Escape and Other Essays

Arthur Christopher Benson
Escape and Other Essays

The Project Gutenberg Etext of Escape and Other Essays
by Arthur Christopher Benson (#7 in our series by Arthur Christopher
Benson)
Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
this or any other Project Gutenberg file.
Please do not remove this header information.
This header should be the first thing seen when anyone starts to view
the eBook. Do not change or edit it without written permission. The
words are carefully chosen to provide users with the information
needed to understand what they may and may not do with the eBook.
To encourage this, we have moved most of the information to the end,
rather than having it all here at the beginning.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of
Volunteers!*****
Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get eBooks, and further
information, is included below. We need your donations.
The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3)
organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541

Find out about how to make a donation at the bottom of this file.
Title: Escape and Other Essays
Author: Arthur Christopher Benson
Release Date: November, 2003 [Etext #4652] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on February 20,
2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
The Project Gutenberg Etext of Escape and Other Essays by Arthur
Christopher Benson ******This file should be named eoess10.txt or
eoess10.zip******
Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, eoess11.txt
VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, eoess10a.txt
Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US unless
a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not keep eBooks in
compliance with any particular paper edition.
The "legal small print" and other information about this book may now
be found at the end of this file. Please read this important information,
as it gives you specific rights and tells you about restrictions in how the
file may be used.
*** This etext was created by Don Lainson ([email protected])
& Charles Aldarondo ([email protected])
ESCAPE
AND OTHER ESSAYS

By ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER BENSON
I love people that leave some traces of their journey behind them, and I
have strength enough to advise you to do so while you can. --Thomas
Gray.
NEW YORK
1915

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 1. Escape 2. Literature and Life 3. The New Poets 4. Walt
Whitman 5. Charm 6. Sunset 7. The House of Pengersick 8. Villages 9.
Dreams 10. The Visitant 11. That Other One 12. Schooldays 13.
Authorship 14. Herb Moly and Heartsease 15. Behold, This Dreamer
Cometh

NOTE

I desire to recourd my obligations to the Editor of the Century
Magazine, and to the Editor of the Cornhill Magazine, for their
permission to include in this volume certain essays which appeared first
in their pages.
A. C. B.

INTRODUCTION
1

I walked to-day down by the river side. The Cam is a stream much
slighted by the lover of wild and romantic scenery; and its chief merit,
in the eyes of our boys, is that it approaches more nearly to a canal in
its straightness and the deliberation of its slow lapse than many more
famous floods--and is therefore more adapted for the maneuvres of
eight-oared boats! But it is a beautiful place, I am sure; and my ghost
will certainly walk there, "if our loves remain," as Browning says, both
for the sake of old memories and for the love of its own sweet
peaceableness. I passed out of the town, out of the straggling suburbs,
away from tall, puffing chimneys, and under the clanking railway
bridge; and then at once the scene opens, wide pasture-lands on either
side, and rows of old willows, the gnarled trunks holding up their
clustered rods. There on the other side of the stream rises the charming
village of Fen Ditton, perched on a low ridge near the water, with
church and vicarage and irregular street, and the little red-gabled Hall
looking over its barns and stacks. More and more willows, and then,
lying back, an old grange, called Poplar Hall, among high-standing
trees; and then a little weir, where the falling water makes a pleasant
sound, and a black-timbered lock, with another old house near by, a
secluded retreat for the bishops of Ely in medieval times. The bishop
came thither by boat, no doubt, and abode there for a few quiet weeks,
when the sun lay hot over the plain; and a little farther down is a tiny
village
Continue reading on your phone by scaning this QR Code

 / 76
Tip: The current page has been bookmarked automatically. If you wish to continue reading later, just open the Dertz Homepage, and click on the 'continue reading' link at the bottom of the page.