FLIGHT OF THE WOOD-NYMPHS. 329 



rials, were erected and placed in different parts of the 

 grounds. A summer-house was built of the rudest of 

 logs, shingled with the rough bark of trees, and rocks 

 were introduced for seats and covered with mosses. 

 Fences were constructed in similar style, and various 

 other rude devices were executed and distributed in a 

 fanciful manner over the face of the landscape. But 

 not even the shaggy goat-footed Pan would acknowl- 

 edge any such thing for an altar. No such objects 

 could be made to accord with the " high keeping " of 

 the grounds, nor could they give an air of rusticity to 

 scenes that were so elaborately ornamented. They 

 were mere pieces of affectation ; blotches upon the fair 

 surface of beauty, that served no other purpose but to 

 add deformity to the unique productions of art. 



One day, as the ladies were strolling pensively along 

 their accustomed paths, lamenting that nothing could 

 be done to appease the divinities whom they had 

 offended, they discovered in a little nook, under a cliff 

 that projected over a rude entrance into the wood, a 

 slab of weather-stained slate, resembling a headstone. 

 Observing that it was lettered, they knelt down upon 

 the green turf and read the following 



INSCRIPTION. 



In peaceful solitudes and sylvan shades 



That lure to meditation ; where the birds 



Sing all day unmolested in their haunts, 



And the rude soil still bears the tender wilding — 



There dwell the rural deities. They love 



The moss-grown trees and rocks, the flowery knoll, 



The tangled wild wood, and the bower of ferns. 



They fill each scene with beauty, and they prompt 



The echoes to repeat the low of herds 



