THE SLATES ON THE ROOF. 



THE slates on the roof should be, when rightly under- 

 stood, a pleasant subject for contemplation to the 

 dweller in a town. I do not ask him to imitate the 

 boy who, cliff-bred from his youth, used to spend 

 stolen hours on the house-top, with his back against 

 a chimney-stalk, transfiguring in his imagination the 

 roof-slopes into mountain-sides, the slates into sheets 

 of rock, the cats into lions, and the sparrows into 

 eagles. I only wish that he should at least after 

 reading this paper let the slates on the roof carry 

 him back in fancy to the mountains whence they 

 came ; perhaps to pleasant trips to the lakes and hills 

 of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and North Wales ; 

 and to recognise as he will do if he have intellect as 

 well as fancy how beautiful and how curious an 

 object is a common slate. 



Beautiful, not only for the compactness and deli- 

 cacy of its texture, and for the regularity and smooth- 

 ness of its surface, but still more for its colour. 

 Whether merely warm grey, as when dry, or bright 



