THE HERON. 907 



pastimes pursued on "flood, field," and fell : " Slow- 

 sailing heron, that, cloud-like, seekest thy nest on 

 yonder mass of pines ; to us thy flight seems the very 

 symbol of a long, lone, life of peace ! As thou foldest 

 thy wide wings on the topmost bough, beneath thee 

 tower the unregarded ruins, where many generations 

 sleep ! Onwards thou floatest, like a dream ; nor 

 changest thy gradually-descending course for the 

 eagle, that, far above thy line of travel, comes rush- 

 ing unwearied, from his prey, in distant isles of the 

 sea." And, again, where he speaks of the pastimes 

 of Craig Hall : " Hush ! stoop kneel crawl ; for, 

 by all our hopes of mercy, a heron a heron ! An 

 eel dangling across his bill ! And now the water- 

 serpent has disappeared ! From morning dawn hath 

 the fowl been fishing here perhaps on that very 

 stone ; for it is one of those days, when eels are 

 a-roaming in the shallows, and the heron knows that 

 they are as likely to pass by that stone as any other 

 from morning dawn, and 'tis now past meridian. 

 Be propitious, oh, ye Fates ! and never never shall 

 he again fold his wings on the edge of his gaping 

 nest, on the trees that overtop the only tower left of 

 the castle. Another eel ! And we, too, can crawl 

 silent as the sinuous serpent. Flash ! Bang ! over 

 he goes, dead ! no, not dead ; but how unlike that 

 unavailing flapping, as head over heels he goes spin- 

 ning over the tarn, to the serene unsettling of him- 

 self from sod or stone, when, his hunger sated, and 

 his craw filled with fish for his far-off brood, he used 



