OR PAPERS AND NOTES ON THE HISTORY, ANTIQUITIES, AND ARCHITECTURE TOGETHER WITH TRANSACTIONS OF THE Architectural and Archæological Society FOR THR COUNTY OF BUCKINGHAM. PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. VOL. IV. AYLESBURY: PRINTED BY G. T. DE FRAINE. 1870. RECORDS OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. THE POETS OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.- An Address delivered by the VEN. ARCHDEACON BICKERSTETH, D.D., at the Annual Meeting of the Archæological Society at Chicheley Hall, July 15, 1869. THE COUNTY of BUCKINGHAM can claim the honour of an association with several poets of distinction. EDMUND WALLER, born at Coleshill, a detached portion of Hertfordshire in the parish of Amersham, March 30, 1605, was essentially a Buckinghamshire man. His father held a considerable estate in that parish. His mother was of the family of Hampden. The poet represented Amersham in two or three successive parliaments. He was successful as an orator, more so than as a statesman. In this latter capacity, if we may accept Clarendon's estimate of him, he was timorous and vacillating. He died at Hall Barn in Beaconsfield, October 21, 1687, and was buried in the churchyard of that parish. According to the inscription on his tomb, said to have been written by Rymer, the compiler of the "Foedera," Waller appears to have retained his powers as a poet to extreme old age: : "Edmundi Waller hic jacet id quantum morti cessit, Qui inter Poetas sui temporis facile princeps, Lauream quam meruit adolescens, Octogenarius haud abdicavit." A far more illustrious name than Waller's is that of his contemporary, JOHN MILTON. Milton was born in London, December 9th, 1608, about three years after Waller, though Waller outlived him thirteen years. He was descended of a good family, to which Milton in Oxfordshire gave its name. His father, a scrivener by profession, and a man of learning and accomplishments, provided carefully for the education of the future poet. He sent him to St. Paul's, and afterwards to Christ's College, Cambridge. Milton the father possessed at this time a small estate at Horton in this county, where his son resided with him for five years after leaving Cambridge. During those years he read diligently the Greek and Latin authors; and laid the foundation of his future fame by producing his "Comus and Lycidas," and perhaps also his "L'Allegro and Il Penseroso." After this he went abroad for some time; ' and it was in the course of his travels that he used those memorable words: "I hope by labour and intense study, which I take to be my portion in this life, joined with a strong propensity of nature, to leave something so written to after times as they should not willingly let it die." Milton was a striking example of the combination of lofty genius and intense application. About the age of thirty-six his eyesight began to fail him, and at forty-six he was blind. But his spirit and his genius triumphed over this formidable obstacle to literary distinction. His thoughts were at this time concentrated, it is said, upon three or four great objects: 1, A Latin Dictionary or Thesaurus; 2, An Epic Poem; 3, A History of England; and 4, A Body of Divinity. As for the epic poem, "Paradise Lost "" seems to have been upon his mind from a very early period. It was first set forth in a dramatic form, after the manner of the ancient Mysteries. A sketch of it, in this its rudimental state, is printed in "Johnson's Lives of the Poets." Milton's blindness certainly retarded his progress in his other great literary pursuits; but it was no bar to his powers of imagination; and so the epic poem advanced while the other great works stood still. It is probable that the great poet gave his last finishing touches to this inimitable poem during his residence at Chalfont St. Giles's, whither the Plague in London had driven him in 1665. It was at Chalfont also that he received from his friend Elwood, the Quaker, the suggestion which led to the production of "Paradise Regained." It is probable that much of this poem was composed at Chalfont. It may be interesting, in these days of multiplied authorship, to know what was the kind of remuneration that the most gifted authors received for their writings. The MS. of "Paradise Lost" was sold, April 27, 1667, to a publisher named "Samuel Simmons," for the sum of £5, with the understanding that the author was to receive £5 more when 1300 copies had been sold. Milton died November 10, 1674, and was buried in the Church of St. Giles, Cripplegate. One more poet must receive a passing homage before we come to William Cowper. THOMAS GRAY, like Milton, the son of a scrivener, was born in Cornhill, in the City of London, November 26, 1716. He was educated first at Eton, and then at Cambridge, where he entered as a pensioner at Peterhouse at the age of eighteen. There he spent almost the whole of his life; but from 1741 to 1758, his summer vacations were passed with his mother and aunt at Stoke Poges in this county. He was first publicly known as a poet in 1742, in which year he wrote his "Ode on Eton College." In 1750 he produced his far-famed "Elegy in a Country Churchyard." More than one churchyard is claimed as having inspired this beautiful composition; but there seems sufficient reason for giving the preference to Stoke. Mr. Gray was much esteemed by his contemporaries as a man of great learning and varied accomplishments; and it is no small praise of him, that Cowper pronounced him to be the only poet, since Shakspeare, entitled to the character of sublime. Gray died at Cambridge, July 30, 1771; and was buried, by his own desire, in the same vault with his mother, in Stoke Churchyard. Nearly eighty years afterwards a monument was erected to his memory by Mr. John Penn in the adjacent grounds. Thus, while South Buckinghamshire is identified with the sweetness and smoothness of Waller, the strength and originality of Milton, and the flowing cadences of Gray, the North of the County has its compensation in being enriched with the pleasing measures of the amiable, gifted, and pious Cowper. WILLIAM COWPER, the son of Dr. Cowper, Rector of |