1071 



wound, which it has lately pleased Heaven to inflict on the heart of that excellent lady, 

 ray time will have been well employed, and my endeavours amply requited." — p. iv. 



To those who are acquainted with Mr. Waterton's writings, we 

 scarcely need say that from almost every page of the present volume, 

 beams forth the same enthusiastic love of Nature and Nature's works 

 as gave life and animation to the previous productions of his pen. 

 And it is pleasant to think that the mind which could conceive and 

 the hand that could trace the living pictures of the ' Wanderings,' can 

 still, after the wear and tear of sixty years, present us with such de- 

 lightful sketches as the following ! Sure we are that the heart of 

 every one, who knows aught of the charms of a country life, will ac- 

 knowledge its truthfulness. 



" To me, whom kind Providence has destined to spend the best part of my time in 

 the open air, the song of birds is soothing beyond expression ; and whilst I am admir- 

 ing the beauty of the rising flowers around me, I know no greater addition to my gra- 

 tification than that of listening to it. How enchanting is it to inspect the early snow- 

 drops, those " fair maids of February," whilst the stormcock is pouring forth his newly 

 acquired notes from the top of a neighbouring elm ! and how delightful it is to hear 

 cock-robin's carol on the thorn that affords a shelter to the humble primrose ! The 

 lily of the valley, too, sweet, lovely, lowly daughter of May, how I gaze in ecstacy ou 

 its virgin whiteness, whilst the stranger cuckoo's note sounds through the dell, and in- 

 sures me the return of warmer weather [ The chafiinch, too, and the whitethroat, and 

 the thrush, and the blackbird, with pretty jenny-wreu, and the hedge-sparrow, all add 

 charms inexpressible, by their sweet notes, to the rising flowers of the dale." — p. 3. 



Like most country gentlemen, Mr. Waterton, as is well known, has 

 certain predilections, or, as some would call them, prejudices, both 

 political and religious ; but the Wanderer is too amiable ever to allow 

 them to interfere with the charities of private life. And if, sometimes, 

 they will make their appearance in an Essay on Natural History, there 

 is always such a redeeming air of pleasantry about them, and a some- 

 thing so droll in the union of the two subjects, that it is quite im- 

 possible to suppress a smile, even at the most biting of the author's 

 sarcasms. Witness the following Essay on 



" The Powers of Vegetation. 



" In those good days of old, when there were no corn-factors in England to coun- 

 teract that part of our Eedeemer's prayer, " Give us this day our daily bread," by 

 hoarding up vast stores of grain, until mouldiness and vermin have rendered it unfit 

 for the use of man, there stood at Walton Hall a water-mill, for the interest of the pro- 

 prietor and the good of the country round. Time, the great annihilator of all human 

 inventions, saving taxation and the national debt, laid this fabric low in ruins some 

 sixty years ago ; and nothing now remains to show the place where it once stood ex- 

 cept a massive millstone, which measures full 17 ft. in circumference. The ground 

 where the mill stood having been converted into meadow, this stone lay there unno- 



