104 ACER CAMPESTRE. 



The British poets generally place a maple dish in every hermitage ihey speal 

 of. Wordsworth, in his " Ecclesiastical Sketches," says : 



'Melhinks that to some vacant hermitage 

 My feet would ratlier turn, to some dry nook 

 Scooped oul of living rock, and near a brook 

 Hurled down a mountain-cave, from stage to stage, 

 Yet tempering, for my sight, its bustling rage 

 In the soft haven of a translucent pool ; 

 Thence creeping under forest arches cool, 

 Fit haunt of shapes whose glorious equipage 

 Would elevate my dreams. A beechen bowl, 

 A maple dish, my furniture should be ; 

 Crisp, yellow leaves my bed ; the hooting owl 

 My night-watch ; nor should e'er the crested fowl 

 From thorp or vil his matins sound for me, 

 Tired of the world and all its industry." 



Wilson and Cowper both furnish the hermit's cell with the article so requisite 

 for such a habitation : 



" Many a visitant 

 Had sat within his hospitable cave ; 

 From his maple bowl, the unpolluted spring 

 Drunk fearless, and with him partook the bread 

 That his pale lips most reverently had blessed, 

 With words becoming such a holy man, 



His dwelling a recess in some rude rock. 

 Books, beads, and maple dish his meagre stock. 



***** It seemed a hermit's cell, 



Yet void of hour-glass, skull, and maple dish." 



The young shoots of this tree, being tough and flexible, are employed by coachmen, 

 in some parts of France, instead of whips. In that country it is also much used 

 for forming hedges, and for filling up gaps in old fences. It is advantageously 

 employed in topiary works, and in geometrical gardens, being found to bear the 

 shears better than most other trees. The leaves and young shoots are gathered 

 green, and dried, for winter provender for cattle. The sap yields more sugar, w 

 proportion to the quantity taken, than that of the sycamore 



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