fs 2320 



A) 



Mftl/V/ 

 MY STUDY WINDOWS. 



MY GARJDEN- ACQUAINTANCE. 



ONE of the most delightful books in my father s library 

 was White s Natural History of Selborne. For me it 

 has rather gained in charm with years. I used to read it 

 without knowing the secret of the pleasure I found in it, but 

 as I grow older I begin to detect some of the simple expe 

 dients of this natural magic. Open the book where you will, 

 it takes you out of doors. In our broiling July weather one 

 can walk out with this genially garrulous Fellow of Oriel. 

 and find refreshment instead of fatigue. You have no trouble 

 in keeping abreast of him as he ambles along on his hobby 

 horse, now pointing to a pretty view, now stopping to watch 

 the motions of a bird or an insect, or to bag a specimen for 

 the Honourable Daines Barrington or Mr. Pennant. In 

 ^simplicity of taste and natural refinement he reminds one 

 of Walton ; in tenderness toward what he would have called 

 the brute creation, of Cowper. I do not know whether his 

 descriptions of scenery are good or not, but they have made 

 me familiar with his neighbourhood. Since I first read him, 

 I have walked over some of his favourite haunts, but I still 

 see them through his eyes rather than by any recollection of 

 actual and personal vision. The book has also the delight- 

 fulness of absolute leisure. Mr. White seems never to have 

 had any harder work to do than to study the habits of his 

 feathered fellow-townsfolk, or to watch the ripening of his 

 peaches on the wall. His volumes are the journal of Adam 

 in Paradise, 



Annihilating all that s made 

 To a green thought in a green shade. 

 B 



