London and South-Western Railway.
"The curfew tolls the knell of parting day" has immortalised the
otherwise unimportant district of Stoke Poges--a parish embracing
numerous small hamlets.
Leaving Slough by the north end of the railway bridge, one turns first
to the right and then to the left, and soon after leaving the
uninteresting bricks and mortar of the town, one enters some of the most
beautiful lanes in the home counties. At the first cross road one turns
to the right, and again through an open gate to the left, and thence a
field path leads to the churchyard.
The little church, which is always open, has walls of old red brick and
flint, with patches of rough plaster. It is wonderfully picturesque,
with its partial covering of ivy and beautiful background of fine old
trees, and no one can view the scene at sunset without recalling Gray's
immortal _Elegy written in a Country Churchyard_--those exquisite verses
which breathe in every line the peace of an ideal country scene. To a
lover of Nature there can be nothing more beautiful than the lines--
Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,
And all the air a solemn stillness holds;
Save where the beetle wheels his drony flight,
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds.
Near the east wall of the church is the red brick tomb where Gray sleeps
his last sleep, and in the meadow by the chancel window stands the huge
cenotaph raised to his memory by John Penn. Of the little cottage where
he spent his summer vacations and wrote the _Elegy_ nothing now remains.
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