130 MAY. 



after gazing on their sunny quietude, their lilachs, 

 peonies,wall-flowers, tulips, anemones and corco- 

 ruses with their yellow tufts of flowers, now be- 

 coming as common at the doors of cottages as the 

 rosemary and rue once were one cannot help 

 regretting that more of our labouring classes do not 

 enjoy the freshness of earth, and the pure breeze 

 of heaven, in these little rural retreats, instead of 

 being buried in close and sombre alleys. A man 

 who can, in addition to a tolerable remuneration for 

 the labour of his hands, enjoy a clean cottage and 

 a garden amidst the common but precious offerings 

 of Nature, the grateful shade of trees and the flow 

 of waters, a pure atmosphere and a riant sky, can 

 scarcely be called poor. 



If Burns had been asked what was the greatest 

 luxury of May, I suppose he would have quoted 

 from his " Cotter's Saturday Night," 



If Heaven a draught of heavenly pleasure spare, 

 One cordial in this melancholy vale, 

 'Tis when a youthful, loving, modest pair 

 In other's arms breathe out the tender tale 

 Beneath the milk-white thorn that scents the evening gale. 



At which Gilpin would quote, from his " Forest 

 Scenery," a passage proving the poets to be very 

 foolish for their admiration of so insignificant and 

 inelegant a bush. We, however, shall take part with 

 Burns, only we would conjure a nightingale into his 

 hawthorn, and the hawthorn into a forest; for of all 

 May delights, listening to the nightingale is the 



