V.

JUMNOTREE.

SHARP, clear, and crystalline, cleaving the sky
In twain, it towers forever and alone,

Save that about its feet the tall hills lie,

Like slaves around some mighty despot's throne;
While evermore, beneath its cold stern eye,

The short-lived centuries have come and flown,
And stars that round its head untiring fly,
Confess its glories ancient as their own.

The eagles shun it in their highest flight;

The clouds lie basking 'neath its eminence;
Naught nears it but thin air and heaven's sweet light,

Nor not a sound forever cometh thence,

Save of some avalanche from its summit riven,

Or thunder-tempest on its breakers driven.

-a descent; a peak in

*From Jumna, - the river, and aotar, the Himalayas, twenty-five thousand feet above the level of the sea.

GEORGE JAMES DE WILDE.

I.

THE WATER-MILL.

THERE; it may serve perhaps some future day,
Dull though the pencil be, and duller he
Who guides it, to recall to memory
The exquisite beauties of this rural way,
Tempting the hurried traveller to delay :-
The mill down in the dell; the huge beech-tree
Flinging its great black arms protectingly

Over the useful stream, with one hot ray

From Autumn's cloudless sky touched, like a star; The feathery greenery sheltering everywhere; The one bright strip of greensward seen afar Between the mossy trunks. May never care Come to the Mill, its clattering glee to mar, Making all foul within, while all around is fair.

II.

WHEATHAMSTEAD.

To thy fresh slopes and hazel-shadowed lanes,
And sedgy river with its deep green nooks,
Where sits the watching hen, and skyward looks
The water-lily; to thy breezy plains

And village homes, long years gone by I came,

Lured by the magic of a mighty name,

A glad enthusiast.

I come once more,

Not with the exulting heart which then I bore,
But with a heavy memory that never

Shall fail to shadow what bright hour soever,
To find thee still as lovely as of yore,

And feel the poet's truth is written here, –
"A thing of beauty is a joy forever";
Hearty and homely, loving Hertfordshire.*

See Charles Lamb's exquisite paper in the "Essays of Elia," entitled "Mackery End, in Hertfordshire."

III.

EYDON HALL.

(The Seat of the Rev. C. F. Annesley.)

"Era il detto luogo sopra una piccola montagnetta, da ogni parte lontano alquanto alle nostre strade, di varj albuscelli e piante tutte di verde fronde ripieno, piacevoli a riguardare: in sul colmo della quale era un palagio. . . . con pratelli dattorno, e con giardini maravigliosi.". BOCCACCIO.

-

VERT alleys with trim trees arching o'erhead,

And ending in a vista of blue hills,

Statue, or vase, or nook where grottoed rills, Trickling from stone to stone, clear coolness shed; Elsewhere a pleasaunce, with quaint patterns spread Of rarest flowers; an orangery that fills

The air with that sweet odor which distils

From Lisbon or the Azores, seaward led.

There needs but laughter from the shrubberies coming,
Ladies, and rustling silks, a gorgeous show,
And mantled cavaliers chitarras strumming
Or whispering love in willing ears ; — and lo!
A picture by Lancret or by Watteau,
Or tale recorded by Boccaccio.

IV.

ON THE ARRIVAL OF SPRING.

Now is the young Spring with us: her blue eyes And sunny smile come flushing through the tears Rude March hath startled from her; for she hears The gentle footfall and the wooing sighs

Of coming April, nor to him denies

(Sweet task!) the soothing of her virgin fears. More balmy and more balmy, as he nears,

Her breath becomes; more sunny bright her eyes. And now to live! - now to arouse and shake

The wintry torpor from the spirit, now

To see the early Sun from slumber wake, And bathe in moonshine the uplifted brow; To shame dull Winter,

time for work, — yet take

Much holiday for art's and friendship's sake.