LORD WOODHOUSELEE. 



M. S. 



GULIELMI TYTLER, de Woodhouselee. 

 H. L. P. F. 



545 



En virides aras, en hanc quam ponimus urnam, 



Tu, fili ex manibus respice dona, Pater ! 

 Sic, venerande Senex, olim qua rura placebant 



Sint eadem busto nunc decorata tuo. 

 Neve Tibi desit post funera sueta yoluptas, 



Proximo ab umbroso cantet avis nemore, 

 Et qui Te placido lenibat murmure rivus, 



Dulcia perpetuis somnia portet aquis. 



By the death of his father, Mr Tytler had succeeded to the 

 estate of Woodhouselee ; and some years before that period, 

 Mrs Tytler had, in a similar manner, succeeded to the pater- 

 nal estate of Balnain in Inverness-shire. He was now in cir- 

 cumstances of affluence, — his friends were numerous, — his own 

 disposition in the highest degree hospitable and kind, — and he 

 felt himself at liberty to attempt to realise some of those visions 

 of retired and rural happiness, which had long played in his ima- 

 gination, and which form, perhaps, one of the earliest reveries 

 of every generous or cultivated mind. He began, therefore, 

 immediately to embellish his grounds, to extend his plantations, 

 and in the enlargement of his house, to render it more ade- 

 quate to the purposes of hospitality ; and in the course of a 

 short period, he succeeded in creating a scene of rural and do- 

 mestic happiness, which has seldom been equalled in this coun- 

 try, and which, to the warm-hearted simplicity of Scottish 

 manners, added somewhat of the more refined air of classical 



elegance. 



