and see for themselves the birth-place of the immortal dreamer. Full of the brightest anticipations for the morrow, the younger folks withdrew early to bed. By and by the older ones closed their books, and showed symptoms of an inclination to follow their example, until at length the old hall was entirely deserted, and left once more to silence and darkness.

The experience of the Christmas party assembled in the neighbourhood of Ampthill had hitherto realized the pleasing description of a bright and cheerful winter, which Cowper has drawn with such delightful freedom in the Task :

"The night was winter in its roughest mood;
The morning sharp and clear. But now at noon,
Upon the southern side of the slant hills,
And where the woods fence off the northern blast,
The season smiles, resigning all its rage,

And has the warmth of May. The vault is blue
Without a cloud, and white without a speck

The dazzling splendour of the scene below.

Again the harmony comes o'er the vale;

And through the trees I view th' embattled tower
Whence all the music. I again perceive

The soothing influence of the wafted strains.

And settle in soft musings as I tread

The walk, still verdant, under oaks and elms,

Whose outspread branches overarch the glade.
The roof, though moveable through all its length
As the wind sways it, has yet well sufficed,
And, intercepting in their silent fall

The frequent flakes, has kept a path for me.

No noise is here, or none that hinders thought.

The redbreast warbles still, but is content

With slender notes, and more than half suppressed; Pleased with his solitude, and flitting light

From spray to spray, where'er he rests he shakes

From many a twig the pendant drops of ice,

That tinkle in the withered leaves below.

Stillness, accompanied with sounds so soft,
Charms more than silence. Meditation here

May think down hours to moments. Here the heart
May give a useful lesson to the head,

And Learning wiser grow without his books.
Knowledge and Wisdom, far from being one,
Have ofttimes no connexion. Knowledge dwells
In heads replete with thoughts of other men;
Wisdom in minds attentive to their own.

Some to the fascination of a name

Surrender judgment, hoodwinked. Some the style Infatuates, and through labyrinths and wilds

Of error leads them, by a tune entranced.

While sloth seduces more, too weak to bear

The insupportable fatigue of thought,

And swallowing therefore without pause or choice The total grist unsifted, husks and all.

But trees and rivulets, whose rapid course
Defies the check of winter, haunts of deer,

And sheep-walks populous with bleating lambs,

And lanes, in which the primrose ere her time
Peeps thro' the moss, that clothes the hawthorn root,
Deceive no student."

A very different scene, however, awaited the sleepers when they awoke on the morrow. The evening had been bitterly keen, and such of them as had not slept too soundly to be disturbed by the noise, had overheard, during the night, the gusts of wind driving round the house, shaking at the casements, and hurling against the window-panes huge swirls of twigs and withered leaves, like some lusty wanderer, boisterous and impatient to get in. Sleep, however, sunk on all the happy inmates of the old Manor-House, and if any of them remembered the storm of the preceding night when they awoke, it was only to experience increased pleasure at the thought that it had passed away. The bright morning light was on the window-panes, and the twittering of some stray sparrows, as if begging for crumbs, seemed to promise another fine clear day of frosty sunshine for the proposed excursion to Elstow. A very different and unexpected prospect, however, greeted the first early riser who drew aside the win

dow-curtains to peep forth at the scene of the last night's stormy gusts of driving wind.

The same vigorous poet from whom we have already quoted, beautifully describes the change which now awaited the morning watchers as they peeped forth on the winter landscape that surrounded their pleasant abode:

"How calm is my recess; and how the frost,
Raging abroad, and the rough wind endear
The silence and the warmth enjoyed within!
I saw the woods and fields at close of day
A variegated show; the meadows green,
Though faded; and the lands, where lately waved
The golden harvest, of a mellow brown,
Upturn'd so lately by the forceful share.

I saw far off the weedy fallows smile
With verdure not unprofitable, grazed

By flocks, fast feeding, and selecting each
His favourite herb; while all the leafless groves
That skirt th' horizon, wore a sable hue,
Scarce noticed in the kindred dusk of eve.
To-morrow brings a change, a total change!
Which even now, though silently performed,
And slowly, and by most unfelt, the face
Of universal nature undergoes.

Fast falls a fleecy shower: the downy flakes
Descending, and with never-ceasing lapse,

Softly alighting upon all below,

Assimilate all objects. Earth receives

Gladly the thickening mantle; and the green

And tender blade, that feared the chilling blast,
Escapes unhurt beneath so warm a veil."

Many a sad and disheartened countenance appeared that morning among the group that assembled round the breakfast table. The conversation of the preceding evening, added to the scenes of the day's ramble, and the lively interest that had been excited in all their minds by the associations of the Pilgrim and his wondrous dream with the actual scenes with which they were surrounded, had made the young people look forward to their proposed visit to Elstow with a vague yet highly excited expectation of pleasure, that made their disappointment all the more mortifying; nor were their seniors without some sympathy in their disappointment. A group of young and light-hearted playmates, however, are not much given to brood very long or bitterly over such a mischance. The ladies speedily reconciled themselves to the impossibility of wading through the snow, or facing the storm, which the heavy laden clouds gave promise would speedily return with increased fury. They accordingly were soon busy, some with their needle or