IO2 The Natural History of Selborne 



While o'er the cliff th' awakened churn-owl hung 



Through the still gloom protracts his chattering song ; 



While high in air, and poised upon his wings, 



Unseen, the soft enamoured* woodlark sings: 



These, NATURE'S works, the curious mind employ, 



Inspire a soothing melancholy joy : 



As fancy warms, a pleasing kind of pain 



Steals o'er the cheek, and thrills the creeping vein ! 



Each rural sight, each sound, each smell, combine ; 

 The tinkling sheep-bell, or the breath of kine ; 

 The new-mown hay that scents the swelling breeze, 

 Or cottage-chimney smoking through the trees. 



The chilling night-dews fall : away, retire! 

 For see, the glow-worm lights her amorous fire ! f 

 Thus, ere night's veil had half obscured the sky, 

 Th 1 impatient damsel hung her lamp on high : 

 True to the signal, by love's meteor led, 

 Leander hastened to his Hero' s bed."$. 



I am, &c. 



* In hot summer nights woodlarks soar to a prodigious height, and hang singing 

 in the air. f The light of the female glow-worm (as she often crawls up the 

 stalk of a grass to make herself more conspicuous) is a signal to the male, which 

 is a slender dusky scarabaus. J See the story of Hero and Leander. 



