ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the three poems on Fairfax's grounds offer detailed witness to the private man following his retirement. This is particularly surprising because of the exclusive position that Marvell holds and the unique witness that he brings to both Cromwell and Fairfax at such important times of their lives. Certainly, there can be few better placed than Marvell to witness the troubled years of Fairfax's retirement in the early 1650s, when he spent a period as a language tutor to the general's daughter. But it is Fairfax's family life that allows Marvell to reassess his troubled attitude towards privacy and withdrawal. While recent studies of 'Upon Appleton House' have used thematic approaches, including the politics of architecture, horticulture, and ecology, to inform the debate on Fairfax's retirement, the contextual link that has yet to be pursued in these poems is property as it relates to selfhood.
