varied carpet of yellow cistus, purple foxglove, blue harebell, white wild strawberry flower, and scarlet strawberry fruit, and tracts of bilberry bushes with the blue purple bloom on their juicy berries. In autumn, the banks of purple heather and ling, and sweeping fronds of bracken fern,-the brilliant glow of colour over all,—golden, and crimson, and green, over beech tree and oak,-scarlet, and yellow, on sycamore, plane tree, and maple,—whilst unchanged through all, rises the dark green shadow of the cedars and pine trees, through whose gently waving branches, the autumn wind murmurs soothingly, as it whirls the sere leaves in rustling masses to one's feet. In mid-winter, on a bright frosty day, how beautifully does the frosted tracery of dark firs, gleam out against the cold blue sky, whilst on the ground, around their red branching roots, lies the track of the wild rabbit, or forest squirrel, over the new fallen snow. Through these sylvan scenes, the young poet loved to wander. Hither would he resort on summer evenings, sometimes in company with a merry group of his sisters, and their young friends; when, choosing some sequestered nook of mossy turf, with the "green boughs arching overhead," they would pass pleasant social hours, in the reading of the last new poem by Campbell, or Rogers, or talk over the characters and points of interest, of the latest" Waverley," till the last ray of setting sunlight, gleamed red on the stems of pine tree and cedar, and they wended their way homewards in the gloaming, or tarried yet later until Calmly shone the moonshine pale, More often he would wander forth alone through the woodland paths, and flinging himself down at the foot of his favourite old Pine tree, give free scope to the fancies of his imagination. In his poem on " Aspley Wood," he thus describes the influence of Nature upon his spirit : III. "O Nature! woods, winds, music, valleys, hills, Ye were my earliest nurses, my first choice, Whisper once more of peace-joys-years long vanished by ! IV. To you I fled in childhood, and arrayed Recall fair Wisdom back, that I may dwell with her." 'Aspley Wood," is the principal poem, in a volume containing several, published by J. H. Wiffen in 1819, under the title "Aonian Hours," a second edition of which was called for in the following year. It is dedicated to his brother. ΤΟ B. B. WIFFEN, IN RECREATION AND IN STUDY, IN GLADNESS AND IN TRIAL, THE COMPANION, THE BROTHER, AND THE FRIEND, THIS POEM IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. A few selected stanzas will present the beauty of the woodland scenery, and its charms for a poetic nature. XXVII. But I thereon in the warm luxury Of an Italian sky will fling me down Unscrupulously, lightly envy I The cowled monk's scapulaire or hermit's gown I scorn as lightly; but on Nature's breast, 'Mid flowers and ferns and freshness all her own, And soft airs giving sweetness sweeter zest, O who could slight such charms? who shun so pure a rest? XXVIII. The far-extended prospect—the dim spire Which bounds the blue horizon-white walls seen And beautiful hue of youth on every flower, And herb where spring's betraying steps have beenThe bright leaves sparkling in a sunny shower,-Music on every bough, and life in every bower. XXXIII. He who hath ne'er invested Solitude With an undying beauty, ne'er hath knelt With the humanities of life, nor hears The whispered lore, the music which is dealt The tender, bright, and pure--the Paradise of tears. XXXIV. The ineffably serene, the kind regret Which speaks without upbraiding, the mild gloom The growth of Eden; O he hath not spanned LXIV. Look on that flower-the daughter of the vale, The Medicean statue of the shade! Her limbs of modest beauty, aspect pale, She standeth to our gaze, half-shrinking shuns; LXXVI. That pageant past, comes the quick Squirrel forth If far away intruding steps resound : With feet already raised to spring, to dart LXXVII. Anon he cowers upon a branch, and thence Through the thick gloom, then hies he to the rape LXXVIII. This his spring life-e'en when the October wind A mariner on his vibrating shroud : Though darkly glooms the burning thunder-cloud, As a Fleet-admiral when dark-alee, The fiery battle joins, and chaos shakes the sea." * Another favourite resort, was the grove of pines within the gates of Woburn Park, called "The Evergreens." There, fir-crowned heights, and piny glades |