10 INTRODUCTION. 



I love the steps of autumn time, 

 When cool, not cold, the morning's prime ; — 

 When noon has lost his scorching pride, 

 And pleasures throng the brooklet's side; — 

 When eve is bland — the genial breeze 

 Plays wantonly among the trees ; 

 Or, dimpling o'er the river's face, 

 Adds to its beauty novel grace. 

 Delight with me, too, often roves 

 In Sydenham's dark, shady groves ; 

 Yet o'er her hills, with, Lady ! you, 

 Pleas'd I shall be to dash the dew 

 From herb and flower ; and pleas'd to see 

 The blooming heath I ween you'll be. 

 Nor will that modest lilac maid, 

 Campanula*, with drooping head, 

 Deny her charms, the while appear 

 Such goodly prospects far and near. 

 The purple Digitalis! too, 

 Will here her homage pay to you. 



* The Campanula patula, or Meadow Bell-flower, is ofre 

 of the most elegant of the Campanula genus, and only not more 

 admired because it is so very common on our heaths. 



t Digitalis purpurea, or Fox- glove. This valuable and 

 beautiful indigenous plant, although growing plentifully in 

 hedges in various parts of the kingdom, is rare in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of London. The curiuus will, however, find it 

 on the Sydenham-hills, — hills which no one who delights in rural 

 scenery should omit to see ; yet how many of the inhabitants of 

 the metropolis have never visited them ! 



