THE GROVE, HIGHGATE 



times two thousand," and that beyond three hundred and fifty 

 pounds a year, he held money to be an evil. Finally, at forty-two, 

 a broken and aged man, a slave to a vice which he felt that he 

 himself was too infirm of purpose to overcome, he voluntarily put 

 himself under the care of Dr. James Gillman, of Highgate, who 

 ultimately effected a cure. All this is well known to the world 

 at large. 



Dr. Gillman, in two volumes, of which the first alone has been 

 published, has left an interesting account of the great poet's advent 

 at the Grove, Highgate, and how he came to fix upon his house 

 as his home. 



A physician wrote to him, suggesting that he should under- 

 take the professional charge of a distinguished literary man who 

 was the victim of an unfortunate habit, but was so eager to cure 

 it that he was willing to submit to any regimen, however severe. 

 " As he is desirous of retirement and a garden," he wrote, " I 

 could think of no one so readily as yourself." 



Thus the garden, the same beautiful garden shown in the drawing, 

 was the determining factor which took the author of " Christabel '* 

 to the place where he lived for twenty years. 



Dr. Adams, who made the proposal, was to drive Coleridge 



to the Grove the following evening but in the end he came alone. 



' An old gentleman of more than ordinary acquirements," says 



Dr. Gillman, was sitting by the fireside when Coleridge was 



announced. 



Anyone who knows the pleasant, old-fashioned drawing-room 

 at the Grove even as it is to-day, will readily reconstruct 

 the scene. It is a long, quaint room with several windows, 

 opening on to a verandah overlooking the garden, where 

 crocuses and a " cloud of golden daffodils "the flowers beloved 

 of Wordsworth would in daylight have been in evidence ; but 

 night was closing down the maid had shut the shutters, and 

 drawn the curtains. As it was the 9th of April, there was a 

 fire in the grate ; and wax tapers glimmered on the high mantel- 

 shelf, and on the centre-table, shedding a soft light over the 

 apartment. 



Dr. Gillman, a dignified, benevolent-looking man in his prime, 

 rose up when the guest was announced ; his wife a pretty 

 woman, fair-haired and blue-eyed, as her grandson has described 



241 16 



