Milton's Cottage.
"In recording the publication of "Paradise Lost" in 1667, we have passed
over the interval of Milton's life immediately subsequent to the
completion of the poem in 1663. The first incident of any importance is
his migration to Chalfont St. Giles, near Beaconsfield, in
Buckinghamshire, about July, 1665, to escape the plague then devastating
London. Ell wood, whose family lived in the neighbourhood of Chalfont,
had at his request taken for him "a pretty box" in that village; and we
are, says Professor Masson, "to imagine Milton's house in Artillery Walk
shuttered up, and a coach and a large wagon brought to the door, and
the blind man helped in, and the wife and the three daughters following,
with a servant to look after the books and other things they have taken
with them, and the whole party driven away towards Giles-Chalfont.""
Extract from "Life of John Milton" (Archive)
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