The Bramble. 103 



ber also, the shrinking awe with which he passed the tempting 

 branch after Michaelmas day ; believing with a credulity that 

 would have done honor to the darkest ages, the vulgar supersti- 

 tion that on that day the devil casts his club over the fruit? It 

 is amusing to see how gravely Threlkeld rebuts the tradition : 

 " I look upon this as a vulgar error," says he, " that the devil 

 casts his club over them after Michaelmas ; for the earth is the 

 Lord's, and the fulness thereof." 



But whilst reviving these youthful recollections, we must not 

 forget to notice the connection this plant has with the popular 

 nursery ballad, " The Babes in the Wood." However success- 

 fully the rising emotion had been combated in the preceding 

 stanzas, the following lines, even at the hundredth repetition, were 

 sure to open the flood-gates of childish sorrow : 



Their little hands and pretty lips, 



With blackberries were dyed, 

 And when they saw the darksome night, 



They sat them down and cried. 



Nor must Beattie's allusion to 



" This tale of rural life, a tale of woes, 



The orphan babes, and guardian uncle fierce," 



be passed over ; we even now almost share the varied emotions 

 of the infant minstrel, whilst reading the following stanzas : 



-" with berries smeared, with brambles torn, 



The babes now famished lay them down to die ; 

 'Midst the wild howl of darksome woods forlorn, 

 Folded in one another's arms they lie ; 

 Nor friend nor stranger hears their dying cry, 

 • For from the town the man returns no more ;' 

 But thou who Heaven's just vengeance darest defy, 

 This deed with fruitless tears shaltsoon deplore, 

 When death lays waste thy house, and flames consume thy store." 



Gilpin, the elegant author of " Remarks on Forest Scenery," 

 seems to have outlived all these early predilections, for he treats 

 this poor plant most unmercifully. After speaking of the vari- 

 ous shrubs and flowers which might adorn the foreground of a 

 picture, he says, " Of all this undergrowth, I know but one plant 

 which is disagreeable, and that is the Bramble. It does not 

 hang carelessly twisting round every support, like others of the 



