COWPER'S LOVE OF THE COUNTRY.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 230, 28 September 1929, Page 10 (Supplement)

COWPER'S LOVE OF THE COUNTRY.

William Cowper ie a poet who is not in fashion nowadays, but lovers of country life hold his poems in affection, because o{ Cowper's deep love of Nature, and especially of trees. Cowper lived almost entirely in the' Country, in one neighbourhood, and in his poems he described the scenes of his daily walks. His association for so many years with Olney, in Buckinghamshire, and the village of Weston Underwood, nearby, has made that part of the Ouse Valley famous. The place remains not 'very different from what it was in Cowper's day, a century and a-half ago. 1 One of the poet's favourite\walks was from Olney to Weston Park, about a mils away, to see his friend Throckmorton. His way lay through woods and avenues in the park, eo designed that they have held the world's admiration from Cowper'e day till modern times. The chief glory of the place was an avenue of about 200 magnificent lime trees. Now many of these trees ihave been felled, and a group about an alcove which makes a viewpoint in the poet's stroll has been almost entirely destroyed, and the whole avenue is threatened.