CHAPTER X. 



" Or to sit by the mossy fountain, 



"Where a sweet stream has its birth, 

 And look around with admiring eye 



On the lovely things of earth. 

 The lichen, the moss, and the mountain-fern, 



And the wild bee revelling there, 

 And the bounding red deer, swift of foot, 



And the bird that skims the air. 

 For they link our souls to heaven, 



And we feel the boundless love, 

 And the wondrous power, and the matchless skill, 



Of our Father who dwells above." 



]AA 7 ING occasion to spend a little time in Rich- 

 mond, we rambled pleasantly in the rich woods 

 skirting the river, or climbed to the high moors, 

 admiring the beautiful prospect, stretching panorama-like 

 around us. One wood, rejoicing in the name of Billy 

 Bank, was a favourite resort. An old wall separated it 

 in one part from a meadow, and the droppings from the 

 trees, and near vicinity of the stream, secured a perpetual 

 damp, very favourable to the growth of mosses. We seat 

 ourselves on this wall, collecting specimens of its verdant 

 covering, and examining them with our pocket lens 

 while yet in perfect freshness and beauty. Some mem- 

 bers of the Bristle-moss group (Orthotrichum) are in our 



