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HEDGEROWS AND HILLOCKS GREEN 



' Some time walking, not unseen, 

 By hedge-row elms, on hillocks green, 

 Right against the eastern gate 

 Where the great sun begins his state 

 Robed in flame and amber light." 



L'AUegro. 



EVEN in the gay days of Charles I there could be found 

 this one man of prominence who loved the eternal 

 out-of-doors and who had seen the great sun begin 

 his state robed in flame and amber light frequently enough 

 to warrant his writing lines about it. Lines they were which 

 carry their appeal down through all of the years and pull at 

 our heart-strings today. How few of the gallants of Milton's 

 day could say that they had seen as much ; imless perchance 

 they saw a dizzy sunrise by accident at the close of an 

 all night's revel. But as the days passed and kings and 

 governments passed with them, the wanton surroundings 

 of royalty giving place to austere Cromwellism, one may 

 picture many of the foremost men of state as watching the 

 sim right against the eastern gate; and as Milton's ej'-esight 



failed him and he had only memories and that marvellously 



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