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THE LAND OF BLACI^EREIES. 



What tho' no charms my person grace, 

 Nor beauty moulds my form, nor paints my face ? 

 The sweetest fruit may often pall the taste, 

 "While sloes and brambles yield a safe repast. 



Blacklock's Plaintive Shepherd. 



Talk, not of the luscious land of vines; sing not the praises of blue 

 heavens and rivers which flow through vintage banks ; of Rhines, and 

 Moselles, and Ehones, and Danubes ; forget that there are regions of 

 towering palms, and fruitful bananas, and golden prairies reaching to 

 the sea, — lands all fragrant with mangolia blossoms, and jungles 

 where the richest fruits rot, untouched, upon the mould; sigh not 

 for Grecian vales and isles of Paphos ; nor pine for the rose-gardens 

 of Cashmere, nor for the scented bowers where the bulbul sings. 

 Know that, here in this island of green meadows and luxuriant hedge- 

 rows, we speak the tongue of Lydegate ; that we are compatriots with 

 Spencer, Chaucer, Shakspere, and Keats; and that it is the land of 

 beechen woods and Druidical memorials; and above all, let us be 

 grateful to the Providence which has placed us in the Land of Black- 

 berries. 



Elackberries ! rich, juicy, cool, and gushing, which, in the days of 

 boyhood, lured us with their jetty lusciousness, and made us forget 

 old Horace and the Pons Asinorum, and in exchange for the Eton 

 Grammar and the pickled birch, gave us a larger life in the green 

 woods, made our young hearts beat with hopeful enthusiasm, and filled 

 us with the first taste of life's poetry. "Who then but would love' 

 blackberries, even though less delicious and refreshing to the palate 

 than they really are r Who but would love the simple fruits which 

 recalled the memories of orchard-robbing, school-mischief, April-fools, 

 holiday -rambles, and frantic dogs with kettles or crackers at their tails ? 

 Blackberries, — ah ! away we go, the sunshine is still blinking among 

 the trees, and although the air grows chill, autumn is still ruddy, and 



