NA TURE-POETR V. 
S3 
Coincidences not in thought merely, but ev’en in expression, 
may be abundantly detected in the poetry of Thomson and his 
followers. In “ Autumn,” for example, Thomson has a fine 
descriptive passage on nutting, and the same scene is described 
by Wordsworth, who, however, discovered what had escaped the 
robuster paganism of the elder poet, that “ there is a spirit in 
the woods,” and expressed it thus, in a form specially his own : — 
“Then, dearest maiden, move along these shades 
In gentleness of heart, with gentle hand 
Touch, for there is a spirit in the woods.” 
Of SO sweet a harbinger of Nature-poetry and the return to 
Nature no fitter place could be found for a Memorial than the 
scenery celebrated in his verse ; and there, accordingly, on 
Richmond Hill, overlooking the “ matchless vale of Thames ” 
which he describes, and on a spot wherefrom, in the distance, 
you may see where “ majestic Windsor lifts his princely brow,” 
we are reminded of the sweet Nature-poet by a tablet bearing 
lines of which these are the first four : — 
“ Ve who from London’s smoke and turmoil fly 
To seek a purer air and brighter sky. 
Think of the Bard who dwelt in yonder dell. 
Who sang so sweetly what he loved so well.” 
Monuments stand to Thomson’s memory in various places. 
In Richmond parish church, where he lies buried, a brass tablet, 
by no means imposing in appearance, was put up in 1792 by 
David Stuart, Earl of Buchan ; an ambitious but abortive obelisk 
was put up by the same Earl on Ferney Hill, near Ednam, where 
the poet spent but the first two months of his life, and in the 
best corner of our national Walhalla, Westminster Abbey, his 
statue stands near to that of Shakspere, and underneath the bust 
of Burns, with these lines from his owm poem on “ Summer ” : — 
“ Fostered by thee, sweet Poetry exalts 
Her voice to ages, and informs the page 
With Music, Image, Sentiment, and Thought, 
Never to die.” 
But the only memorial that is often seen and considered is that 
which stands in the very best of all places, on Richmond Hill. 
The country that has produced such writers as we have 
mentioned, to which may be added the names of William Brown 
and John Clare, may well claim to stand at the head of all in 
regard to descriptive poetry ; and among the very highest of 
Nature-poets must be placed the name of our late honoured Poet- 
Laureate. Wordsworth said that “ Tennyson is not much in 
sympathy with what I should myself value most in my attempts, 
viz., the spirituality with which I have endeavoured to view the 
material universe, and the moral relations under which I have 
endeavoured to exhibit its most ordinary appearances.” Though 
Wordsworth was probably right in saying that his successor in 
the Laureateship did not see into the life of things in the same 
