The moon has been an important subject in English poetry dating back to Chaucer in the 14th century, who was an astronomer as well as a poet. There is a crater on the far side of the moon named for Chaucer.
A who’s who of 19th-century American authors who rented or visited Laurel Cottage includes Harriet Beecher Stowe, Herman Melville, Nathanial Hawthorne and the English poet Matthew Arnold.
