Poet’s Tower

Abstract

Mr Falconer, the exquisite and sensitive, if passive, hero of Gryll Grange was so haunted by the daydream Milton sketched in Il Penservso, of living remote in ‘some high lonely tower’, that he purchased a tower and, until he met Miss Gryll, lived in it a life of quiet studious ease. There was another inspiration besides that of Milton; he also wished to imitate a recluse, whom he called Lord Noirmont, who lived on the top of a tower, attended by a daughter or niece, until the latter departed to get married. Mr Falconer told Dr Opimian that he thought

This was associated with some affliction that was cured, or some mystery that was solved, and that the hermit returned into the everyday world. I do not know when I read it, but I have always liked the idea of living like Lord Noirmont, when I shall have become a sufficiently disappointed man.