FAMOUS SHRINES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17028, 30 April 1923, Page 3

FAMOUS SHRINES.

A PIOUS PILGRIMAGE. (Written for the "Star” by Miss E. Worden.) The Old Country is just steeped in the past, and one can go deep, deep down into the history of it and he almost forever stepping on ground sacred because of its historical associations. The first pilgrimage I made was to Stoke Poges, seventeen miles from London, where Gray lived and wrote his famous Elegy. It was, on ,a spring morning that I journeyed thither with .some friends and eagerly and expectantly 1 trod the footpath across the fields besprinkled with £ow«rs, to the call of too little church spire rising above the dark tree tops. In the last field, where a lych gate led into the churchyard, stood a monument to the poet's mem-ory-—a. stope sarcophagus resting high on a massive pedestal, inscribed with his own iinei' which I noticed were becoming a little dimmed with lichen.

On the threshold we wore welcomed with boisterous greetin*» from the rooks in the towering elms nearby. All around us stood white marble stones and grey ones intermingled with clinging cypresses, and beside the church perch the aged yews were - spreading their shade. it seesoed to me. as 1

stood there, that the whole place was breathing rWe atmosphere of Gray’s immortal lines. The poet's restingplace, consisting of a plain *late-covercd tomb, lay adjacent to the church. For some time we lingered in the old church, which is small and simple in design. We had discovered that the 1 ounder of Pennsylvania was also connected with it. for we saw the Penn vault and hi* seat, but William Penn himself is buried in a Quaker buryingground a few miles away, arid near Ohalfont St Giles, whore Milton dwelt, during the plague. But to return to the church : I read on a mural brass tho name of Edward Hampden, of the same family as the patriot. John Hampden. Before wo left the verger presented us with some bark off the yew mentioned by Gray, also seme of the foliage, which was really bona fide. T doubt whether he strips the tree for every one of the numerous tourists; perhaps his stock oi b-irlc from the less famous yens had just given out! Adjoining the church we saw the Manor House which was visited by ?ik en Elisabeth, who apparently had a liking for very manor houses and castles. This manor house was also one- ■ f the many pleasant prisons oi diaries I. Going west to Bristol, we visited the church ot iSt Mary Redcliffe. the scene of Chattel-ton’s (the boy poet's) labours. Queen Elizabeth was there in lo7'C and described it as the fairest, goodliest, and most famous parish church in England.” Ohatterton was horn in the school house close by. and ir a corner of the grounds stands a statue of him in the uniform of a Bluecoat boy. Little is known of the early history of the church. a,s ho and his father destroyed mort of the valuable documents relating to it. I spent some time up in the muniment room, and "was shown the old chests that, once contained the church documents I was hew- that Chatter ton worked, tualiy passing off Ids own’work as°that M the a m ien vs. in a beautiful but tragic picture ir; iSu Art Gallery 1 saw him depicted, lifeless, half thrown over a casement sea. with an empty phial lying on the floor beside him.

The original picture of the granting of. tho Charter to the Cabots by Henry \!J. is also in that gallery, Mo also went into Shakespere’s country. which has some of the most beautiful scenery in aTI England. Stratford on-Avon, with its rows of red-brick houses has a somewhat modern appoar-a-nce, and it is one of those places where the tourist element is usurping more than its rightful share. One afternoon I walked out to Shotterv, just a mile or so, to sec Anne Hathaway’s cottage. Kenilworth Castle is in the same neighbourhood, and the first time 1 sa-v it was at the close of a summer’s day. Viv mind travels back to Amy Rohs visit- there during a. time of luxury and merriment. Her tomb we saw at Oxford. While walking along the High Street there, a noisy ’bus rumbled along. bearing the sign " Cum nor Hall.” Amy’s tragic death through the trapdoor flashed across my mind. For that ’bus to bear the words Cmnnor Hall ” appeared to me sacrilegious. as did many other things in connection with the ancient sights of England. For instance, around the ruins ol castles and many other places of note c.:r!c sellers of guide hooks and postcards. photographers, etc. Then, may- >( a ehar-a-banc laden with people will drive up and a. rush is made at the u .” ,s - which absolutely destroys the pint of the pas.. T-\.r myself. I preferred to visit t.lms' •••lace* of season, or at the close quilitv for ihe mind to be able to con mre up a picture of the life that was • ncr entwined around the place; " To see aarain with. men.orvV- *v e The shrines where England's greatest lb T»oih set the heart once more aglow. And fan the spark divine."