Natural Hi/lory of the ^Indents. 173 



and fpending much of his manhood as well as all 

 his impreflionable youth in that diftrict of marfh 

 and hill, while the Po, Father of waters, rolled 

 along but a few miles from his father's houfe ; 

 with glimpfes of diftant mountains, now fhrouded 

 in mifts, now painted with the flying tints of 

 morn and evening, while murmurs of pines and 

 running waters were everywhere around him, it 

 was only natural that the birds which haunted his 

 native fields mould become dear to Virgil. In fpite 

 of more than one attempt of the lawlefs foldiers, 

 whom the chances of civil war had planted in his 

 neighbourhood, to difpofTefs him, he feems to have 

 dwelt, more or lefs, on his father's eftate till he died. 

 In footh, it was a fit home for a poet, a realization 

 of an Englifh brother's dream centuries afterwards: 



" Happy the man whofe wifh and care 



A few paternal acres bound, 

 Content to breathe his native air 

 In his own ground. 



" Sleep found by night ; ftudy and eafe 

 Together mix'd ; fweet recreation, 

 And innocence, which molt does pleafe 

 With meditation." 



The ancients, aided by hints from his own 

 writings, depict for us Virgil's home as having been 

 about three miles from the city Mantua, on high 

 ground, running down towards it ; and the eftate 

 that "angle of ground which had charms beyond 

 all others for him " as fpreading over the roots 

 of the hilly diftrict between the Mincio and Po ; 

 on the upper part fcant of herbage and ftony, on 

 the lower fomewhat marfhy and low-lying : 



