Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
Gerard Manley Hopkins both went to college in Oxford (Balliol College) and later worked there as a priest. He definitely knew the territory. (Source)
Hopkins hated cities. As a priest and a teacher, he moved around quite a bit, to Liverpool, Glasgow, and finally to Dublin, where he contracted typhoid fever thanks to a polluted water supply. Looks like he enjoyed the country life for good reason. (Source)
Hopkins spent some time in Wales studying theology in 1874. It's thought that the influence of the Welsh language led him to come up with his famous "sprung rhythm" approach. (Source)