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, A PAGE FROM A CANTAB'S NOTE-BOOK. 



cbiW ! "MaaTsd gaeiied erfi lo 8qftrfi9c. 



IT was on a raw and gusty evening in October, just as the parched 

 and yellow leaf of autumn was beginning to tell that the three weeks 

 English summer had passed away, that I was travelling far in the north 

 of England, on my way to Cowell Castle, the residence of a college 

 friend. There are few things more delightful to a weary traveller, when 

 the "shades of evening" close thickly around him, than the reflection 

 that each degree of increasing gloom brings him nearer and nearer to 

 the spot of his destination ; and on this occasion I felt pre-eminently 

 happy, for having for many weeks been a wanderer among the wild 

 solitudes of nature, with scarcely a civilized being even for the compa- 

 nion of an hour, the prospect of soon reaching the gay and hospitable 

 home of my friend, lent swiftness to my pace and brightness to my an- 

 ticipations. The distance, however, which I had to traverse, was, con- 

 sidering the lateness of the hour, somewhat considerable; and had it not 

 been for a gala ball to be held that night, in honour of my friend's sister 

 coming of age, I believe I should have yielded to the unpromising 

 aspect of the evening, and the hints of my jaded horse, and have taken 

 up my quarters at the little romantic village which had been my last 

 resting-place. But I was pledged to be present at the festival, and 

 hastened, therefore, at my horse's best speed, through the wild and soli- 

 tary heath before me. My situation, though somewhat desolate, was 

 not, however, without its charms ; for if the bleak and barren common 

 over which I wended my way, presented to my gaze no fair-haired 

 dames, whose p arfo -jol ^-riupn 



' Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again," 

 . . J at VBWB 



still there was plenty of food for romantic rumination, in the legend of 

 the wild witch, which had been related to me by the village gossip from 

 whom I had obtained the direction of my path, and the midnight revel- 

 lings of brownies and bogles, whose grotesque forms seemed identified 

 with every stunted shrub and clump of heather. But when the sun no 

 longer left behind him traces of his reign, and the darkened horizon 

 showed no longer the gilded cloud, smiling, like a courtier, upon the 

 retiring monarch, by whose reflection alone he derived his lustre, the 

 witches, the brownies, and the bogles began to lose alike their terrors 

 and their charms, and I hailed the " stern round towers" of my friend's 

 abode with a satisfaction, unalloyed and unaccompanied with the slight- 

 est wish to linger on the scene through which I journied. Brilliant and 

 dancing lights were shining from turret and fretted window 



i r woi<f f- //ort 



It was a vast and venerable pile ; 

 So old, it seemed only not to fall : 

 Yet strength was pillar'd in each massy aisle. 

 Monastic dome ! 

 Where Superstition once had made her den.'* 



C^LJjOOfUJOnfLB BSW flJxiQb Hid * 



The usual congratulations, and expressions of pleasure at my arrival 

 having subsided, I perceived that it was time to prepare the toilet for 

 the coming scene of festivity. I hastened therefore to my chamber, and 

 without giving myself time to ascertain the date of its gothic windows, 

 or to analyse thesubjects of the tapestry, I prepared myself with all the 



