144 



THE HAZEL, 



Through beds of matted fern and tangled thickets, 

 Forcing my way, I came to one dear nook 

 Unvisited, where not a broken bough 

 Drooped with its withered leaves, ungracious sign 

 Of devastation ; but the Hazels rose 

 Tall and erect, with milk-white clusters hung, 

 A virgin scene ! A little while I stood. 

 Breathing with such suppression of the heart, 

 As joy delights in ; and, with wise restraint 

 Voluptuous, fearless of a rival, eyed 

 The banquet ; — or beneath the trees I sate 

 Among the flowers, and with the flowers I played ; 

 A temper known to those, who, after long 

 And weary expectation, have been blest 

 With sudden happiness beyond all hope. 

 Perhaps it was a bower, beneath whose leaves 

 The violets of five seasons re-appear. 

 And fade unseen by any human eye ; 

 Where fairy water-brakes do murmur on 

 For ever ; and I saw the sparkling foam, 

 And, with my cheek on one of those green stones 

 That, fleeced with moss, beneath the shady trees. 

 Lay round me, scattered like a flock of sheep, 

 I heard the murmur and the murmuring sound, 

 In that sweet mood when pleasure loves to pay 

 Tribute to ease ; and, of its joy secure, 

 The heart luxuriates with indifferent things, 

 Wasting its kindliness on stocks and stones, 

 And on the vacant air. Then up I rose. 

 And dragg'd to earth both branch and bough, with crash 

 And merciless ravage : and the shady nook 

 Of Hazels, and the green and mossy bower, 

 Deform'd and sullied, patiently gave up 

 Their quiet being : and unless I now 

 Confound my present feelings with my past, 

 Ere from the mutilated bower I turned 

 Exulting rich beyond the wealth of kings, 

 , I felt a sense of pain when I beheld 



The silent trees, and saw the intruding sky." 



On the banks of the river Plym, in Bickleigh 

 Vale, Devonshire, stands the largest and most 

 productive Hazel that I have ever seen. Owing, 

 however, either to its extreme age, or more pro- 

 bably to its roots extending to a depth below the 



