266 Life and Tunes of " The Druid." 



as the ' Lays of Ancient Rome,' have been 

 into Alcaics, in nearly every college and 

 school in the Kingdom. But to our minds, 

 there is a passage in his review on Milton, 

 touching the influence .of our Saviour when 

 He appeared in man's form, which is finer in 

 its grand simplicity than all its more elaborate 

 and ornate rivals. It is said that the ' Lays ' 

 had been prepared in great measure before 

 he went to India, and that he was wont to 

 repeat them to his sister in their carriage 

 rides. Still he had never committed them 

 fully to paper, and it was at her request when 

 he returned, and she made inquiry after 

 ' Lars Porsena ' and ' Black Auster ' as 

 dear old friends, that he was induced to write 

 them out and give them to the world. He 

 lived latterly at Holly Lodge, Campden Hill, 

 with only the Duke of Argyll's terrain 

 separating him from Holland House, in 

 whose library many an aspiring young Whig 

 had been nursed on old traditions or artistic 

 treasures into real or mere red tape great- 

 ness. Macaulay's recollections of that library 

 and of the ' comrade of Fox and friend of 

 Grey,' who gladdened it with his presence, 



