen, after sixpence had opened the door, except perhaps the very largest pew which these eyes ever beheld. It belonged to the Penn family, descendants of drab-coated and sweet-voiced William Penn, whose seat is in the neighborhood. I do not know what that primitive Quaker would have said to such an enormous reservation of space in the house of God for the sole use and behoof of two or three aristocratic worshipers. Prob- ably few of my readers have ever seen such a pew as that. It was not so much a pew as a SEEING EUROPE WITH FAMOUS AUTHORS room. It was literally walled off, and quite set apart from the plebeian portion of the sanctuary, was carpeted, and finished with com- fortable arm-chairs, and in the middle of it was a stove. The occupants could look out and over at the altar, but the rustics could not look in and at them. The Squire might have smoked or read novels, or my lady might have worked worsted or petted her poodle through the service, without much scandal. The pew monopolized so much room that there was little left for the remainder of the *' miserable offen- ders,'^ but I suspect that there was quite enough for all who came to pray. For it was, as I have said, literally a country church; and those who sleep near it were peasants. It is difficult to comprehend the whole phy- siognomy of the poem, if I may use the expres- sion, without seeing the spot which it com- memorates. I take it for granted that the reader is familiar with it.

Load more

  228

Copy Link