COLLOQUY CHAPTER II. "Whate'er you see, whate'er you feel, display THE habitation of the individual with whom I had thus become acquainted, and for whom I was sensible of a sudden and singular interest, was situate in one of the pleasantest environs of London. The day was in a deep decline at the period of my presentment, but yielded still abundant light about the Lodge to display the neatness of its external aspect, which, as well as the arrangement of a limited parterre, bespoke its owner's sense of chasteness and propriety. The house was in its character more rural than, in that neighbourhood, suburban dwellings are in general; and whilst its size and situation might have adapted it for the retreat of a merchant, the absence of certain features pleasant to the eyes of a commerçant, convinced you that it was not the harbour of a merchantman, or that if it was, its appearance guaranteed his good taste and true gentility. [I protest, en passant, against any illiberal deduction from this remark, which merely implicates goût, not worth:-I rejoice over several clients in the commercial interest-all honorable men, very.] The entrance-gate opened by a peculiar catch, and formed part of a wooden fencing of lattice-work, which, being high and over-run with ivy, concealed from pedestrian passers-by the lower rooms of the Lodge. The house also was nearly covered with the same vagrant root, displaying two distinct hues that which grew upon the projections of the building being of a deeper green than that which overspread its recesses. A few vases and rustic flower-stands were dispersed in judicious display, and were garlanded with the snowdrop and primrose. And opposite the housedoor, and commanding obliquely the outer gate, a roomy kennel (also over-run with ivy) was established, from which there partially protruded the caput of a mastiff, "lifelike and awful to view," though merely carved and colored (as you discovered on a closer and keener scrutiny), and representing the sentinel as keeping a vigilant eye upon the wicket, although in couchant attitude. The public thoroughfare to which the domicile was contiguous, was not the most-frequented route to the metropolis, though sufficiently peopled; yet, from the height and density of the fence that bounded it, the gate was no sooner closed on the inside, than you seemed in a realm sacred to Silence-in a sanctuary upon whose stillness there intruded only the fitful note of some drowsy wood-warbler, nestling down for the night, very languidly carolled, but not on that account the less heart-soothing, 66 as it sank On the lull'd ear, its melody that drank." And many a weary wing had its quiet resting-place there—not more secure in leafy solitudes than in the depths of that redundant ivy and the guardianship of the kind heart it sheltered. The stillness that reigned without the Lodge presided more intensely withina realisation of Peace made palpable-Quietness (like Darkness once in Egypt) that might be felt. Windows, some partially and others wholly composed of amber-colored glass, imparted to the interior a dim, religious light, of that chastened hue, neither silvery nor golden purely, but a rich commingling of bothsuch, fair Lady, as your own starry orbs may have witnessed in the west at eventide, ere the Day's lustrous orb had suffused the horizon with the deep crimson radiance which consummates his setting. There is a peculiarly-tranquillising influence in that soft amber light; and perhaps from associating it with the quietude that prevails at sunset, or with the solemn splendour which it sheds over sacred places, we connect it instinctively with serenity. The apartment in which I found the genius loci, had an air of luxurious comfort, utterly apart from ostentation; the walls supported the effigies of six generations of his fathers; and though the room was not large, the chief portion of the space left unoccupied by his ancestors was devoted to the accommodation of four capacious bird-cages," the lodging" as he observed smilingly, the instant he perceived my eye upon them,) "the lodging of a few parlour-boarders, in addition to a numerous singing-class in the eaves and leaves without. I feel," he continued, in reply to a remark I made connected with his in-door aviary," I feel, if not a sacred, an 'home-felt delight,' in the strains of my domestic quire, which, by-the-bye, the last few days of warmth and sunshine have driven to such excess of riot, as made them almost vex with mirth the drowsy ear of Night?' but my joy was well-nigh at an end, and my band in danger of being broken-up, by a doctrine of humanity taught with the power of poesy by that dear Disturber in the North, the undying CHRISTOPHER of that name, for whom I will not impute to you the barbarism of a want of love and reverence. He denominates the singing of caged birds a rueful simulation of music;' and' upon this hint I spake,' though loth, a sentence of emancipation in favor of that unconscious captive roosting on the upper perch there, (still wide awake, per Hercule!) my feathered knight, Sir Frederic-to whom esteem yourself as introduced. My servant is infected with his master's prejudices, and did the part of Liberator as lazily as would a more reputed son of Fame, were his liberating efforts honorary. And indeed my newly-born humanity was nearly convulsed at the bird's embrace of Liberty, whom I had not heart to hail then as the merry mountain-nymph;' for, independently of the favoritism induced by long companionship, I had gloomy forebodings of a compulsory indolence and disenchanted solitude, if the ' fytte' 6 |