or small rivers, has formed dells, glens, or, as they are provincially termed, dens, on whose high and rocky banks trees and shrubs of all kinds find a shelter, and grow with a luxuriant profusion, which is the more gratifying, as it forms an unexpected contrast with the general face of the country. This was eminently the case with the approach to the ruins of Saint Ruth, which was for some time merely a sheeptrack, along the side of a steep and bare hill. By degrees, however, as this path descended, and winded round the hillside, trees began to appear, at first singly, stunted, and blighted, with locks of wool upon their trunks, and their roots hollowed out into recesses, in which the sheep love to repose themselves,-a sight much more gratifying to the eye of an admirer of the picturesque than to that of a planter or forester. By and by the trees formed groups, fringed on the edges, and filled up in the middle by thorns and hazel bushes; and at length these groups closed so much together, that, although a broad glade opened here and there under their boughs, or a small patch of bog or heath occurred which had refused nourishment to the seed which they sprinkled round, and consequently remained open and waste, the scene might on the whole be termed decidedly woodland. The sides of the valley began to approach each other more closely; the rush of a brook was heard below, and, between the intervals afforded by openings in the natural wood, its waters were seen hurling clear and rapid under their sylvan canopy. Antiquary. V. Two courses remained to the embarrassed general. One was, to make his way by giving battle to the French, by attacking them in the strong position which they had been permitted to occupy, notwithstanding the ease with which they might have been anticipated. It is true, Dumouriez had been very strongly reinforced. France, from all her departments, had readily poured forth many thousands of her fiery youth, from city and town, village and grange, and farm, to protect the frontiers, at once, from the invasion of foreigners, and the occupation of thousands of vengeful emigrants. They were undisciplined, indeed, but full of zeal and courage, heated and excited by the scenes of the republic, and inflamed by the florid eloquence, the songs, dances, and signal-words with which it had been celebrated. Above all, they were of a country, which, of all others in Europe, has been most familiar with war, and the youth of which are most easily rendered amenable to military discipline. Life of Napoleon. VI. Time has lingered with me from day to day in expectation of being called southward; I now begin to think my journey will hardly take place till winter, or early in spring. One of the most pleasant circumstances attending it will be the opportunity to pay my homage to you, and to claim withal a certain promise concerning a certain play, of which you were so kind as to promise me a reading. I hope you do not permit indolence to lay the paring of her little finger upon you; we cannot afford the interruption to your labours which even that might occasion. And "what are you doing?" your politeness will, perhaps, lead you to say: in answer, Why, I am very like a certain ancient king, distinguished in the Edda, who, when Lok paid him a visit, -- "Was twisting of collars his dogs to hold, If this idle man's employment required any apology, we must seek it in the difficulty of seeking food to make savoury * * * * * * messes for our English guests; for we are eight miles from market, and must call in all the country sports to aid the larder. We had here, two days ago, a very pleasant English family * The gentleman wandered over all Greece, and visited the Troad, to aid in confuting the hypothesis of old Bryant, who contended that Troy town was not taken by the Greeks. His erudition is, however, not of an overbearing kind, which was lucky for me, who am but a slender classical scholar. Charlotte's kindest and best wishes attend Miss Agnes Baillie, in which I heartily and respectfully join ;-to you she offers her best apology for not writing, and hopes for your kind forgiveness. I ought, perhaps, to make one for taking the task off her hands, but we are both at your mercy; and I am ever your most faithful, obedient and admiring servant. Letter to Miss Baillie. VII. I am delighted with the account of your brother's sylvan empire in Glo'stershire. The planting and cultivation of trees always seemed to me the most interesting occupation of the country. I cannot enter into the spirit of common vulgar farming, though I am doomed to carry on, in a small extent, that losing trade. It never occurred to me to be a bit more happy because my turnips were better than my neighbours; and as for grieving my shearers, as we very emphatically term it in Scotland, I am always too happy to get out of the way, that I may hear them laughing at a distance when on the harvest rigg. "So every servant takes his course, And bad at first, they all grow worse" I mean for the purposes of agriculture, -for my hind shall kill a salmon, and my plough-boy find a hare sitting, with any man in the forest. But planting and pruning trees I could work at from morning till night; and if ever my poetical revenues enable me to have a few acres of my own, that is one of the principal pleasures I look forward to. There is, too, a sort of self-congratulation, a little tickling self-flattery in the idea that, while you are pleasing and amusing yourself, you are seriously contributing to the future welfare of the country, and that your very acorn may send its future ribs of oak to future victories like Trafalgar. Letter to Miss Baillie. THOMAS ARNOLD, D.D. 1795-1842. I. APPIUS CLAUDIUS had staid behind from the war to take care of the city. He saw a beautiful maiden named Virginia, the daughter of L. Virginius, who was now serving as a centurion in the army sent against the Equians; and her father had betrothed her to L. Icilius, who had been tribune some time since, and had carried the famous law for assigning out the Aventine to the commons. One day as the maiden, attended by her nurse, was going to the forum to school (for the schools were then kept in booths or stalls round the market place), Marcus Claudius, a client of Appius, laid hands on her, and claimed her as his slave. Her nurse cried out for help, and a crowd gathered round her, and when they heard who was her father, and to whom she was betrothed, they were the more earnest to defend her from wrong. But M. Claudius said that he meant no violence, he would try his right at law, and he summoned the maiden before the judgment seat of Appius. So they went before the decemvir, and then Claudius said that the maiden's real mother had been his slave; and that the wife of Virginius, having no children, had gotten this child from its mother, and had presented it to Virginius as her own. This he would. prove to Virginius himself as soon as he should return to Rome; meanwhile it was just and reasonable that the master should in the interval keep possession of his slave. The friends of the maiden answered, that her father was now absent in the commonwealth's service; they would send him word, and in two days he would be in Rome. "Let the cause," they said, "wait only so long. The law declares expressly, that, in all cases like this, every one should be considered free till he be proved a slave. Therefore the maiden ought to be left with her friends till the day of trial. Put not her fair fame in peril by giving up a free-born maiden into the hands of a man whom she knows not." But Appius said, "Truly, I know the law of which you speak, and I hold it just and good, for it was I myself who enacted it. But this maiden cannot in any case be free; she belongs either to her father or to her master. Now as her father is not here, who but her master can have any title to her? Wherefore let M. Claudius keep her till L. Virginius come, and let him give sureties that he will bring her forth before my judgment seat when the cause shall be tried between them." But then there came forward the maiden's uncle, T. Numitorius, and Icilius to whom she was betrothed; and they spoke so loudly against. the sentence, that the multitude began to be roused, and Appius feared a tumult. So he said, that for the sake of L. Virginius, and of the rights of fathers over their children, he would let the cause wait till the next day; "but then," he said, "if Virginius does not appear, I tell Icilius and his fellows, that I will support the laws which I have made, and their violence shall not prevail over justice." Thus the maiden was saved for the time, and her friends sent off in haste to her father, to bid him come with all speed to Rome; and they gave security to Claudius |