402 LEAVES FROM THE 



It blew and it rain'd. 

 The pigeon disdain'd 



To seek shelter, — undaunted he flew ; 

 Till wet was his wing, 

 And painful the string. 



So hea\y the letter it grew. 



The same faculty, which in comparatively modern 

 times was degraded to giving notice to the authorities 

 that the finisher of the law had done his duty on the 

 Tyburn hanging days — Hogarth's graphic record of the 

 custom will occur to most,* — which afterwards sank to 

 being the bearer of the news of the prize-ring, and, now- 

 a-days, conveys the price of stocks to and from the Con- 

 tinent, or brings the first intelligence of the winner of 

 the Derby, kept Hirtius and Brutus constantly informed 

 of each other's designs and movements, as the besieger, 

 Antony, felt to his cost. In vain did he spread his nets, 

 and try every stratagem to baffle these couriers of the 

 air : he had the mortification of seeing them going and 

 returning to and fro over the beleaguered walls of 

 Mutina. Anacreon's dove was employed on a more gentle 

 mission.-)- And Taurosthenes sent one decked with 

 purple to his happy father in the Island of ^gina, with 

 the news of his victory at the Olympic games on the day 

 of the pigeon's arrival. f We have the authority of Sir 

 John Maundeville — he who made his way to the border 

 of China in the reigns of our second and third Edward — 

 that the Asiatics used them for the same purpose as the 

 Romans. 



' In that contree, and other contrees bezonde/ says that knight, 

 warrior, and pilgrim, ' thei ban a custom whan thei schulle usen 

 werre, and whan men holden sege abouten cytee or eastelle, and 

 thei withinnen dur not senden out messangers with lettere, fro 



* Etty's dove ascending at the moment of Joan's agony, and 

 heralding the conclusion of the ardent logic of the stake, will also 

 be remembered. 



t Ode 9. + iElian. 



