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Show WROTE FAMOUS POEM THERE Milton's Cottage at Chalfont St Gllei the Shrine to Which Number-lees Number-lees Pilgrims Co. London Milton's cottage at Chal font St. Gilo, the shrine of number It'ite pllgrlma, tho pretty spot to which travelers Journey from the other aide of tho world, la particularly attrao tlvo Just now, with its climbing vines In all their fresh young; beauty, Its latticed windows open to the May sunshine, Its garden sweet with old fashioned flowers, Its orchard whits with cherry blossoms. It has hero altered but little since Milton lived there, being still the "pretty box" that bla friend Ell wood, the Quaker, took oil Ones Homo of Great Writer. for the blind poet when he wished tc leave London to escape the plague. Tho room in hich he aat and wrott Is now a small museum, containing letters, pictures and various editions of his works. We can easily ImaKlne It as it must have been on that day when the two friends were talking together, to-gether, and Milton produced the poem he had lately written, asking Kllwood to read It at his leisure. It was as Kllwood says, "that excellent poem, entitled 'Paradise Lost'." and then b continued: "After I had. with my best atten-Hon, atten-Hon, read It through, I made him another an-other visit and returned him bis book with due acknowledgement of the favor he had done me In communicating communicat-ing It to me. He asked me how 1 liked It and what I thought of it, which I modestly but freely told hlra; and after some further discourse about It, I pleasantly aald to him: Thou hast said much hero of Paradise Lost, but what haat.tbou to say of Paradise Para-dise Found f" Milton's cottage is at the end of the picturesque Irregular Tillage street. Its windows look out on fields and hedgerows and on tho fragrant garden which seems to be but a part of them. The back of the house Joins on to other houses, In appearance hardly less Interesting than Itself. In one ol them Dreakspeare, Milton's publisher, once lived. It Is still a charming place In spite of the fact that one of Its rooms hss become a butcher's 1 shop; that Joints of mest bang In one 1 of its windows. Another house calls Itself "The Old Cottage,- and claims I to be the oldest in the village. This ' Is a shop, too, but of far more artistic ' quality, a curiosity shop, with all sorts of quaint things, peculiar to the ' county or connected with Its worthies, i The back windows look out on the I cherry orchsrd which stretched from i Milton's cottage to Hreakspcare'i farm. It is said that Milton used to 1 find his wsy thither through the or i chard, g-ulldlng himself by the tree trunks. In fancy one could see the blind poet stepping slowly through I the rich grsss. holding out bla bands to touch the familiar trees. - i |