Coventry Patmore . is in the writings of Petrarch and Dante,and especially in the Canzoniere of the former,that we must look for examples of the sourceof Patmores later poetic form. At the close of 1865, as it was no longernecessary for him to work for his living, and asa tendency to lung complaint warned him ofthe danger of remaining in London, Patmoreresigned his position as an assistant in theLibrary of the British Museum, and withdrewto the country. He bought two contiguousestates, covering about four hundred acres, onthe borders of Ashdown Forest in was an ancient, b
Coventry Patmore . is in the writings of Petrarch and Dante,and especially in the Canzoniere of the former,that we must look for examples of the sourceof Patmores later poetic form. At the close of 1865, as it was no longernecessary for him to work for his living, and asa tendency to lung complaint warned him ofthe danger of remaining in London, Patmoreresigned his position as an assistant in theLibrary of the British Museum, and withdrewto the country. He bought two contiguousestates, covering about four hundred acres, onthe borders of Ashdown Forest in was an ancient, but uncomfortable andneglected house, and this, with the whole ofboth estates, had to be taken in hand and im-proved. Nothing in the past experience ofPatmore had prepared him for such labours ;but his remarkable business ability only re-quired an opportunity to develop itself. Theproblem before him was to make his househealthy, habitable and architecturally pleasing ;to convert the land adjoining it from its aspect. Coventry Patmore. From a Photograph by G. Bntds/taw, 1886. Hampstead and Heron s Ghyll 129 of a somewhat neglected farm into the suitablesetting of a gentlemans residence ; to masterall the details of agricultural management,game-preserving, and the duties of a landlord ;and to do all this with extreme economy, sothat each step taken might enhance the valueof the estate by more than the he solved the problem is told in the littlevolume entitled How I Managed, and, Im-provedmy Estate (1888), a book which goes far to out-balance the charges so often brought againstpoets as persons of no business capacity. After1868 it was the garden, the fish-ponds and thewoods which engaged his attention. The exquisite serenity of this active and yethealthy and cheerful life is reflected on muchof the verse that he wrote at this time. Hisinvitation to Felicity was perfectly respondedto :— So with me walk,And view the dreaming field and bossy autumn wood,And how in h
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