This pretty little Buckinghamshire village has become almost as
celebrated as its neighbour Stoke Poges, on account of having been the
home of John Milton. The poet's cottage is the last on the left side at
the top of the village street. As one may see from the illustration, it
is a very picturesque, half-timbered house, whose leaded windows look
into a typical country garden. In 1887 a public subscription was raised
and the cottage was purchased. Visitors are therefore able to see the
interior as well as the exterior of Milton's home, which, it should be
mentioned, is the only one existing to-day of the various houses he
occupied. For those who are not residents in the parish a charge of
sixpence is made for admission. The poet's room, which is on the right
on entering, is rather dark, and has a low ceiling. One notices the
wide, open fireplace where the white-bearded old man would sit in winter
days, and the lattice-paned windows through which in summer-time came
the humming of bees and the scent of the flowers growing in the
old-fashioned garden. The pleasant indications of his surroundings must
have been a great solace to the blind old man. In these simple
surroundings one must picture Milton dictating his stately verse, with
his thoughts concentrated on the serried ranks of the hosts of heaven.

Milton came to Chalfont in 1665, in order to escape from the plague. His
eldest daughter was at that time about seventeen years of age, and as
she and her sisters are supposed to have remained with their father
until about 1670, it is probable that they came to Chalfont with him.

The church of Chalfont St. Giles has a Norman font, and there are other
traces of Norman work in the bases of the pillars and elsewhere. The
south wall of the nave and the north chapel are specially interesting on
account of their frescoes.