FOUND EVERYWHERE. 147 



seen ; and its mellow note may be heard, not only 

 throughout the whole of Europe, but also in Syria, and 

 other parts of Northern Asia. A British traveller, 

 Buchanan, who many years since penetrated into the rocky 

 fastnesses of the Nepaulese territory, whose rugged moun- 

 tains may be considered as the first stepping-stones to the 

 more lofty Himalayas, brought back word to his fellow 

 countrymen of the Grampians, that thus closely bordering 

 upon the burning plains of India, he had beheld such 

 well-known plants as pine trees and primroses, straw- 

 berries and hawthorns, and had listened to the notes of the 

 Merle, that bird of home associations. What must have been 

 his thoughts, thousands of miles away from those familiar 

 scenes, amid which he had last heard that sweet music, 

 in a strange rugged land, among a people of a different 

 faith and a different tongue ? What visions of ' auld 

 lang syne,' must have been conjured up by those magic 

 notes, unlocking the treasure-house of memory, and un- 

 sealing the fount of the purest and holiest feeling of 

 man's heart. Doubtless he was a youthful lover once, 

 and that familiar strain might have recalled to his recol- 

 lection such a scene as we may suppose Elgiva looks upon 

 in the play of ' Edwin the Fair,' when she asks, 



How long since 



Is it, that standing on this compassed window, 

 The Blackbird sung us forth from yonder bough 

 That hides the arbour, loud and full at first, 

 Warbling his invitations, then with pause 

 And fracture, fitfully as evening fell ? 



Aye, how long since ? What an echo these words must 

 have found in the bosom of our traveller, and how involun- 

 tarily the question must have risen on his lips how long 

 will it be ere I again visit the sweet scenes of early life, 

 and behold the faces, and hear the voices of those who 

 are dear to me ? Perchance it was eventide, and he was 

 in some green valley, snugly nestled amid the rugged hills, 

 when his ear first caught the sound of this toie-bird's song, 

 poured out from a blossoming hawthorn bush, or from 

 amid the dark boughs of a pine tree, like that of his native 



