Milton composed at Horton owe so much of their beauty to his country
residence as to convict him of error in attaching no more importance to
the influences of scenery. But this very excellence suggests that the
spell of scenery need not be exactly proportioned to its grandeur.

The beauties of Horton are characterized by Professor Masson as those of
"rich, teeming, verdurous flat, charming by its appearance of plenty,
and by the goodly show of wood along the fields and pastures, in the
nooks where the houses nestle, and everywhere in all directions to the
sky-bound verge of the landscape." He also notices "the canal-like
abundance and distribution of water. There are rivulets brimming through
the meadows among rushes and water-plants; and by the very sides of the
ways, in lieu of ditches, there are slow runnels, in which one can see
the minnows swimming." The distant keep of Windsor, "bosomed high in
tufted trees," is the only visible object that appeals to the
imagination, or speaks of anything outside of rural peace and
contentment. Milton's house, as Todd was informed by the vicar of the
parish, stood till about 1798. If so, however, it is very remarkable
that the writer of an account of Horton in the _Gentleman's Magazine_
for August, 1791, who speaks of Milton with veneration, and transcribes
his mother's epitaph, does not 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,