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Milton’s Cottage, Chalfont St. Giles

Milton’s Cottage, Chalfont St. Giles.jpg Esher Old ChurchThumbnailsElectrical Power HouseEsher Old ChurchThumbnailsElectrical Power HouseEsher Old ChurchThumbnailsElectrical Power HouseEsher Old ChurchThumbnailsElectrical Power HouseEsher Old ChurchThumbnailsElectrical Power House

Chalfont St. Giles lies down in the valley of the Misbourne, across the high road which runs left and right, and past the Pheasant Inn. It is a place made famous by Milton’s residence here, when he fled London and the Great Plague. The cottage—the “pretty cot,” as he aptly calls it, taken for him by Thomas Ellwood, the Quaker—is still standing, and is the last house on the left-hand side of the long village street. The poet could only have known it to be a “pretty cot” by repute, for he was blind.