The coachman, who sat beside me, appeared to | linked together in the perceptions of the meditabe perfectly delighted with this rustic greeting. || tive: therefore do we love to dwell upon the beauHis lugubrious features underwent a visible and tiful exemplifications furnished us, in sacred writ, agreeable change, almost as instantaneous as the of pastoral scenes, and holy offerings of praise at surface of some sluggish stream when a straggling || noontide. I now became quite curious and impasunbeam lingers for a moment upon its melancholy || tient to behold these rural scenes more leisurely margin, causing its gelid face to be diffused with and closely than from the top of a stage-coach, as sudden warmth as it awakens from its dull stupor, I did not propose proceeding to Windsor until the exulting as it were, unconsciously, with pleasant following morning. I accordingly alighted from smiles. The frequent occurrence of these road-side my elevated observatory at the first stopping-place, scenes of mirth and jollity now made this worthy and set out, unaccompanied, upon a pedestrian director of the reins remarkably communicative. || ramble amongst the reapers; and an adventurous He informed me that he had been a field-labourer ramble I had of it, tramping over so much terra bimself—a farmer's boy; and that no part of his incognita, beside the embowered cottage, the sweet life appeared so happy to him, in retrospect, as and sequestered-looking farm-house, or traversing those festive hours at the harvest-time, or when he shady footpaths that skirted green meadows, and sat down to his homely repast with a hearty appe finally conducted me to an Arcadian-like scene of tite beneath the shade of the greenwood tree. I beauty and repose : it was, indeed, the veritable was thus very unexpectedly favoured with his cha resting-place of the reapers. racteristic and copious reminiscences; his former | And here I halted to survey the pleasing features taciturnity suddenly vanished whilst employed in of this rustic nook, whilst the living and animated returning the reapers' salutations, or in recognis- || accessories clustered together in this secluded spot ing the strains of rural music and merriment which revealed the genuine poetry of rural life — prewere constantly wasted toward us upon the autum- || senting, as it were, in a new light, or varying the nal breeze. It was also quite entertaining to sit on pastoral pictures of Spenser and Browne. For the same box with him and listen to a coachman's the leafy bower where these modern Arcadians eclogue or passing remarks upon the picturesque, were enjoying their noontide holyday was situated for he had evidently an innate taste for the beau in a verdant dell, so sylvan-like, that the most un. ties of nature. He seemed, indeed, as well ac cultivated lover of nature would have been instantly quainted with the constituent accessories of a rural delighted with its gladsome lineaments, and felt landscape as a Price, Gilpin, Bloomfield, or Clare ; | inclined to linger for a time to contemplate them. and the turmoil, dust, and dinginess of towns, had Withal, the calm and holy shadows of autumn fell not been able to quench or subdue his early recol sweetly upon portions of bright velvet - looking lections of country imagery and rural life. The turf from a clump of splendid old elm-trees, and impressions of childhood are ever hard to eradi. checkered the vivid foliage of sundry oaks and cate; and happy is the man who can recall the | beeches that spread their broad branches around sweet face of nature at will, or refresh his memory this natural temple-if I may so designate itwith green and sunny glimpses of pastoral nooks from whence sounds of unusual and hallowed mewhere he first learned to commune with his own lody presently issued. An occasional opening in spirit, and “ look up to heaven,” as Wordsworth this pendant screen, or, “ eyelet-hole among the has most religiously expressed it, and utter“ a song | leaves," as Gilpin rather quaintly and minutely of gratitude and praise."

describes it in his Forest Scenery, disclosed a For if these holy feelings spring up daily, and number of living figures nestling in a twilight alare cherished by the reverent spectator of God's cove of this shadowy grove. And to these human scenery, then mentally—to adopt the language of | and picturesque embellishments of a sylvan landanother lover of nature'_"every walk in the open scape my attention was for a time irresistibly diair is an entrance into a church.” It is literally rected. But here I must be permitted to digress pacing the broad aisles of the Creator's verdant for a moment. I remember once hearing the deep cathedral, where' dewy incense rises continually I organ-like tones of some German emigrants, as they from every emerald hillock, and where the fea- || were passing in a body through a wild forest in thered chorister is rarely mute or out of tune. ' I America, singing in full chorus a sacred hymn of know not if any reflections akin to those above their father-land. It came very unexpectedly, yet written 'were passing in the mind of my wayside with characteristic solemnity, from these old-world commentator upon rural life; but I believe that people—the countrymen of Klopstock and Handel; nothing is more likely to evoke them than wander- || seeking a new home in the wilderness, yet still reing over a pleasant landscape in autumn, where membering their devotional melodies, and chanting the eye seems to catch glimpses of the brightness them religiously to the echo of primeval woods and of heaven, as the heart responds to the gladness of | dim-lit forests. luxuriant earth. It might have been mere fancy Their evening canticle, if I may so call it, rein me to indulge the idea, yet I could not help sounded with singular effect amid the hushed depths thinking that an illustration of the genial influence of a sea of foliage. It was chimed out at the sunof nature upon men might possibly be found even set hour amongst the magnificent scenery of nature. at that moment in field and hamlet; or else, why The western sky was glorious at the same time with did those harmonious notes fall so appropriately I gold and crimson clouds, whose reflected tints were upon the ear? For “the respite of the midday perceptible upon the trunks of giant trees, renderhour" is not more refreshing to the toiling body ing more bright, if possible, the green and yellow than the “noonday hymn" to the grateful and con | moss that decorated their ancient limbs. The faint tented" spirit; indeed, they are almost inseparably

. Author of “ Britannia’s Pastoral" and " Shepherd's 1 Jean Paul,

1. Pipe,"

notes of the wood pewee, the pine-warbler, and the Onward they go like men full of honest enthusiasm summer redbird, were likewise heard distinctly at and moral courage. Their firm tramp indicates this short intervals from neighbouring boughs. They latter conclusion ; but, above all, that swelling anserved rather to increase the impressiveness of the || them exultingly wafted upon the evening breeze. hour, by informing the listener that there was also | Father-land is remembered in that noble hymn, another interesting choir at hand engaged in per- || but the burden of it is fervent ascriptions to God forming voluntary hymns of thankfulness. The || for fatherly aid and protection; and that grateful sonorous anthem which the Germans breathed forth recognition of a wise and good Benefactor which is without prelude came instantly home to my feel. incorporated in their song of praise fills the air ings, although uttered in a foreign tongue and in with an exhalation more acceptable than " distilled unfamiliar strains, for it was a tuneful outpouring perfumes." It is borne over lake and mountain, of earnest minds filled with ardent lays and recol through solitary glades and glens, where the wolf lections. There appeared to me to be something and the eagle contend, in their respective elements, very touching and heartfelt in their solemn melo for supremacy and food. It spoke well, I thought, dies. I listened to them at the time with inde for that earnest company to journey with a tuneful scribable emotion. They seemed to exhibit the expression of indissoluble attachment to God and vehement acknowledgment of confiding children in each other in all their wandering. It was, in truth, a beneficent Father, and to proclaim audibly that || a religious brotherhood. The association of these he was not forgotten in their hopeful pilgrimage. German husbandmen with a group of English reapTheir song, however, led my thoughts imperceptibly | ers, in my mind, arose from the manner in which back to their much-loved Rhine- to their long- | they displayed devotional feelings, for both were cherished bearths and altars-their vine-clad cot- || uttered in a song. tages and their evening hymns, sung to the echo of The party encountered at the present time, or their native hills and valleys. “ The loved hour of || rather during my noonday stroll through this rural repose is striking; let us come to the sunset tree; part of Berks, were quite as pleasing objects to let us lie down in the pleasant shade. * * * Sweet Il contemplate or listen to as the German choir in the is this hour of repose, and sweet is the repose of American forest. They were certainly more diverthe Sabbath-day; but sweeter will be the repose of sified and numerous; moreover, they sang in my that long Sabbath when we all rest from our labours mother tongue, and uttered no alien strains. It in the presence of our heavenly Father! There was, in truth, the consecrated music of the temple will be no sun to burn us; there will be no toil, no I endeared by a thousand time-honoured remeinpain, no poverty, no sorrow, no sin; but sweet and || brances; and it fell upon my ear like the tender long will be our rest in heaven.”] This was the notes of a mother's voice when she murmurs her devotional character, but not the identical words, of tuneful cadences to a querulous or weary child. the German emigrant hymns in the American fo- || A food of involuntary thought rose with every rest. The music seemed suitable to the august liquid bar that quivered amongst the leafy branches cathedral in which it was sung, being majestic, and of this rustic chapel. The performers sang in concompact with solemn harmony. No one could lis- || cert, as if accustomed to practise together; for the ten to it, indeed, without imagining himself seated several parts of a difficult anthem of Jackson's were within a Gothic church with an accordant strain of sustained and executed with an exactness of time, Beethoven's composing floating around him. It is and correct understanding of the spirit of that fine difficult for generous minds to withhold sympathy composer of church music, not less pleasing than when a national lyric or a religious melody is per unexpected. There was an instrument or two formed, although it be executed ever so indiffer- || heard amongst them occasionally; but they did not ently or in alien strains, for trains of thought will predominate, and appeared to be merely used to arise and emotions will spring up which they are | keep the voices in tune. This choir was composed unable to control. Such feelings, however, have a I of men, and a few boys who sang the treble, of very humanising tendency; they carry us out of the nar reputable exterior and decorous deportment. The row confines of self, and cause us to mingle our de reapers, men, women, boys, and girls, were grouped votional or social sensibilities with others. This is around them in their rural costume, with glowing one of the hallowed characteristics of music; and | countenances, both joyous and expressive. When it is well when this divine art, or, indeed, any of any complicated piece of music was performed, God's gifts to man, can cheer or animate him on they were generally silent and attentive listeners; his pilgrimage. I behold that German band of but when a hymn or chant was sung with which settlers even now, journeying toward the far west, they were familiar, the whole company appeared with the golden light of the setting sun illuminat to unite their voices with one consent, and thus ing their rugged path through the woods and wilds | U inade the concert general. In this manner did of a strange land. Courage and confidence seem to these field-labourers perform their noontide hymn. accompany them in their onward march. There Their simple repast was enlivened and hallowed by appears to be neither a doubtful footstep nor a | the strains of church harmony. timid voice heard amongst that adventurous band. The reader most probably remembers a country

scene which Goldsmith has painted in his “ Vicar 1 This is the translation of a German hymn, sung at the of Wakefield.” It is that pleasant passage in the sunset tree. It is thus given to the reader, with character.

life of the good monogamist, when himself and faistic comments, by Capt. Sherer, in his delightful little work, entitled Noles and Reflections during a Ramble in mily dined in the new-inown fields, with the cloth Germany :-“I was more pleased with it (he remarks) spread upon the tedded hay. The little party were every time I listened; it is devotional, and sung from and delighted with the music of two blackbirds, anwith the heart by men who rise carly to labour and late take rest — is an evening sacrifice, accepted, surely, at the

swering each other from the opposite hedges; and gates of heaven."

even the familiar redbreast came in for his share of pleasure and refreshment, for he was fed with || field-flowers. They would be met by others from crumbs from the hand of Dr. Primrose and his the corn-fields, with their little gatherings, when unsophisticated family. No one can contemplate much conversation would ensue concerning the that sweet and rural picture without pleasure; for next day's campaign, or some incident connected it is a picture of contentment and tranquillity be with the one just ended. These little parties finally longing to a golden age, which "the superior airs dissolved, after exchanging a temporary adieu with of wisdom" have irreverently cast in the shade. each other, coupled with promises to meet at a Beautiful, however, as Goldsmith's delineation cer trysting-place some little time hence to celebrate tainly is, I thought the scene before me not less ll their harvest-home. As they disappeared amongst worthy of being remembered as an incident in a || the shadows of evening, in the direction of a cluster traveller's pathway. Upon inquiry, I discovered of cottages, where the lights twinkled from sundry that the choir which had afforded me this unex- || trim-dressed that is to say, with eglantine and pected pleasure, and had been instrumental, most || honeysuckle-casements, I thought I could distinprobably, in drawing out the musical talent of the guish the air of one of the sacred melodies heard at reapers, were industrious tradespeople. Although | noon. Whether this was real or imaginary, I know but amateurs, they were thorough musicians; cul | not. Nevertheless the music blended harmoniously tivating it from a pure love of sacred music. They | with the notes of the curfew, or evening-bell- but were journeying homeward, having just concluded | recently chimed out which had not yet died away an engagement, of no mercenary character, in an || from my mind, but was floating in it like some dim adjoining county. These village choirs, I was in- || dream of the past. The old Gothic church, with its formed, were not at all rare in certain parts of || neighbouring grove of ancient yew-trees, its grassEngland. They are in the habit of volunteering || grown hillocks, and silent inhabitants, formed a their aid for charitable and beneficent purposes, Il prominent object in the distance, and assisted in and are consequently esteemed and respected alike ll giving a pensive but not melancholy interest to the for their skill and generous impulses. High praise | imagery of this fair moonlight night. For how imhas frequently been awarded them for the spirit || perceptibly do the thoughts of our final rest seem with which they have volunteered their services ; || analogous, or connected with the nightly repose of whilst their musical knowledge has been com- || the weary reaper! His homeward path to his mented upon repeatedly by competent judges. || cheerful cottage is a faint resemblance to the effulAnd here they seemed to infuse that reviving tone gent way-side journey of the Christian toward his of social and Christian contentment, amongst this | destined goal; and that hallowed thought and halpicturesque cluster of reapers, which Wordsworth lowed hope invests and consecrates the most ordiso well describes :

nary scene in life with some portion of the golden " What though our burden be not light,

light which constantly gleams upon his pathway. We need not toil from morn till night;

So, also, we may be permitted humbly to think of The respite of the mid-day hour

heaven, as we gaze at the blue firmament and the Is in the thankful creature's power.

wandering cloud, even through a cathedral winBlest are the moments, doubly blest,

dow, whilst the solemn organ peals its triumphant That, drawn from this one hour of rest,

notes amongst the Gothic aisles. This fair world Are with a ready heart bestow'd Upon the service of our God."

does not seem less beautiful at such moments, but

rather in its true colours-secondary and evanesThe harvest-moon gave quite a new character to

cent-compared with that unseen world and home the landscape, as I renewed my walk through the

which is to be our final resting-place. The lovecorn-fields and rural lanes at twilight. It arose

liest object in nature may also be viewed profitaalmost immediately after sunset. The enchanting

bly through this tranquil and happy medium; and loveliness which this luminary sheds over a country

I there is no harmonious voluntary that has power landscape, by flooding it with light-soft and holy

| to soothe a perturbed mind half as readily as a as the halo which imagination associates with the

glimpse of rural scenery studied and enjoyed with brow of saint and martyr-was apparent before the

a devout and quiet spirit. So speaks a true poet: conclusion of my ramble. Its indescribable beauty at this season of the year was not only gladsome,

“Thou shouldst stand it was impressive. Few persons who have watched

Ofttimes amid thy dwelling place, with awe

Stronger than love, even like a pious man the rising of the harvest-moon, but have thought

Who in some great cathedral, while the chant so. And they have expressed their sentiments most Of hymns is in his soul, no more beholds eloquently, who have studied the sublime diorama The pillars rise august and beautiful, of nature most attentively and in the spirit of reli

Nor the dim grandeur of the roof that hangs

Far, far above his head, but only sees gious meditation. Hence the elevating character The opening heaven-gates, and the white-robed bands of the poetry of the “ Excursion” and the “ Sea Of spirits prostrate in adoring praise." sons.” Wordsworth beholds every thing, indeed,

Professor Wilson. in creation, animate and inanimate, with a Christian eye; and Thomson concludes his delightful

My autumnal wanderings led me almost imperbook of imagery with a sublime hymn. I surveyed

ceptibly to the borders of Wiltshire; and my eyes

dwelt upon festive rustics, and country scenery, in the scene before me long and undisturbed, but not in entire silence or solitude. A stray reaper or

many a rural nook, until I came to the ancient

town of Abingdon, situated at the junction of the gleaner would occasionally cross my path, decked

Ock and the Thames. with an armful of wheat-sheaves, or a bunch of

This place is said to have

been a favourite haunt of the primitive Britons. Its i For some account of these itinerant performers of

name is characteristic of the early religious predichurch music in England, the reader is referred to an

lection of the Anglo-Saxons. interesting article upon the subject by George Hogarth, ||"

It is a modern corwhich appeared in Mainzer's Musical Times, London. ruption of Abban-dun, or Abben-don-"the town

of the Abbey.” This edifice was built by Cissa, | before God took him hence. “Yon meadows and the West Saxon, and was greatly renowned in days the old village church standing hard by, on its of yore. The religious inmates imparted peculiar little green knoll, are the first objects I remember, sanctity to the neighbourhood;' and this circum unless it was my kind mother's face," said the poor stance gave additional fame to a town neither in fellow with a deep sigh. He added : “And now considerable nor unimportant long before the Saxon I often think the sunlight bas faded away from the heptarchy. The early chroniclers designate it as | earth when I am not in the fields to behold its the old Clovesho, the famous gathering-place for splendour.” This man, humble as he was, had solemn meetings and great councils of the Anglo- | evidently held converse with nature, and cherished Saxons, prior to the conquest of England by the || her teachings with the reverence of a stanch puNorman William. The original site of Abingdon || pil, or a docile child. He had, indeed, been eduAbbey, according to learned antiquarians, was upon cated in the same school with Clare the Northa hill called Abendune, two miles distant from the ampton peasant, and Bloomfield the farmer's boy present town. Cissa was governor of a consider - the school of nature and observation. And what able portion of Berks and Wilts, under Kentwin, I was this unquenchable love of green fields, sunlight, king of the West Saxons. This ecclesiastical edi- || and the sounds proceeding from merry reapers; fice was removed, a few years after its original | this nestling-in all probability for the last timefoundation, to Abingdon, then called Swekisham, || amongst corn-sheaves by a Berkshire peasant, but or Sensham. Ceadwell and Ina, kings of Wessex, || a counterpart of the feelings of Collins the poet, endowed and enriched it; it had also other munifi- , when the hand of death was already upon him? cent benefactors. The Danes ruthlessly destroyed | We are told that the kind-hearted Warton “led it in one of their sudden irruptions over the island ; || him sometimes as far as his weak limbs would it is also affirmed by old writers, that King Alfred || carry him along the furrow at the back of a moving afterward sequestered the property of the brother- | plough, so that he inhaled the freshness of the newhood. The abbey was rebuilt, however, by his turned earth; and he perceived a faint glow on his grandson Edred, and their former possessions re- || cheek, as the fragrance breathed upon him. Then stored to them : the admixture of the Norman with he drew him by slow steps to the side banks where the Anglo-Saxon, or early English style of archi- || the woodmen were felling the underwood, and sometecture, may be seen by the traveller of the present || times opened the tangled spots where the primrose day at Abingdon, in the ancient church of St. Ni- || and violet were just peeping, for it was now towards cholas. Thus, my rural road-side loiterings and the end of February. The first notice he took was historic digressions, if I may so term them, kept || of the woodmen's children, who were sporting about up a constant and disputed right within me for || on the fresh-cut stocks, or gathering little bundles supremacy of thought and attention. Nature and of rough fagots from the scattered fragments which antiquity seem, indeed, to be completely incorpo the axe or bill dispersed. The rosy health and rated with the varied objects that greet the travel sportive gambols of these simple children of naler's eye in the old world; it is difficult for him to ture, made apparent impressions on his slumbersay, sometimes, which interests him most -- the ing faculties.”] It is a pleasant thought, that the poetry of nature, or the solemn associations and | clear depths of the soul oftentimes seem to grow admonitions of history and antiquity. In this way still more lucid as it approaches that “ bourne I found myself frequently bewildered, or rather | from whence no traveller returns," and that shapes completely ingulfed, upon the borders of Wiltshire. || of beauty mingle with every vision it then has of I was occasionally tempted to sit down before some || the sanctity of nature and the golden light of old ruin, and hold a colloquy with Father Time, | heaven. instead of greeting a peasant in the fields, or a

“How blest is peace when born within the soul!" yeoman at the door of his cottage. My desire to catch a furtive glance at the rural life of England My subsequent wanderings soon led me to conhad been gratified in a pleasant and familiar way I template other scenes than those furnished by the by my contact with the reapers, as they gathered every-day life of the humble rustic. A few days in the harvest grain in one of the most beautiful only had elapsed since I had given a hasty look at vales of Berkshire. There was a simple incident, an old town, not much inferior to Abingdon in inbut legitimate in its connexion with the reapers, | terest: when, lo! on raising my eyes in a southwhich struck me very forcibly during my depar

eastern direction, the same vision-like embodiment ture from Abingdon, through the Vale of “ White of a lofty fortress-already introduced to the notice Horse," as it is called; it is a tract reputed to l of the reader at the commencement of this ramcontain some of the most fertile land in England. || bling sketch-appeared before me; in other words, A sick field-labourer had crept out of his cottage Windsor Castle was again in sight. And my last into a little coppice by the aid of some of his halt during this pilgrimage was destined to be at friends, and sat with his back against an old oak this feudal site, whereon the Normans exercised tree, supported by wheat-sheaves. He said he

their military skill, by erecting a formidable strucwished to look out upon the harvest field, and hear ture, to illustrate and impress the Anglo-Saxons the merry voices of liis companions among the corn, with proof of superior knowledge in the art of war. 1 The privations and hardships endured by many of

I had shaped my pilgrim-like progress towards the Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastics long before any permanent Windsor by following the meandering course of shelter was provided for them, contributed, doubtless, in “hoary Thames," as the poet Gray designates his ancient times, to give certain localities a degree of super

favourite river. This flowing guide soon conducted stitious veneration. There is a group of yew-trees at Fountain's Abbey, in Yorkshire, historically interesting me to the ancient town of Eton; and the Gothic and curious from a circumstance of this kind. The reader pinnacles and towers of its antique college and will find the particulars recorded at length in Gilpin's Porest Scenery, vol. i. p. 280. London ed.

Sir Egerton Bridges.

chapel suggested many interesting reminiscences | winding Thames. I stood at length within the of renowned scholars and churchmen. The genius | cloistered recesses of this formidable pile. The of William of Wykehamseemed to linger here, | mural monuments erected to the memory of seveassociated with some quaint college rule; whilst || ral knights of Windsor decorated the walls around the discipline of the first head-master, William me, whilst the pavement seemed as if it might posWayneflete, bishop of Winchester, did not appear sibly be the very same once trodden upon by the to be obliterated even by the lapse of centuries. I foot of Cardinal Wolsey himself. The highly deA postern-gate, mantled with luxuriant ivy, and corated exterior of St. George's Chapel filled up communicating with the cloisters of this venerable the intervening space between the cloisters and edifice, revealed the beautiful play-ground of the the blue sky of heaven. The crumbling portions boys; they were availing themselves of the latter of sculpture which ornament its ancient-looking privilege with a zest peculiar to college inmates. walls appeared doubly venerable and weatherHere and there was one “ more ambitious,” per stained, in contrast with a white cloud that seemed haps, “ than the rest,” pursuing his studies under to hang precisely over one of its Gothic pinnacles. the shade of beautiful old trees, whose opening The morning service was just about commencing; branches discovered the murmuring river creep the chiming bells had ceased; the tones of the ing contentedly through green meadows and osier organ sounded through these echoing passages fringed banks. These scholastic haunts, so peace with a religious solemnity, and I hastened towards ful in appearance and interesting from association the sanctuary. The venerable grandeur of this with the past, have frequently caused the student costly chapel was soon disclosed as I entered its to deprecate the hour when he should be severed Gothic portals; the beautiful stone ceiling, supfrom his playmates and fellow-students when he ported by clustered pillars, and decorated with elashould take finalleave of these venerable quadrangles, borate sculpture and tracery, revealed the hand of old balls, and its religious-looking chapel, where cunning workmen long since passed away. The he had offered up his devout orisons at “morn and painted window threw down its rich tints upon the dewy eve." Such, at least, is the testimony of altar, and lit up the silken banners of the knights more than one eminent man- eminent in subse suspended above their respective stalls. All these quent years-on leaving the classic shades of Eton. decorations seemed to give an historic and interestFor here many a distinguished personage -- then a ing character to the interior of this sumptuous edisprightly boy— felt that “ sunshine of the breast," fice. A verger conducted me to a seat in one of which he was not permitted to enjoy afterward in the old oak-stalls in the choir, rich with carving his toiling career of ambition, or even in the final and elaborate emblazonry. The banners, swords, consummation of his most sanguine hopes and and helmets of an ancient order of knighthood wishes. A poetical recapitulation, however, of the were suspended over my head ---the morning annatural and irrepressible feelings engendered here, them was sung by the choir in a very masterly manis furnished by Gray in his beautiful ode, “ On a ner-the organ rolled its thunders upward, until distant prospect of Eton College," and is familiar the groined roof vibrated, and the gorgeous banners to every reader.

swayed to and fromay, the Queen of England's own There is an approach to Windsor Castle from the standard floated just over my head, and her stall, disnorth by a flight of stone steps, which wind round || tinguished by a canopy and curtain of purple velvet the brow of the hill on which this majestic struc- || embroidered with gold, was also in view. I was, ture stands. They conduct you to the great and indeed, in a stately temple! Yet I know not how inner cloisters, inhabited by the prebendaries at it happened, when in the midst of so much arcbi. tached to St. George's Chapel; and here I found Il tectural beauty that the eye could find no faultmyself shortly after leaving Eton. To mount this the ear greeted with the “mystery of sweet sounds," stony staircase through a postern-gate, studded as if proceeding from some celestial choir, and surwith iron bolts, until I came to a low vaulted pas | rounded by costly monuments erected by kings and sage, did not occupy, it is true, a great deal of Il princes - that my mind should revert to a simple time; but the ascent, partly beside subterranean rustic scene, witnessed in the fields under “bealooking vaults, leading into intricate nooks, known ven's blue cope." But so it was. I heard a choral only to the initiated, served to perplex and delay anthem, it is true, within a superb Gothic chapel. my passage toward this upper region of renown Notwithstanding its superior excellence, however, and grandeur. Besides, I found myself continually this majestic music melted imperceptibly away, as arrested by the charms of this unique panorama, it were, into an airy echo; a strain of the sweetest and pausing at every landing-place in my upper | melody had preceded it—that sacred symphony route; it was impossible not to halt and gaze down was the noonday hymn of the reapers. upon one of the sweetest scenes, probably, to be

D. met with in England. There was old Windsor Forest, with its ancient oaks, and herd of deer trooping beneath their gnarled boughs—the an

CONTENTMENT. tique town of Eton, slumbering in quiet sunshine

The present age is remarkable for its bustle and --and beyond that a wide-spread landscape, all dappled over with groves and cottages. Truly

enterprise. Its movement, in intention at least, is that scene had an enchanted look about it, and my

progressive. Nothing is stationary. Accordingly spirit seemed to be fairly carried away into fairy men are ever aiming at something which they do land, whilst lingering upon the rich masses of wood not possess, and there is some anticipated good, and each fair reach of meadow that encircled the

beyond their present condition, which they are 1 This college was modelled after a plan matured by

eagerly bent upon attaining. Of course, if it were William of Wykeham; his statutes, or rules, being adopted || by the founders almost entire.

Il required to give such conduct a name, men would