PLANTING. 149 



" any controversy between us. Controversy 

 " at best is but a rough game, and in some 

 " points not unlike the ancient tournaments ; 

 " where friends and acquaintance, merely for 

 " a trial of skill, and love of victory, with all 

 " civility and courteousness tilted at each 

 ''other's breasts — tried to unhorse each 

 "other — grew more eager and animated 

 " — drew their swords — struck where the 

 " armour was weakest, and where the steel 

 " would bite to the quick, — and all without 

 " animosity. As these doughty combatants 

 " of the days of yore, after many a hard 

 " blow given and received, met together in 

 " perfect cordiality at the famous round 

 " tables ; so I hope we shall often meet at 

 '* the tables of our common friends. And as 

 " they, forgetting the smart of their mutual 

 " wounds, gaily discoursed of the charms of 

 " beauty, of feats of arms, of various strata- 

 " gems of war, of the disposition of troops, 

 " the choice of ground, and ambuscades in 

 " woods and ravines — so we may talk of the 

 " many correspondent dispositions and stra- 

 " tasems in our milder art : of its broken 

 " picturesque ravines, of the intricacies and 

 " concealments of woods and thickets, and 



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