it): 



POETRY AND POETS. 



it along the public roads. From 

 this came the name of Marseil- 

 laise!" 



THOMSON'S "WINTER." 



Many writers of popular name 

 have been indebted to casual cir- 

 cumstances for their elevated dis- 

 tinction. When Thomson produced 

 his " Winter/' the best of his Seasons, 

 the poem lay like Avaste-paper in 

 the shop of the bookseller, and to 

 the great mortification of the au- 

 thor. At last Mr. Mitchell, a gen- 

 tleman of taste and rank, having 

 read the piece with pleasure, took 

 it in his pocket, read passages from 

 it in all companies where he visited, 

 and in a few days the whole impres- 

 sion being disposed of, the poet was 

 enabled to complete his design. 



CAMPBELL'S " HOHENHNDEN." 



The folio wing is an extract from 

 a letter written by Thomas Camp- 

 bell to a relative in America, and 

 affords us the first impressions of 

 the battle of Hohenlinden. 



" Never shall time efface from my 

 memory the recollections of that 

 hour of astonishment and suspend- 

 ed breath, when I stood with the 

 good monks of St. Jacob, to over- 

 look a charge of Klenau's cavalry 

 upon the French under Grennier, 

 encamped below us. We saw the 

 fire given and returned, and heard 

 distinctly the sound of the French 

 pas de charge, collecting the lines to 

 attack in close column. After three 

 hours' awaiting the issue of a se- 

 vere action, a park of artillery was 

 opened just beneath the walls of 

 the monastery, and several waggon- 

 ers, who were stationed to convey 

 the vv-ounded in spring -waggons, 

 were killed in our sight. My love 

 of novelty now gave way to per- 

 sonal fear ; and I took a carriage, 

 in company with an Austrian sur- 

 geon, back to Landshut." 



" I remember;" he adds, on his 

 return to England, "how little I 



valued the art of painting, before I 

 got into the heart of such impres- 

 sive scenes ; but in Germany 1 would 

 have given anything to have pos- 

 sessed an art capable of conveying 

 ideas inaccessible to speech and 

 writing. Some particular scenes 

 were rather overcharged with that 

 degree of the terrific which over- 

 steps the sublime ; and I own my 

 flesh yet creeps at the recollection of 

 spring-waggons and hospitals ; but 

 the sight of Ingolstadt in ruins, or 

 Hohenlinden covered with fire, 

 seven miles in circumference, were 

 spectacles never to be forgotten." 



THE THREE VERSES OF EURIPIDES. 



Euripides once said that three of 

 his verses had cost him the labour 

 of three days. " I could have writ- 

 ten a hundred in that time," said 

 another poet of ordinary abilities. 

 " I believe it," replied Euripides ; 

 "but they would have lived only 

 three days." 



AN OVER-POETIC POET. 



Dr. Glover was on a visit at 

 Stowe, when he wrote his celebrated 

 ballad of Admiral Hosier's Ghost, 

 perhaps the most spirited of all his 

 productions. The idea occurred to 

 him during the night ; he rose early, 

 and went into the garden to com- 

 pose. 



In the heat of his composition, 

 he walked into the tulip-bed ; un- 

 fortunately, he had a stick in his 

 hand, and with a true poetical fer- 

 vour, he hewed down the tulips in 

 every direction. Lady Temple was 

 particularly fond of tulips, and some 

 of the company, who had seen the 

 doctor slashing around him, and 

 suspected how his mind was occu- 

 pied, asked him, at breakfast, how 

 he could think of thus wantonly 

 destroying her ladyship's favourite 

 flowers. 



The poet, perfectly unconscious 

 of the havoc he had made, pleaded 

 not guilty. There were witnesses 



