A GOOD WORD FOR WINTER. 29 



Winter was literally &quot; the inverted year,&quot; as Thomson 

 called him ; for such entertainments as could be had must 

 be got within doors. What cheerfulness there was in 

 brumal verse was that of Horace s dissolve Jrigus ligna 

 super foco large reponens, so pleasantly associated with the 

 cleverest scene in Roderick Random. This is the tone of 

 that poem of Walton s friend Cotton, which won the praise 

 of Wordsworth : 



&quot;Let us home, 



Our mortal enemy is come ; 



Winter and all his blustering train 



Have made a voyage o er the main. 



Fly, fly, the foe advances fast, 

 Into our fortress let us haste, 

 Where all the roarers of the north 

 Can neither storm nor starve us forth. 



There underground a magazine 

 Of sovereign juice is cellared in, 

 Liquor that will the siege maintain 

 Should Phcehus ne er return again. 



Whilst we together jovial sit 

 Careless, and crowned with mirth and wit, 

 Where, though bleak winds confine us home, 

 Our fancies round the world shall roam.&quot; 



Thomson s view of Winter is also, on the whole, a hostile 

 one, though he does justice to his grandeur. 



&quot;Thus Winter falls, 



A heavy gloom oppressive o er the world, 

 Through Nature shedding influence malign.&quot; 



He finds his consolations, like Cotton, in the house, though 



more refined : 



11 While without 



The ceaseless winds blow ice, be my retreat 

 Between the groaning forest and the shore 

 Beat by the boundless multitude of waves, 

 A rural, sheltered, solitary scene, 

 Where ruddy fire and beaming tapers join 

 To cheer the gloom. There studious let me sit 

 And hold high converse with the mighty dead,&quot; 



