142 JUNE. 



flutters against the darkening pane. Go forth 

 when the business of the day is over, thou who 

 art pent in city toils, and stray through the 

 newly-shot corn, along the grassy and hay- 

 scented fields ; linger beside the solitary wood- 

 land ; — the gale of heaven is stirring its mighty 

 and umbrageous branches. The wild-rose, with 

 its flowers of most delicate odour, and of ever)' 

 tint, from the deepest red to the purest pearl ; 

 the wreathed and luscious honeysuckle, and the 

 verdurous, snowy-flowered elder embellish every 

 way-side, or light up the most shadowy region 

 of the wood. Field-peas and beans, in full 

 flower, add their spicy aroma: the red clover 

 is at once splendid and profuse of its honied 

 breath. The young corn is bursting into ear ; — 

 the awned heads of rye, wheat, and barley, and 

 the nodding panicles of oats shoot from their 

 green and glaucous stems, in broad, level, and 

 waving expanses of present beauty and future 

 promise. The very waters are strewn with 

 flowers; the buck-bean, the water-violet, the 

 elegant flowering-rush, and the queen of the 

 waters, the pure and splendid white lily invest 

 every stream and lonely mere with grace. The 

 mavis and the merle, those worthy favourites of 

 the olden bards, and the woodlark fill the so- 

 litude with their eloquent evening songs. 

 Over its own sweet voice the stock-dove broods ; 



