allude to the existence of his house.  Its site is traditionally identified with that of Berkyn Manor, near the church, and an old pigeon-house is asserted to be a remnant of the original building.  The elder Milton was no doubt merely the tenant; his landlord is said to have been the Earl of Bridgewater, but as there is no evidence of the Earl having possessed property in Horton, the statement may be merely an inference from Milton’s poetical connection with the family.  If not Bridgewater, the landlord was probably Bulstrode, the lord of the manor, and chief personage in the village.  The Miltons still kept a footing in the metropolis.  Christopher Milton, on his admission to the Inner Temple in September, 1632, is described as second son of John Milton of London, and subsequent legal proceedings disclose that the father, with the aid of his partner, was still doing business as a scrivener in 1637.  It may be guessed that the veteran cit would not be sorry to find himself occasionally back in town.  What with social exclusiveness, political and religious controversy, and uncongeniality of tastes, the Miltons’ country circle of acquaintance was probably narrow.  After five years of country life the younger Milton at all events thought seriously of taking refuge in an Inn of Court, “wherever there is a pleasant and shady walk,” and tells Diodati, “Where I am now I live obscurely and in a cramped manner.”  He had only just made the acquaintance of his distinguished neighbour, Sir Henry Wotton, Provost of Eton, by the beginning of 1638, though it appears that he was previously acquainted with John Hales.

Milton’s five years at Horton were nevertheless the happiest of his life.  It must have been an unspeakable relief to him to be at length emancipated from compulsory exercises, and to build up his mind without nod or beck from any quarter.  For these blessings he was chiefly indebted to his father, whose industry and prudence had procured his independence and his rural retirement, and whose tender indulgence and noble confidence dispensed him from what most would have deemed the reasonable condition that he should at least earn his own living.  “I will not,” he exclaims to his father, “praise thee for thy fulfilment of the ordinary duties of a parent, my debt is heavier (me poscunt majora).  Thou hast neither made me a merchant nor a barrister":—­

           “Neque enim, pater, ire jubebas
    Qua via lata patet, qua pronior area lucri,
    Certaque condendi fulget spes aurea nummi: 
    Nec rapis ad leges, male custoditaque gentis
    Jura, nec insulsis damnas clamoribus aures.”