MARCH. 101 



therefore gladdening the exploring eye, has in such a 

 position only the redeeming feature of its mention by 

 SHAKSPEARE, as coming 



" Before the swallow dare?," 



and thus appearing in the advance of more permanent 

 delights like a portrait that can only give satisfaction 

 in the absence of the original it represents. We can, 

 therefore, only tolerate the daffodil in the garden as, 

 Envoy Extraordinary of the floral queen, who takes a 

 temporary position which more valued but tenderer 

 plants would bo unable at present to maintain. In 

 the woods and on the hills, however, where this 

 "Pseudo-Narcissus" of the botanist, and "Daffydown- 

 dilly" of the rustic, spreads its roots by thousands, 

 and now droops in glorious array an innumerable host 

 of lemon-tinted bells, in contrast with the dark bound- 

 ary of branches that lift their labyrinthal tracery 

 against the deep blue sky, as we have seen with rapt 

 pleasure, about the Malvern Hills, and in the undula- 

 tions of the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, it is in 

 its proper locality. There alone, when after a long 

 ramble through deep lanes and brambly woods, with 

 scarcely an object to diversify the gloomy sameness, 

 when at last emerging from the dark thicket a broad 

 line of golden light, bursts to the astonished gaze, 

 upon the virgin turf of the hill side, and a nearer view 

 exhibits rank beyond rank, the bright pendent pen- 

 nons of a countless host of daffodils, the charmed 

 wanderer, as he gazes on the scene, fully recognizes 

 the " beauty" thus combined with the rough winds of 

 March, and long treasures in his memory the re- 

 membrance of the scene. WORDSWORTH has well 



