22 COUNTRY ESSAYS. 



summer at Kelso and in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 

 She used to say that in the new world into which she was come 

 nothing had disappointed her as much as trees and woods ; 

 she complained that they were lifeless, silent, and, compared 

 with the grandeur of the ever-changing ocean, even insipid. 

 At first I was surprised, but the next moment I felt that the 

 impression was natural. Mr. Scott said that she was a very 

 sensible young woman, and had read much. She talked with 

 endless rapture and feeling of the power and greatness of the 

 ocean ; and with the same passionate attachment returned to 

 her own native island without any probability of quitting it 

 again." 



In boyhood the inner life, with all its emotions, bright 

 fancies, and happy imaginations, retires for a time in the 

 presence of the sea, while the bodily sinews and thews hail it 

 as an ally which will brace them up for the battle of life. The 

 sea is welcomed as a friend when the boy, with Byron's love of 

 swimming, suffers the waves to bear him downwards on their 

 bosom into the dark trough, then with one stroke rises up the 

 green wall of the next swell, and as it curls into creamy spray 

 which would overwhelm him and bear him backwards like a 

 cork, head over heels, by one dexterous plunge dives under its 

 rage, and, again emerging, slides calmly down into the next 

 abyss, ready for another dive at the critical moment. What 

 better discipline could boyhood have for the ups and downs of 

 life than this wrestling with Father Ocean ? The delights of 

 pulling a boat backwards and forwards in the harbour soon led 

 to the first timid venture over the swells at its mouth to the 

 open sea beyond, and form another early memory with most 

 boys. And then ensued the entrancing joy of rocking on the 

 waves outside, which was always accompanied by an unspoken 

 dread that it might not be possible to row back again. Some- 

 times a sailor really had to put out his boat and help the baffled 

 wanderers home. Such minor dangers, too, as dropping an 



