success of his Poem, they were kept in his own heart: not a syllable of doubt was uttered even to his trusted friend. Elwood's words are to be noted,-" After some common discourses had passed between us, he called for a manuscript of his." The common discourse was doubtless but the natural covering which reserved men often adopt to veil their most intense emotions.

We must now take our leave of Chalfont St. Giles'; but we shall, through many a year, keep in our hearts the memory of this time-worn cottage. We shall often, in moments of solitary musing, recall the thoughts and revive the emotions produced by our first visit to this quiet retreat of the Poet.

HORTON, the other residence of Milton in the neighbourhood of Eton, claims a short notice. To some lovers of Milton, this village suggests more impressive recollections of the poet than Chalfont. It was to Horton he retired immediately after leaving Cambridge. Here he passed six years of his life, from 1631 to 1637, in a deeper study of the Greek and Roman poets : here he extended his researches into the rich field of Italian literature: here he communed with the mighty masters of English song,-Chaucer, Spenser, Jonson, Shakspeare, and Fletcher: here he elaborately disciplined his wonderful powers of versification, and gave, in the "linked sweetness long drawn out," a further proof of the masculine force and rich beauty of the English tongue: here too the Allegro, the Penseroso, and the Comus, were probably composed. It is not therefore without reason that Horton claims remembrance, when