14 SPRING-TIDE. 



soft, or, as the learned suppose, having 

 been softened like y under the Norman 

 rule. In this way a geclepid " became 

 yclepid, a form in which it is found in 

 our literature up to a comparatively recent 

 period. 



/. If you run on at this rate, you 11 

 make a proselyte of me for a certainty. 

 Here comes our henchman. This is a 

 sweet spot, which old Walton himself would 

 have revelled in. You remember Withers' 

 lines : 



" Two pretty rills do meet, and meeting, make 

 Within one valley a large silver lake, 

 About whose banks the fertile mountains stood 

 In ages passed, bravely crown'd with wood, 

 Which lending cold sweet shadows, gave it grace 

 To be accounted Cynthia's bathing-place." 



S. Yes, Withers viewed everything with 

 a poet's eye, and rightly considered a 

 running stream indispensable to the perfect 

 beauty of a landscape. Witness another 

 passage in the same poetn : 



