Chalfont St. Giles
HOME OF MILTON
=How to get there.=–Train from Baker Street. Metropolitan Railway.
=Nearest Station.=–Chalfont Road (2-1/2 miles from Chalfont St. Giles).
An omnibus runs between the village and the station during
the summer months.
=Distance from London.=–23-3/4 miles.
=Average Time.=–51 minutes. (Convenient trains, 10.27 A.M., 12.17
and 2.27 P.M.)
1st 2nd 3rd
=Fares.=–Single 3s. 2d. 2s. 4d. 1s. 7d.
Return 4s. 9d. 3s. 5d. 2s. 5d.
=Accommodation Obtainable.=–"The Merlin’s Cave Inn,” etc.
This pretty little Buckinghamshire village has become almost as
celebrated as its neighbour Stoke Poges, on account of having been the
home of John Milton. The poet’s cottage is the last on the left side at
the top of the village street. As one may see from the illustration, it
is a very picturesque, half-timbered house, whose leaded windows look
into a typical country garden. In 1887 a public subscription was raised
and the cottage was purchased. Visitors are therefore able to see the
interior as well as the exterior of Milton’s home, which, it should be
mentioned, is the only one existing to-day of the various houses he
occupied. For those who are not residents in the parish a charge of
sixpence is made for admission. The poet’s room, which is on the right
on entering, is rather dark, and has a low ceiling. One notices the
wide, open fireplace where the white-bearded old man would sit in winter
days, and the lattice-paned windows through which in summer-time came
the humming of bees and the scent of the flowers growing in the
old-fashioned garden. The pleasant indications of his surroundings must
have been a great solace to the blind old man. In these simple
surroundings one must picture Milton dictating his stately verse, with
his thoughts concentrated on the serried ranks of the hosts of heaven.
Milton came to Chalfont in 1665, in order to escape from the plague. His
eldest daughter was at that time about seventeen years of age, and as
she and her sisters are supposed to have remained with their father
until about 1670, it is probable that they came to Chalfont with him.
The church of Chalfont St. Giles has a Norman font, and there are other
traces of Norman work in the bases of the pillars and elsewhere. The
south wall of the nave and the north chapel are specially interesting on
account of their frescoes.
[Illustration: MILTON’S COTTAGE, CHALFONT ST. GILES.
Milton moved here from London in 1665, to avoid the Plague.]
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Preface •
Ham House and Petersham •
Walton-On-Thames (scold’s Bridle) •
Harrow •
Holwood House, Keston •
Chigwell, Essex •
Waltham Abbey and Cross •
Downe •
Epsom: Its Races and Its Salts •
Epping Forest •
Hampton Court •
Rye House, Broxbourne •
Hatfield House, Herts •
Runnymead, the Signing of Magna Charta •
The Oldest Brass in England •
St. Albans •
Stoke Poges Church, Bucks •
Windsor •
Jordans and William Penn •
Knole House and Sevenoaks •
Greenstead Church •
Chalfont St. Giles •
Westerham •
Guildford, Surrey •
Gad’s Hill •
Ightham Mote, Kent •
Penshurst •
St. Michael’s Mount and Marazion •
Rochester Cathedral •
Tunbridge Wells •
The Quintain Post At Offham and Malling Abbey •
Eversley •
Farnham, Surrey •
Hindhead, Surrey •
Shottermill •
Penn’s Chapel At Thakeham, Sussex •
Chawton the Home of Jane Austen •
Selborne •
Elstow •
Lewes, Sussex •
Bodiam Castle, Sussex •
Colchester, Essex •
Layer Marney •
Battle Abbey •
Cambridge •
Arundel Castle •
Olney, Bucks •
Wantage and the Country of Alfred the Great •
Canterbury and Its Cathedral •
Reculvers •
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Midhurst •
Pevensey Castle •
Savernake Forest •
Ely Cathedral •
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Winchelsea and Rye •
Blenheim Palace •
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Peterborough •
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Netley Abbey •
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New Forest, Hampshire •
Osborne House •
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Lutterworth •
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Kenilworth Castle •
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Stratford-On-Avon •
Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk •
Lulworth Cove, Dorsetshire •
Corfe Castle •
Lincoln and Its Cathedral •
Somerset, the Birthplace of Tennyson •
Glastonbury Abbey •
Walsingham, Norfolk •
Cheddar Caves, Cheddar, Somerset •
Newstead Abbey •
The Wessex of Thomas Hardy’s Romances •
Tintern Abbey •
Chesterfield, Derbyshire •
Dukeries •
Haddon Hall, Derbyshire •
The Isle of Athelney, and Sedgemoor •
Raglan Castle •
Dovedale •
Wellington and the Wrekin, Shropshire •
Wroxeter and the Roman City of Uriconium, Salop •
Buildwas Abbey, Shropshire •
Ludlow and Its Castle •
Shrewsbury •
Buxton and the Peak District •
Tewkesbury •
Exeter and Its Cathedral •
Market Drayton, Salop •
Chester •
Exmoor •
Knutsford •
Torr Steps On the Barle, Somerset •
Cleeve Abbey, Somerset •
Hawarden •
York Minster •
Coxwold, Yorkshire •
Llangollen and Valle Crucis Abbey •
Knaresborough, Dripping Well •
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Ripon Cathedral •
Dartmoor •
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Rievaulx Abbey •
Brixham, Devon •
Conway Castle •
The Doone Valley, Exmoor •
Llandovery, South Wales •
Dartmouth, Devon •
Richmond, Yorkshire •
Tintagel •
Whitby •
Carnarvon Castle •
Plymouth •
Durham and Its Cathedral •
Raby Castle, Durham •
Snowdon •
Harlech Castle •
Grasmere and Rydal Mount •
The Lake District •
St. Davids Cathedral •
Furness Abbey, Lancashire •
Monkwearmouth, Near Jarrow •
The Isle of Man •
Brantwood •
Fowey •
Hexham and Hadrian’s Wall •
The Lake District •
Keswick •
Alnwick Castle •
Lanercost Priory, Cumberland •
Lanercost Priory and Stepping-Stones.] •
St. Ives, Cornwall •
Bamborough Castle, Northumberland
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