4 NATURE IN ENGLAND. 



Virgil and of Theocritus, acquainted with every cot- 

 tage roof and chimney in Europe, and with the ruined 

 abbeys and castle walls. Except its lighter-colored 

 breast, it seemed identical with our barn-swallow; 

 its little black cap appeared pulled down over its 

 eyes in the same manner, and its glossy steel-blue 

 coat, its forked tail, its infantile feet, and its cheerful 

 twitter were the same. But its habits are different ; 

 for in Europe this swallow builds in chimneys, and 

 the bird that answers to our chimney-swallow, or 

 swift, builds in crevices in barns and houses. 



We did not suspect we had taken aboard our pilot 

 in the little swallow, yet so it proved ; this light nav- 

 igator always hails from the port of bright, warm 

 skies ; and the next morning we found ourselves sail- 

 ing between shores basking in full summer sunshine. 

 Those who, after ten days of sorrowing and fasting in 

 the desert of the ocean, have sailed up the Frith of 

 Clyde, and thence up the Clyde to Glasgow, on the 

 morning of a perfect mid-May day, the sky all sun- 

 shine, the earth all verdure, know what this experi- 

 ence is,; and only those can know it. It takes a 

 good many foul days in Scotland to breed one fair 

 one ; but when the fair day does come, it is worth 

 the price paid for it. The soul and sentiment of all 

 fair weather is in it ; it is the flowering of the mete- 

 orological influences, the rose on this thorn of rain 

 and mist. These fair days, I was told, may be quite 

 confidently looked for in May ; we were so fortu- 

 nate as to experience a series of them, and the day 



