Page:Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea 1903.djvu/49

 INTRODUCTION xlv ���an adequate, picture of Heneage Finch in this East well life. In a poetical appeal to Dafnis written about 1700, in which Ardelia urges him to leave his usual occupations for a walk in the fields, we have incidentally a summary of the interests of this retired courtier and soldier. He follows with steady attention all the details of the campaigns in behalf of his old Master James, and the work of Vauban, Lewis's chief engineer, is minutely studied. But there are other and more peaceful interests. Mr. Finch is attracted by geographical re- search and is absorbed in the work of Nicolas and Guillaume Sanson, the French geographers. He busies himself with mathematical drawing. He particularly enjoys doing illu- minations on vellum. Against the tyranny of these pursuits Ardelia makes playful protest. The partner entirely suited to her mind should discover that reading even the softest poetry about nature could not vie with seeing nature itself, that the best "carmine and imported blew" cannot compete with the bright colors of the corn-flower and the poppy, that faery circles on the green are of more worth than the truest line compasses can draw, and that all Sanson' s facts about the universe are as naught before the joy of one perfect English day spent among the fields and groves. So eager a delight in outdoor life must have been infectious, and we can hardly imagine Dafnis insensible to Ardelia's pleadings. His interest in Eastwell, however, took another and more learned direction, that of antiquarian research. He was an enthusiastic believer, for instance, in the legend that Richard Plantagenet had served as a brick-layer at Eastwell when the house of Sir Moyle Finch was built ; that Sir Moyle, on discovering the royal workman, had granted him his wish for a palace of one room built in a field ; and that an ancient unmarked tomb in Eastwell Church covered the remains of the hapless Richard. It was through Mr. Finch that the legend first saw light. Dr. Brett related the story in a let- ��� �