A Day at Penshurst 
THE GARDEN ENTRANCE PENSHURST 
of the dance, some three feet into the air. 
Elizabeth is said to have made frequent 
visits to Penshurst Place, and she doubtless 
brought with her enough of the material of 
her brilliant court to thoroughly arouse the 
quiet village from its accustomed lethargy. 
What beautiful glimpses must have been hers 
as she looked from the mullioned windows 
over the formal garden, over yew hedges and 
walls to the wooded slopes which form the 
horizon of this abode of quiet and peace. 
Along the noble “ Sacharissa walk,” a 
favorite haunt of Sidney’s on a bright sum¬ 
mer’s morning, must have been gathered 
many an inspiration for his “ Arcadia,” the 
actual writing of which, however, took place at 
Wilton while enduring a short exile from the 
capricious court of Elizabeth. To Penshurst 
he brought his friend Spenser, who, amidst 
these lovely surroundings wrote his pastoral 
poem, “ The Shepheards Calendar,” which he 
dedicated to his friend and patron Sidney. 
How easy to picture, too, the happy days, 
when returning from his journeyings in 
foreign lands, Sir Philip wandering amongst 
these lovely gardens, ’neath the fruit trees 
on the soft grassy paths, dotted with white 
daisies, deeply in love with his Penelope, 
daughter of the Earl of Essex, wrote : 
“ In grove most rich of shade 
Where birds wanton music made 
May, then young his pied weeds showing 
New perfumed with flowers fresh growing 
Astrophel with Stella sweet 
Did for mutual comfort meet. 
To love Sidney is to love Penshurst. 
The two seem still inseparable. A day 
spent with him in his favorite haunts in the 
secluded nooks of his garden, listening to 
the same bird-notes that he heard, breathing 
the same freshness in the spring air, attunes 
our temper to that of England’s historian 
who characterizes in these glowing words 
the hero who, while necessarily thrown into 
intimate relations with the corrupt court life 
of his time yet kept pure his own white soul. 
“ Sidney, the nephew of Lord Leicester, 
was the idol of his time, and perhaps no 
figure reflects the age more fully and more 
beautifully. Fair as he was brave, quick of 
wit as of affection, noble and generous in 
temper, dear to Elizabeth as to Spenser, the 
darling of the court and of the camp, his 
learning and his genius made him the center 
of the literary world which was springing 
into birth on English soil.The 
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