they will quite have perished. Even now they fall to dust when touched. And thus, Alethes, end my rough notes.

ALETHES.

I thank you heartily for your details. Were every thing set down in like manner throughout the several parishes in this land, a most invaluable history might be drawn up.

EUBULUS.

I admit it-if after the fashion of White Kennett's "Parochial Antiquities." Much that he wrote of Ambrosden, Burcester, and other adjacent parts would with difficulty be obtained now.

No. IV.

Parochial Fragments, &c.

""Tis merry in greenwood,-thus runs the old lay,-
In the gladsome month of lively May,
When the wild birds' song on stem and spray
Invites to forest bower;

Then rears the ash his airy crest,

Then shines the birch in silver vest,

And the beech in glistening leaves is drest,
And dark between shows the oak's proud breast,
Like a chieftain's frowning tower;

Though a thousand branches join their screen,
Yet the broken sunbeams glance between,
And tip the leaves with lighter green,
With brighter tints the flower;

Dull is the heart that loves not then

The deep recess of the wild wood glen,

Where roe and red-deer find sheltering den

When the sun is in his power."

Harold the Dauntless.-Canto ii. 1.

Country Walk,

&c. &c. &c.

"Fools gaze at painted courts; to th' country let me go
To climb the easy hill, then walk the valley low;
No gold embossed roofs, to me are like the woods!"
Drayton's Poly-Olbion.—Song xix.

It was a lovely day in June, and the sun shone brightly. There had been a soft shower to water the earth; the dust was laid, and the fields and the hedges smelt sweet, as they are used to do, when after a period of warmer weather, with the wind east and north-east, the rain descends and gladdens the face of nature. So altogether delightful was it that I determined to lay by the morning work that I had cut out; and I went to summon Alethes for a walk. I knew he was to be found in the garden, and on the sunny side of the house,—his usual place of recreation, when not at high romps with the children. He spied me coming, and guessed at the cause. His favourite "Chaucer' was by his side on the grass; and I observed that it was the neat and new edition of "Sir Harris Nicholas," who deserves the thanks of all the lovers of old Geoffrey for the nice come-atible form in which he has thrown together the scattered works of that great genius,-to use the words of Spenser,

"In whose gentle spright

The pure well-head of poesie did dwell1."

Starting up from the old seat on which he was sitting, he

1 The Faerie Queene, c. vii. 9.

exclaimed, " Such days as these, Eubulus, are all enjoyment! I see even you cannot complete your routine of work, but must needs pay court to the air and sun before your time. I have just been reading old "Dan Geoffrey's" Prologue to the Legend of Good Women. Hear what he says-confess to the truth of his lines-and then I am ready :

"And as for me, though that I can but lite,

On bookes for to rede I me delight,

And to hem yeve I faith and ful credence,
And in my herte have hem in reverence
So hertely, that there is game none,
That fro my bookes maketh me to gone,
But it be seldome on that holie daie,
Save certainly, when that the month of May
Is comen, and that I heare the foules sing,
And that the floures ginnen for to spring,
Farewell my booke, and my devotion.

Now have I than eke this condition,
That of all the floures in the mede,

Than love I most these floures white and rede,
Such that men callen daisies in our toun,
To hem I have so great affectioun,

As sayd I rest, whan comen is the May,
That in my bedde there daweth me no day,
That I nam up, and walking in the mede
To seen this floure ayenst the sunne sprede,
Whan it up riseth early by the morrow,
That blisful sight softeneth all my sorow,
So glad am I, when that I have presence
Of it, to done it all reverence,
And she that is of all floures the floure,
Fulfilled of all virtue and honoure
And every ylike faire, and fresh of hewe,
And ever I love it, and ever ylike newe,
And ever shall, till that mine herte die,
All swear I not, of this I wol not lie."

There was no gainsaying the natural truth and simple beauty both of the lines and of the recitation. It was at once admitted; and, staff in hand, we started for the walk we had on a previous