260 

 STADDON HEIGHTS IN MAY. 



IN the month of May, Staddon Heights may be 

 explored to much advantage ; not by an undeviating 

 march along the beaten footway, but by penetrating into 

 the bosom of every bushy glen, and wandering quietly 

 over the smooth carpets of sandy beach which interrupt 

 the bold, rocky margin. Reader, never take more than 

 one companion ; and let his mind be congenial to your 

 own ; otherwise go alone : above all things avoid, on 

 such an occasion, the fellowship of one whose talk is of 

 Lord John Russell, or the multiplication table, trades' 

 unions or three-per-cents. 



You may not always desire to pass over a certain 

 distance of ground in a given space of time ; then fling 

 yourself down on the grass, in the first green field you 

 arrive at, and pluck one of the million daisies which 

 spring around you ; the flower is so common that you, 

 perhaps, may think it unworthy your notice ; but pause, 

 and recollect that there are hundreds of arteries perva- 

 ding each of its sixty white leaflets ! You may become 

 lost in a feeling more sacred than admiration, while 

 meditating on the delicate operations and the sublime 

 designs of its Architect. Shake off the feelings and 

 ideas of " a man of the world," 



" A primrose on the river's brim 

 A yellow primrose is to him : 

 And nothing more ! " 



Stop and examine the many-coloured verdure which 

 clothes each dell and slope in your progress. The furze 

 will be pre-eminent with a rich brown hue from its early 

 flowering boughs, and a bright yellow glowing on those 

 which have just arrived at their perfect beauty ; these 

 colours are relieved by the sombre tint of the under- 

 wood not yet much advanced in foliage, and the fresh 

 green of the hawthorn covered with clustering blossoms 

 like snow ; the fragrance of these, mingled with those 

 of the furze, breath an inexhaustible odour all around. 

 Farther down on the declivities you may perceive the 

 black rocks matted over, here and there, with very long, 



