Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 February 1899 — THE POET COWPER'S HOME. [ARTICLE]

THE POET COWPER'S HOME.

Karate That ding to to VtatM Place, Sow for Sale. A little over two years ago were offered for sale the garden and summer house at Olney, attached to the residence which was occupied for so many years* by the poet Cowper. An announcement is now appearing of the forthcoming sale of the Weston-Un-derwood estate, which is near Olney and adjoining Yardley Chase. The property includes the house in which “the poet Cowper lived and produced some of his best work,” and also many objects he made famous by mention in one or other of his poems. It was to Weston, that Cowper was removed by the care of his cousin Lady HesketU, who found that the “cruel solitude” of the little town’ of Olney had a most depressing effect upon him, and that he must be placed in pleasanter surroundings if he was to escape any further attacks of insanity. The house at Weston, which was rented for Cowper in the autumn of 1786, belonged to his friend Mr. Throckmorton, of Weston hall, a Roman Catholic, in deference to whose religious opinions the poet hH '•entirely omitted or considerably toned down certain expressions he had indulged in with regard to professors of that faith. It was here that Cowper spent the remainder of his life, if we except the few sad closing years, and at Weston he was probably happier than he had ever been before. To this period belong such poems as “The Loss of the Royal George,” “The Solitude of Alexander Selkirk,” “The Poplar Field,” “The Shrubbery,” “The Lines to a Young Lady,” “To Mary,” and the tender and pathetic poem “On the Reeeipt of My Mother’s Picture.” It was while living at Weston that he wrote certain loyal verses on the recovery of George 111., Lady Hesketh persuading him to this course, with a viewtothe laureateship. Cowper, however, shrank from the idea of any office which would bring him into the light of the public gaze. The life led by the inmates of the house at Weston-Underwood was sketched in a letter written by Samuel Rose, a friend of the poet, to his sister Harriet, in 1788: “We rise at whatever hour we choose; breakfast at half after nine; take about an hour to satisfy the sentiment, not the appetite, for we talk—‘good heavens, how we* talk’—and enjoy ourselves most wonderfully. Then we separate and dispose of ourselves as our different inclinations point. Mr. Cowper to Homer, Mr. R to transcribing what is already translated, Lady Hesketh to work and to books alternately, and Mrs. Unwin, who in everything but her face is like a kind angel sent from Heaven to guard the health of our poet, is busy in domestic affairs. At one, our labors finished, the poet and I walk for two hours. . . . “At three we return and dress, and the succeeding hour brings dinner upon the table and collects again the smiling countenances of the family to partake of the neat and emal. Conversation again and then rest before 12 to enable us to rise again to the same round of innocent, virtuous pleasure.”—London Times.