When students, wrote Latin as well as English verses, and the curious
in such matters, on reference to this work, will be amused by the
difference of feeling with which their _Alma Mater_ inspired them. To
Cowley the _Bowers of Granta and the Camus_ were the very seat of
inspiration; Milton thought no epithet too mean to express their
charms: yet, says Dyer, in his supplement, "it is difficult to
conceive a more brilliant example of youthful talent than Milton's
Latin Poems of that period." Though they "are not faultless, they
render what was said of Gray applicable to Milton--
'HE NEVER WAS A BOY.'"
His mulberry tree, more fortunate than either that of Shakspeare, or
the pear tree of his contemporary and patron, Oliver Cromwell, is
still shown in the Fellows' Garden of Christ College, and still "bears
abundance in fruit-time," and near it is a drooping ash, planted by
the present Marquis of Bute, when a student of Christ College.
* * * * *