_Cowper—Greenwich._
More than once have I betrayed, in the course of my narrative, a strong
affection for the name and memory of Cowper. To his poetry and letters,
I was introduced in early childhood, by the admiring terms in which a
beloved parent often quoted and criticised them; and no subsequent
familiarity with them has, in the least, impaired my relish for their
peculiar charms. I regard him as the regenerator of English poetry, and
as the morning-star of all that truly illustrates the nineteenth
century. A gentle but powerful satirist of the evils of his own times,
he was a noble agent in the hand of God, for removing them, and making
way for a great restoration. Without dreaming of his mission, he was a
prime mover in the great action which has thrown off the lethargy of
Hanoverianism, and awakened the Church of England to world-wide
enterprises of good; and though the injudicious counsels of good John
Newton gave a turn to his piety, which may well be deplored in its
consequences upon himself, it is ground for rejoicing that the
influences of the Church upon his own good taste, were strong enough to
rescue his contributions to literature from the degrading effects of
religious enthusiasm. If any one will take the trouble to compare “the
Task” with such a production as Pollok’s “Course of time,” he will be
struck with the force of my remark, for there the same enthusiasm
exhibits itself as developed by sectarianism. I was surprised to find
how many places in England were fraught with recollections of this
retired and sedentary poet. A distant view of St. Alban’s, the banks of
the Ouse, the churchyard of St. Margaret’s, and the school-room, at
Westminster, the gardens of the Temple, and the little village of St.
Neot’s all recalled him to mind, in his various moods, of suffering and
dejection. Even the ruins of Netley Abbey revived his memory, for there
he seems to have been filled with novel emotions, as an unwonted
tourist, with whom romantic scenes were far from familiar. The opposite
pole of poetic association became electric in Cheapside, where so many
John Gilpins still keep shop, if they do not “ride abroad.” But I
frequently passed, on the railway, a village in Hertfordshire, which is
invested with memories of a more elevated and affecting character. It
was not only the birth-place of the poet, (as well as of Bishop Ken,)
but its church-tower is that from which he heard the bell tolled on the
burial-day of his mother. Its parsonage was the scene of all those
maternal tendernesses, which he has so touchingly celebrated; and who
that has shared the love of a Christian mother, can fail to reverence
the bard, who has so inimitably enshrined, in poetry, the best and
holiest instincts of the human heart, as exhibited in the mutual loves
of the mother and her son? I could not leave England without first
paying a pilgrimage to those scenes of his maturer life, which have
become classic from their frequent mention in his poems.
As I was taking my ticket for a second-class passage to the nearest
point on the railway to Olney, I happened to meet a gentleman who had
just bought his, and with whom I had the pleasure of some acquaintance.
Knowing him to be connected, by marriage and position, with some of the
most aristocratic families in the kingdom, I very naturally said to
him—“I’m going the same way with you, but shall lose the pleasure of
your company, for I’ve only a second-class ticket.” I was amused with
his answer:—“Yes, for I’ve only a _third_-class ticket.” He briefly
explained that he was forced to economize, and that, although he did not
like it, the inconvenience of a seat among a low-class of people, for a
short time, was not so intolerable as a collapsed purse, “especially” he
added, “as I am thus enabled to travel in the first-class carriages when
I travel with my wife.” Such is the independence as to action, and the
freedom as to confession of economy, which characterize a well-bred man,
whose position in society is settled; and I could not but think how
snobbish, in the contrast, is the conduct of many of my own countrymen,
who, if they ever use prudence, in their expenses, are afraid to have it
known. An aristocracy of money is not only contemptible in itself, but
it curses a land with a universal shame of seeming prudent. It makes the
dollared upstart fancy himself a gentleman, while the true gentleman is
degraded in his own eyes, as well as in the estimation of the vulgar, by
the fact, that his house is small, his furniture plain, and his table
frugal. Hence so much _upholstery_ in America; so much hotel-life; and
such a contempt for quiet respectability.
This anecdote is not out of place in a chapter devoted to Cowper. The
poet was a man of gentle blood, and, in every sense of the word, a
gentleman. Many an English nobleman is vastly inferior to him in point
of extraction. He was descended from the blood-royal of Henry Third, and
in divers ways was allied to the old aristocracy of England. He used to
be visited at Olney, by persons of quality, in their chariots; and
titled ladies were glad to accept his hospitalities. But his home at
Olney, where he lived for years, was one of the humblest in the place,
and even his darling residence, at Weston, was such a dwelling as most
country-parsons would consider barely comfortable. Now, I do not mean to
say that John Bull prefers such an establishment for a gentlemen’s
habitation; but I do mean that nobody in England would be so insane as
to think less of a gentleman, for living thus humbly, especially if he
lived so from principle.
As I came to Newport-Pagnel, a respectable elderly person drove by, in
an open carriage, whom the whip pointed out to me as Mr. Bull; the son
of Cowper’s old friend, whom he delighted to call his dear _Taurus_.
Having a few minutes to spare in the place, and a proper introduction, I
called at his house, and was glad to be shown a portrait of the
venerable personage himself—the “smoke-inhaling Bull” of the Letters. A
lady of the family politely gave me all needed directions, but assured
me I should be greatly disappointed in Olney, where “there was nothing
to see but old houses, and a general aspect of decay.” I said—‘Yes, but
the house is there—and the summer-house—and the spire—and the
bridge?’ I was answered that these were yet remaining, though somewhat
the worse for wear and weather; and so, having succeeded in hiring a
horse, off I went, alone. As I approached the neighbourhood of Olney,
the first truly _Cowperish_ sight that struck me—and I had never seen
such a sight before in my life—was a living illustration of his
lines:—
“Yon cottager that weaves at her own door,
Pillow and bobbins, all her little store!”
She little knew how much pleasure the sight of her gave to a passing
stranger, with whom her art had been rendered poetically beautiful, by
the charms of Cowper’s verse. This is, in fact, the secret of his spell
as a poet, the power of investing even homely things, in real life, with
a certain fascinating attractiveness. He avoids the romantic and the
poetical, in choosing his themes; but he elevates what is common to a
dignity and beauty unknown before. He is the most English of English
bards, and I love him for teaching me to see a something even in the
English poor, which makes them, to me, vastly more interesting than the
romantic peasantry of Italy. True, the latter tread the vintage, and the
other only stack the corn; but the English cottage has the Bible in it,
and its children learn the Ten Commandments, and also learn that
“cleanliness is next to godliness;” while in Italy, among fleas and
other vermin, the idle parents sit lazily in the sun, and the children
run after the traveller’s coach-wheel, lying while they beg, and showing
by their religious vocabulary, that Bacchus and Maria are confounded in
their imagination as saints of the same calendar.
At length I saw the spire of Olney, and soon I crossed the bridge, over
whose “wearisome, but needful length,” used to come the news from
London, to solace Cowper’s winter evenings. I was not long in finding
the poet’s most unpoetical home, now occupied by a petty shop-keeper,
who has turned his parlour into a stall. Here he lived, however, and
here he sang: here, motherly Mrs. Unwin made tea for him, and Lady
Austen gave him “the sofa” for his “Task.” Under these stairs once
lodged Puss, Tiney, and Bess; those happy hares which, alone of their
kind, have had a _local habitation_, and will always have _a name_. In
the garden, I saw where the cucumber-vine used to grow, and where Puss
used to ruminate beneath its leaves, like Jonah under his gourd. An
apple-tree was pointed out to me as “set by Mr. Cowper’s own hands.” The
garden has been pieced off, and to see the “summer-house,” I was forced
to enter, by a neighbour’s leave, another enclosure. Here is the little
nestling-place of Cowper’s poesy—the retreat where his Egeria came to
him. In the fence, is still the wicket he made, to let him into the
parsonage-grounds, when Newton was his confessor. ‘Here, then,’ I said,
‘one may fancy the lily and the rose, growing in rivalry; and another
rose _just washed in a shower_; and the _sound of the church-going
bell_, and a thousand other minute matters in themselves, all taking
their place in the poetic magazine of Cowper, and so coming into verse,
through his brain, as the mulberry leaf becomes silk, by another process
of spinning.’ It was a small field for such a harvest, and yet “the
Task” grew here.
And now, another mile brought me to the more agreeable Weston-Underwood,
the resort of all his walking days at Olney, and the dear retreat of his
later life; the dearer, because bestowed by the lovely Lady Hesketh.
This is, indeed, a residence worthy of a poet, and though all who once
rendered it so charming to Cowper have passed away, I was agreeably
surprised to find no important feature changed. A painful identity
belongs to it: you recognize, at every step, the fidelity of the poet’s
descriptive powers, and it seems impossible that he who has made the
scene part of himself, has been for half a century in his grave, while
all this survives. You enter the desolate park of the Throckmortons, and
there is “the alcove,” with its commanding view, so dear to the poet’s
eye, and Olney spire in the distance. You pass into “the Wilderness,”
now a wilderness indeed, for it is neglected and overgrown. Here are a
couple of urns, now green with moss, and lovingly clasped by ivy, but
each marked with familiar names, and graced by Cowper’s playful verse.
The one adorns the grave of “Neptune,” Sir John Throckmorton’s pointer;
the other is the monument of “Fop,” his lady’s favourite spaniel. I
hailed this memorial of “Lady Frog’s” pet; but was far more moved to
descry, before long, at the end of a flowery alley, the antique bust of
Homer, which Cowper so greatly valued, and to which he gave a Greek
inscription, which Hayley was proud to do into English:—
“The sculptor? Nameless though once dear to fame;
But this man bears an everlasting name.”
Here, then, that “stricken deer that left the herd,” was led to a sweet
covert at last, and went in and out, and found pasture, under the
guidance of one “who had himself been hurt by the archers.” With what
enchantment these haunts of hallowed genius inspired me! And yet never
felt I so melancholy before. The utter loneliness of the scene; the fact
that they who had bestowed its charm, were all, long ago, dead; and then
that painful reality—everything else there, as it should be; the Task,
no poem, but a verity, and before my eyes; but Cowper, Hayley, Austen,
Hesketh, all gone forever; these thoughts were oppressive. I sat down,
and almost wept, as I repeated the names of those who were so “lovely
and pleasant in their lives,” and who now are undivided in death! It was
an hour of deeper feeling than I had realized before, at any shrine of
departed genius, in England.
I went to the house, and rejoiced in the comfort it must have afforded
Cowper, in his latter days. It is neat and comfortable, and the village
is a pretty one, trim and thrifty in its look, and sufficiently
poetical. It has “an air of snug concealment,” which must have been most
congenial to its gifted inhabitant, and it was not unsuited to his
fondness for receiving his friends as guests. I went into the poet’s
chamber, and also into that which Lady Hesketh used to occupy. In the
former, there is a sad autograph of the poet, in lead-pencil, behind a
window-shutter. The window had been walled up, and only lately
re-opened, when the pencilling was found. It is one of the poet’s last
performances—an adieu to Weston, written there, as he left it
forever:—
“Farewell dear scenes forever closed to me,
O for what sorrows must I now exchange ye!”
No wonder he lamented a departure from such a retreat, into nearer
proximity to the bad world. Walking in the park, beneath its avenue of
ancient limes, I envied the nibbling flocks that were straying about,
and the cattle that were reclining in their shade. So peaceful! If life
were given us for ignoble devotion to self, I know of nothing within
reach of a clergyman’s humble fortune to which I should more ardently
aspire, than such an abode as Weston, where a golden mean between what
is common and what is poetical in scenery, and situation, still offers
every inducement to a man of taste to settle down, and live contentedly;
or, like Walton, “to serve God, and go a fishing.”
On returning to London, I was rejoiced to meet an old and intimate
friend, from America, whose genius has given him distinction, at home
and abroad—Mr. Huntington, the artist. With him I, once more, visited
the Crystal Palace, and enjoyed the benefit of his criticisms in
surveying the works of art, there displayed. We were interested to
observe a constant group of admiring spectators hanging around the Greek
Slave, of our countryman, Mr. Powers. Other nude figures, although many
of them were far better calculated to appeal to coarse curiosity, were
comparatively neglected, so that we could not but consider the amount of
interest which this work secured, a proof of something superior, in its
character. I own that, for my own part, I do not like it. The subject is
a sensual one, and does not appeal to any lofty sentiment. Beauty in
chains, and exposed in the shambles, is a loathesome idea, at best.
I went with Mr. Huntington to the rooms of the British Institution, in
Pall-Mall, where is a fine collection of paintings, by British and
foreign masters. It was a great advantage to me to be prepared by the
hints of so eminent an artist, for my continental tour, and often, in
the galleries of Italy, I had occasion to thank my friend for enabling
me to appreciate many things which would, otherwise, have escaped me. At
the exhibition of water-coloured paintings, I was astonished, by the
rich collection, and the exceeding beauty of many of the pictures. The
fruit, and flower pieces, of Hunt, were almost miracles. He paints a
bird’s nest, with the eggs, and every straw, so perfect, that the bird
would infallibly attempt to sit in it, and he contrives to bestow it in
a hedge of hawthorn, so green and white, and so entirely natural, that
you would not think of taking the nest, without making up your mind to
be sorely scratched. It would make May-morning of a winter-day, to have
a few such paintings to look at, and no one who loves nature could ever
be tired of them.
The weather was as hot, at this time, in London, as it is ordinarily, at
the same season, in Baltimore or New-York. It was the middle of August,
and the moon being near the full, the nights were very beautiful; and I
observed it the more, because neither sun nor moon have much credit for
making London attractive. Late at night, I could see the Wellington
statue almost as distinctly from the Marble arch, as at Hyde-park
corner, and the scenery of the Park, by moonlight, was enchanting. When
shall we have such parks in all our large towns?
Next day, with Huntington, and Gray, both of our National Academy, I
went out to Greenwich Hospital, to survey the place, and to enjoy a
parting white-bait dinner. We went down in a steamer, enjoying the
excursion the more for our comparisons of all we saw with the Bay of
New-York, and the Hudson. It was pleasant, now and then, to discern an
American vessel, and to know her at once, by her graceful form, amid a
forest of masts.
Greenwich is the great _outside_ park of London, the resort of thousands
of her pleasure-seekers, of the humble class. The Royal Observatory
stands on a commanding eminence, and the slope of its hill towards the
river, is the favourite sporting place of mammas and children. As a
prime meridian, however, I always regret that it is not deposed, by the
religion of England, which ought to take the lead in making Jerusalem
the starting point for all Christian reckonings. The wings of the
morning should rise every day, from the Holy Sepulchre, and there
evening should come down to brood, with everything to make it the first,
and the last place, in the minds and hearts of a ransomed world.
Greenwich Hospital is, indeed, a palace of the poor. On the terrace,
between its wings, one cannot but be impressed with a sense of the
greatness of a nation which thus lodges the humblest of its worn-out
defenders. The old pensioners, hobbling about, in their blue uniforms,
and cocked-hats, move your profound respect. Their wounds, and battered
visages, seem to speak of storm and shipwreck, and of shell and
broadsides, in every climate under heaven. They can tell wonderful
things of Nelson and of Collingwood; and all seem to address you, like
Burns’ hero, with the tale,
“How they served out their trade
When the Moro low was laid,
At the sound of the drum.”
In “the Painted Hall,” which is full of pictures of naval battles, one
sees how terribly their pensions have been earned. There, too, is shown
the coat worn by Nelson, when he fell, and it is stained with his blood.
It was a comfort to turn from this temple of the Maritime Mars, to that
of the Prince of Peace. The old sailors have a superb chapel,
elaborately adorned, and furnished with an altar-piece, by West, “the
shipwreck of St. Paul.” From a little book which I picked up in Paris,
written by a Frenchman, and a Romanist, I gather that the service, in
such places, in England, is very impressive, and that the contrast, in
France, is not in favour of the Romish religion. He describes the
chaunting, and apparent devotion of the soldiers, as very striking; and
he seems to have been especially struck with their responses to the Ten
Commandments. He adds—“all that would make us laugh in France:” and he
goes on to say—“if it be answered that our soldiers are at liberty to
go to mass, I reply, that’s true; but for all that, a young conscript,
religiously educated at home, would be ridiculed so unsparingly for
continuing in his pious habits, that he could not long resist the bad
examples of his comrades.” At Greenwich, the Bible and Prayer-book are
the constant companions of many an old salt; and bad as all armies and
navies must be, I could not but think that there is a great advantage,
in the _morale_, of Chelsea and Greenwich, as compared with the
Invalides.
We adjourned to our _White-bait_—a fish, according to the same French
authority, most delicate and delicious, and to be eaten only at
Greenwich, because it is necessary to transfer them, instantly, from the
water to the frying-pan, and thence to the plate, and because they are
fished only in the Thames. I fully agree with Monsieur, as to the
attractions of the _plat_, especially when enjoyed in good company. The
dinner ended, my friends accompanied me to the Southwark station, at
London, where I had all things in readiness for a start: and bidding
them a warm farewell, I reached Dover in a few hours, and soon embarked
for Ostend. The sea was calm, and heaving in long, broad, glittering
swells; and as the chalky cliffs of Dover, gleaming in the cloudless
moonlight, gradually sank in the distance, I felt that no native Briton
ever waved a more affectionate salute to the bright isle, than that with
which I said _good-night_ to Albion.