About Milton's Cottage

Milton's Cottage is the only extant home of John Milton, the great English poet and parliamentarian, in Chalfont St. Giles, Buckinghamshire. It was in this grade 1 listed XVIth century cottage, described by Thomas Ellwood as "that pretty box in St. Giles, Chalfont", that Milton completed Paradise Lost, and the idea of Paradise Regained was put to him.

The four ground floor museum rooms contain important editions of Milton's poetry, together with many prose writings that were published during his lifetime and shortly after. Hear of the extraordinary career of this blind genius vividly described, in his refuge from the plague where he wrote some of the finest poetry and feel the ambience of the setting.  The thoughts of John Milton and the diverse nature of his published works are the evidence that demonstrates why he is one of the greatest Englishmen.

Stroll around the well-stocked cottage garden, featuring many of the plants mentioned in Milton's poetry. "Laurel and Myrtle and what higher grew Of firm and fragrant leaf: on either side Acanthus, and each odourous bushy shrub Fenc'd up the verdant wall, each beauteous flower, Iris all hues, Roses and Jessamine Reard high their flourish'd beads between, and wrought Mosaic." Paradise Lost, Book 4, Line 694

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