The poet Cowley died at the Porch House, Chertsey, on the 21st of July,
1667. There is a curious letter preserved of his condition when he
removed here from Barn Elms. It is addressed to Dr. Sprat, dated
Chertsey, 21 May, 1665, and is as follows:--
“The first night that I came hither I caught so great a cold, with
a defluxion of rheum, as made me keep my chamber ten days. And,
too, after had such a bruise on my ribs with a fall, that I am yet
unable to move or turn myself in bed. This is my personal fortune
here to begin with. And besides, I can get no money from my
tenants, and have my meadows eaten up every night by cattle put in
by my neighbours. What this signifies, or may come to in time, God
knows! if it be ominous, it can end in nothing but hanging.”----“I
do hope to recover my hurt so farre within five or six days (though
it be uncertain yet whether I shall ever recover it) as to walk
about again. And then, methinks, you and I and _the Dean_ might be
very merry upon St. Ann’s Hill. You might very conveniently come
hither by way of Hampton Town, lying there one night. I write this
in pain, and can say no more.--_Verbum sapienti._”
It is stated, by Sprat, that the last illness of Cowley was owing to his
having taken cold through staying too long among his labourers in the
meadows; but, in Spence’s _Anecdotes_ we are informed, (on the authority
of Pope,) that “his death was occasioned by a mere accident whilst his
great friend, Dean Sprat, was with him on a visit at Chertsey. They had
been together to see a neighbour of Cowley’s, who, (according to the
fashion of those times,) made them too welcome. They did not set out for
their walk home till it was too late; and had drank so deep that they
lay out in the fields all night. This gave Cowley the fever that carried
him off. The parish still talk of the drunken Dean.”