Literary by-paths in old England . e. Although the house has beentransformed into labourers cottages, the largecentral doorway is still unaltered, and it is notdifficult to imagine the appearance of the build-ing as it was in the poets boyhood. Probablythe fact that he was a weakly child accounts forhis having been sent so far into the country awayfrom his London home, and it is not idle to sup-pose that his acquaintance with rural life at suchan impressionable age contributed not a little tothe early ripening of the pastoral side of hismuse. Unconsciously, perhaps, yet none theless effectivel
Literary by-paths in old England . e. Although the house has beentransformed into labourers cottages, the largecentral doorway is still unaltered, and it is notdifficult to imagine the appearance of the build-ing as it was in the poets boyhood. Probablythe fact that he was a weakly child accounts forhis having been sent so far into the country awayfrom his London home, and it is not idle to sup-pose that his acquaintance with rural life at suchan impressionable age contributed not a little tothe early ripening of the pastoral side of hismuse. Unconsciously, perhaps, yet none theless effectively, his sojourn in this lovely villagestored his mind with the simple yet attractiveimages which go to make up his picture of TheQuiet Life, a masterly poem to be placed to thecredit of a boy of twelve, and thus written fouryears after his Twyford days. Here, if anywherein the whole of England, might it be truly said, Happy the man, whose wish and careA few paternal acres bound,Content to breathe his native airIn his own IN OLD ENGLAND On the way back to Winchester, on the left-hand side of the road, and hidden by a high,ivy-clad wall, stands Twyford House, immerao-rially associated with the inception and first chap-ters of the famous Autobiography of BenjaminFranklin. Expecting, he wrote in the open-ing paragraph of that book, the enjoyment of afew weeks uninterrupted leisure, he bethoughthim to employ the time usefully by tracing thesteps by which he had raised himself to a stateof affluence and some degree of celebrity in theworld. In that year, 1771, Twyford House wasthe home of Dr. Shipley, the Bishop of St. Asaph,and here the illustrious self-taught American spent several pleasant and well-earned the house stands a row of trees knownas Franklins Grove, because there the philoso-pher was wont to pace to and fro for hours at astretch, meditating, no doubt, upon the tangledcondition of New England affairs, or perhapsconning over again those fort
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Keywords: ., bookauthorshelleyh, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookyear1906
