124 TO THE OCEAN. 



eminent men must have made their appearance in the old 

 Guildhall and some important events must have taken 

 place : in the building, the contest between the Freehold- 

 ers and the select body must have taken place at the Re- 

 storation in 1660 ; again, at the Revolution in 1688. 

 And there was the Prince of Orange's declaration read 

 in December, and it is recorded in the Corporation 

 Books that Plymouth was the first Town that declared 

 for King William. We have to lament, that at its de- 

 molition in 1800 more care was not taken of the paper* 

 and documents belonging to the corporate body, for 

 large piles of papers were indiscriminately thrown into 

 heaps prior to their removal to the Mayoralty House in 

 Woolster Street, which was temporarily used as a Guild- 

 hall, and a great many documents were then lost to the 

 body, although some of them still remain in the handf 

 of individuals. 



TO THE OCEAN. 



A SONNET. 



Ocean I greet thee ! though to me thy wave 

 Has nought inviting in its billowy swell, 

 Nor wooes my soul to pleasure yet methinks 

 'Twere sweet from such an eminence as this 

 To watch thy angry foam and know the while 

 No danger threatened, but 'tis sweeter still 

 To see, as now, thy blue expanse serene 

 Far as the sky salutes it scene sublime, 

 Sunny and beautiful ! a lion's sleep, 

 Yet tranquil as a lamb's ! Oh who would dream 

 Thy waters e'er could change so fearfully, 

 To surging wrath, a merciless abyss ! 



Thus blissful is the smile of infancy ! 



Thus fierce the storms that darken manhood's bro* 



M. G. 



