56 



baker's north YORltSHlRiE. 



THE GLEN OF THE GRETA. 



The cliffs that rear their haughty head 

 High o'er the river's darksome bed 

 Were now all naked wild and grey, 

 Now waving all with greenwood spray ; 

 Here trees to everj' crevice clung 

 And o'er the dell their branches hung, 

 And there all splintered and uneven 

 The shivered rocks ascend to heaven ; 

 Oft too the ivy swathed their breast 

 And wreathed its garland round their crest, 

 Or from the spires bade loosely flare 

 Its tendrils in the middle air. 

 As pennons wont to wave of old 

 O'er the high feast of Baron bold 

 'When revelled loud the feudal rout 

 And the arched halls returned their shout ; 

 Such and more wild is Greta's roar. 

 And such the echoes from her shore. 

 And so the ivied banners gleam 

 Waved wildly o'er the brawling stream.' 



THORSGILL. 



For where the thicket groups recede 

 And the rath primrose decks the mead, 

 The velvet grass seems carpet meet 

 For the light fairies' lively feet ; 

 Yon tufted knoll with daisies strewn 

 Might make proud Oberon a throne. 

 While hidden in the thicket nigh 

 Puck should brood o'er his frolic sly. 

 And where profuse the wood-vetch clings 

 Round Ash and Elm in verdant rings 

 Its pale and azure-pencilled flower 

 Might canopy Titania's bower. 

 Here rise no cliffs the vale to shade. 

 But skirting every sunny glade. 

 In fair variety of green, 

 The woodland lends its sylvan scene, 

 And all beneath at random grow 

 Each coppice dwarf of varied show. 

 Or round the stems profusely twined 

 Fling summer odours on the wind.' 



Their Influence upon the Topography of the Vegetation. — The 

 rocks of the different kinds furnish to unite with vegetable humus 

 to make the soils above them a detritus more or less abundant 

 in proportion to their permeability, sometimes clayey, some- 

 times sandy, sometimes partaking of the two natures combined : 

 and in the low country bands of boulder clay and sand and 

 gravel, the contributions from all the different beds mixed up 

 together, usually overspread the subjacent rock to a considerable 

 depth. Upon the permeability on a grand scale of its subjacent 

 strata and the proportion in which the different kinds of detritus 

 enter into the composition of its subsoils the natural fertility of 

 any particular tract of country and the sort of stations which it 

 furnishes for wild plants to grow in, to a considerable extent 

 depends. The difference between the different kinds of soil in 

 their power of absorbing and retaining moisture is very great. 

 If we take a quantity of dry sand and put it into a bag and pour 

 water upon it, we shall find that it will not absorb more than a 

 quarter of its own weight of the water : but vegetable loam will 

 absorb 40 to 50 per cent of its own weight, and pure dry 

 argillaceous clay as much as 60 or 70 per cent. A predomin- 

 ance of clayey detritus in a soil gives to it consistency, tenacity, 



