comparing the present with the past, from a consciousness of having 'Dealt with life, as children with their play, Who first misuse, then cast their toys away,' that we do not derive the same pleasure from what passes before us in maturer age; or whether, in boyhood, the impressions of such trifles as I have related are deeper rooted in the memory, I cannot say, certain it is, whatever be our situation in life, we all come to the conclusion, that our early days were our happiest. Ovingham Fair. (FROM A POEM ENTITLED "THE SCHOOL BOY," BY THOMAS MAUDE, M. A.) UT can I sing thy simpler pleasures flown, That drained my pocket aye, and took my childish Blest morn! how lightly from my bed I sprung, Rose at a call, with cheeks of liveliest bloom. Then from each well-packed drawer our vests we drew, ! On such a morn, who would not be a boy? To shade the glowing cheek, to every beauty's mind. Saint Hilda. FROM SIR C. SHARP'S COLLECTIONS. F e'er to Whitby's silver strand Then sure thy weary feet have toil'd No station for monastic cell, Yet there the pious fabric rose Tho' sweet were Eskdale's tangl'd paths There many a legend shalt thou hear How, when above her oriel arch The screaming sea-fowl soar'd, Their drooping pinions conscious fell And the virgin saint ador'd; 1 « Eska flu. oritur in Eskdale; defluit per Danbeium nemus & tandem apud Streneshalc in mare se exonerat."-Lel. Collec. tom. ter. p. 40. 2 Monasterium S. Hildæ apud Streneshalc (Whitby) penitus destructum fuit ab Inguaro & Hubba, Titusque abbas Glesconiam cum reliquis S. Hildæ aufugit. "Restitutum fuit monasterium de Streneshalc tempore Henrici primi per Gulielmum Perse."—Ibid. 366 Locus ubi nunc cœnobium est videtur mihi esse ars inexpugnabilis."—Ibid. How sole amid the serpent tribe With fervent faith, and up-lift hands The suppliant's prayer and powerful charm A headless coil of stone.1 But not alone to Whitby's fane The winding Wear 2 and Deira's shore And Christian kings, where'er she pray'd, Endow'd the hallow'd shrine. Thence southward did her frail bark steer Dunelmia's coast along, And hardly 'scape the roaring surge Now doubling Heorta's cavern'd cape, It anchors in the bay; 1 < Mira res est videre serpentes apud Streneshalc in orbem giratos, & inclementia cœli vel, ut monachi ferunt, precibus D. Hildæ concretos."-Leland. "Then Whitby's nuns, exulting told How, &c. And how, of thousand snakes, each one Scott's Marmion. "Lapides hic" (apud Whitby) "inveniuntur, serpentium in spiram revolutorum effigie, naturæ ludentis miracula, quæ natura, cum veris & seriis negotiis quasi fatigata, indebitè efformat. Serpentes olim fuisse crederes quos lapideus cortex intexisset, Hildæ autem precibus adscribit credulitas.”— Camden. 2 History of Hartlepool, p. 7. Here cavern'd rocks, there dark'ning woods1 (Ah! vainly seeks the pilgrim now Save that on Stranton's frowning shore," The traveller marks the blacken'd trunks, 'Twas here, by neighb'ring realms rever'd, And ne'er on Anglia's eastern shore 3 Oswy, king of Northumberland. History of Hartlepool, p. 7. 4 History of Hartlepool, p. 8. |