236 VOICES PROM THE WOODLANDS. 



Who has not felt the power of such associations, as 

 connected with the lime ? And thus vividly has one of our 

 historians brought them before the mind. " How often/' 

 said he, "in early youth have I stretched myself on the 

 turf beneath its impenetrable shade, and listened to the 

 mingled ham of myriads of bees when busily collecting 

 honey among its fragrant flowers, when no other sound 

 was heard in the summer air, except the occasional, though 

 rare, twitter of the skimming swallow, or the distant 

 cooing of the ring-dove : when all was silent on earth, 

 save the gentle cropping of the nibbling sheep, or the 

 lowing of kine from the shallows of the river, whence the 

 raging heat had driven them/' 



