He
had begun to write his poem "Endymion" in the Isle of Wight the year
before, and came here to revise and finish it. The house where he
resided, with its old-fashioned door and its three quaint bow windows
rising one above another, was pointed out to us, as well as a shop at
that time kept by the "three pretty milliners" in whom poor Keats was so
greatly interested. Endymion was a beautiful youth whom Selene, the
moon, wrapped in perpetual sleep that she might kiss him without his
knowledge. Keats, who was in bad health when he came to Teignmouth, was
reported to have said he could already feel the flowers growing over
him, and although he afterwards went to Rome, the warmer climate failed
to resuscitate him, and he died there in 1820, when only twenty-five
years old.
We had expected to have to walk thirty miles that day, via Newton Abbot,
before reaching Torquay; but were agreeably surprised to find we could
reduce the mileage to twenty-three and a half by crossing a bridge at
Teignmouth. The bridge was quite a formidable affair, consisting of no
less than thirty-four arches, and measured 1,671 feet from shore to
shore. It was, moreover, built of beams of wood, and as it had been in
existence since the year 1827, some of the timber seemed rather worn.
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