134 



SYLVAN SKETCHES, 



But when, as human ills descend to bees. 



The pining nation labours with disease ; 



Changed is their glittering hue to ghastly pale^ 



Roughness and leanness o'er their limbs prevail ; 



Forth the dead citizens with grief are borne. 



In solemn state — the sad attendants mourn : 



Clung by the feet they hang the live-long day 



Around the door, or in their chambers stay ; 



Hunger, and cold, and grief their toils delay. 



'Tis then in hoarser tones their hums resound 



Like hollow winds, the rustling forest round ; 



Or billows breaking on a distant shore. 



Or flames in furnaces that inly roar. 



Galbanean odours here I shall advise ; 



And through a reed to pour the sweet supplies 



Of golden honey, to invite the taste 



Of the sick nation to their known repast : 



Bruised galls, dried roses, thyme, and centaury join^ 



And raisins, ripened on the Psithian vine. 



Besides, in meads the plant amellus grows. 



And from one root thick stalks profusely throws. 



Which easily the wandering simpler knows." 



Warton's Translation. 



Marty n observes, that the twigs of the Elm were for- 

 merly used as instruments of castigation ; for that Plau- 

 tus speaks of a rogue who had been chastised so often, 

 that he had wasted all the Elms in the country in rods 

 and cudgels. 



" The Elm,^' says Gilpin, " naturally grows upright, 

 and where it meets with a soil it loves, rises higher than 

 the generality of trees; and after it has assumed the 

 dignity and hoary roughness of age, few of its forest 

 brethren, though properly speaking it is not a forester, 

 excel it in grandeur and beauty. The character of the 

 Elm, in its skeleton, partakes much of the oak ; so much, 



