INTRODUCTION. 6 



ruin of abbey or fortress without its complement of 

 commemorative grasses. There is no place where the 

 presence of grass is more welcome, or more touching in 

 its associations, than in the churchyard. The early 

 withering of many summer grasses brings to memory 

 the Scriptural analogy "All flesh is as grass ;" but the 

 associations with the green turf of Nature's last home 

 are entirely restful. The American poet expresses ge- 

 nial feeling on this subject in some simple lines on ' The 

 Voice of the Grass :' — 



" Here I come creeping, creeping everywhere ; 

 By the rusty roadside, 

 On the sunny hillside, 

 Close by the noisy brook, 

 In every shady nook, 

 I come creeping, creeping everywhere. 



" Here I come creeping, creeping everywhere ; 

 In the noisy street 

 My pleasant face you'll meet, 

 Cheering the sick at heart, 

 Toiling his busy part, 

 Silently creeping, creeping everywhere. 



" Here I come creeping, creeping everywhere ; 

 When you're numbered with the dead, 

 In your still and narrow bed, 

 In the happy spring I'll come 

 And deck your silent home ; 

 Creeping silently, creeping everywhere." 



Mr. Shirley Hibberd describes the welcome presence 

 of grass in truly poetic style. He says : " Grass climbs 

 up the steep mountain passes, and forms green ledges 

 among the rivings of the crags ; it leaps down between 

 steep shelving precipices, and there fastens its slender 

 roots in dry crevices which the earthquakes have rent 



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