tted
quietly--the royalists thought too quietly--to the dominion of the
Protector, but his whole life proved that he was no traitor. At the
Restoration, that great national disappointment, his claims upon the
ungrateful monarch were met by a taunt and a false insinuation--he was told
that his pardon was his reward! Wood said, "he lost the place by certain
enemies of the Muses;" certain "friends of the Muses," however, procured
for him the lease of the Porch-house and farm at Chertsey, held under the
Queen, and the great desire of his life--solitude--was obtained.

[Illustration: COWLEY'S HOUSE--GARDEN FRONT.]

COWLEY'S HOUSE--GARDEN FRONT.

The place still seems a meet dwelling for a poet, and is, perhaps, even
more attractive to strangers than St. Anne's hill. The porch, which caused
his residence to be called "The Porch-house," was taken down during the
last century by the father of its present proprietor, the Rev. John Crosby
Clarke, and the house is now known as "Cowley House."(1) It is situated
near the bridge which crosses a narrow and rapid stream, in a lonely part
of Guildford Street; a latticed window which overhangs the road is the
window of the room in which the poet expired; on the outside wall Mr.
Clarke has recorded his reason for removing the porch. "The porch of this
house, which projected ten feet into the highway, was taken down in the
year 1786, for the safety and accommodation of the public."

"Here the last accents flowed from Cowley's tongue."

[Illustration: STAIRCASE--COWLEY'S HOUSE.]

STAIRCASE--COWLEY'S HOUSE.

The appearance of the house from Guildford Street, is no index to its size
or conveniences.(2) You enter by a side gate, and the new front of the
dwelling is that of a comfortable and gentlemanly home; the old part it is
said was built in the reign of James the First, and what remains is
sufficiently quaint to bear out the legend; the old and new are much
mingled, and the modern part consists of one or two bed-rooms, a large
dining-room, and a drawing-room, commanding a delicious garden view, the
meanderings of the stream, and a long tract of luxuriant meadows,
terminated by the high and richly timbered ground of St. Anne's Hill. A
portion of the old stairway is preserved, the wood is not as has been
stated oak, but sweet chestnut. One of the rooms is panelled with oak, and
Cowley's study is a small