282 



TABLE-TALK. AST) VARIETIES. 



real dimensions. The idea, such as [ 

 it was received, remains during our 

 absence from the object. When I 

 returned to England in 1800, after 

 ^n absence from the country parts 

 -of it for sixteen years, the trees, the 

 hedges, even the parks and "woods, 

 seemed so small! It made me laugh 

 to hear little gutters, that I could 

 jump over, called rivers. The 

 Thames was but 'a creek.' But 

 when, in about a month after my 

 arrival in London, I went to Farn- 

 ham, the place of my birth, what 

 was my surprise! Everything was 

 become so pitifully small! I had 

 to cross in my post-chaise the long 

 and dreary heath of Bagshot ; then, 

 at the end of it, to mount a hill 

 called Hungry Hill ; and from that 

 hill I knew that I should look down 

 into the beautiful and fertile vale 

 of Farnham. My heart fluttered 

 with impatience, mixed with a sort 

 of fear, to see all the scenes of my 

 childhood; for I had learned, before, 

 the death of my father and mother. 

 There is a hill not far from the 

 town, called Crooksbury Hill, which 

 rises up out of a flat in the form of 

 a cone, and is planted with Scotch 

 fir-trees. Here I used to take the 

 eggs and young ones of crows and 

 magpies. This hill Avas a famous 

 object in the neighbourhood. It 

 served as the superlative degree of 

 height. 'As high as Crooksbury 

 Hill,' meant with us the utmost 

 degree of height. Therefore the 

 first object my eyes sought was this 

 hill. I could not believe my eyes! 

 Literally speaking, I for a moment 

 thought the famous hill removed, 

 and a little heap put in its stead ; 

 for I had seen in New Brunswick, 

 a single rock, or hill of solid rock, 

 ten times as big, and four or five 

 times as high ! The postboy, going 

 down hill, and not a bad road, 

 whisked me in a few minutes to the 

 Bush Inn, from the garden of which 

 I could see the prodigious sand hill 

 where I had begun my gardening 



works. What a nothing! But now 

 came rushing into my mind, all at 

 once, my pretty little garden, my 

 little blue smock-frock, my little 

 nailed shoes, my pretty pigeons that 

 I used to feed out of my hands, the 

 last kind words and tears of my 

 gentle, and tender-hearted, and af- 

 fectionate mother. I hastened back 

 into the room. If I had looked a 

 moment longer, I should have 

 dropped. When I came to reflect, 

 what a change ! What scenes I had 

 gone through! How altered my 

 state ! I had dined the day before 

 at a secretary of state's, in company 

 with Mr. Pitt, and had been waited 

 upon by men in gaudy liveries. I 

 had had nobody to assist me in the 

 world; no teachers of any sort; 

 nobody to shelter me from the con- 

 sequence of bad, and nobody to 

 counsel me to good, behaviour. I 

 felt proud. The distinctions of rank, 

 birth, and wealth, all became no- 

 thing in my eyes; and from that 

 moment (less than a month after 

 my arrival in England) I resolved 

 never to bend before them." 



Cobbett was, for a short time, a 

 labourer in the kitchen-grounds of 

 the Royal Gardens at Kew. King 

 George the Third often visited the 

 gardens to inquire after the fruit 

 and esculents; and one day he saw 

 Cobbett here, then a lad, who, with 

 a few halfpence in his pocket, and 

 Swift's Tale of a Tub in his hand, 

 had been so captivated by the won- 

 ders of the Eoyal Gardens, that he 

 applied there for employment. The 

 king, on perceiving the clownish 

 boy, with his stockings tied about 

 his legs by scarlet garters, inquired 

 about him, and specially desired 

 that he might be continued in his 



PERCY BTSSHE SHELLEY. 



Shelley had a pleasure in making 



paper boats, and floating them on. 



the water. The New Monthly hftS 



the following curious anecdote on 



