J19 
filberts; and not only in the orchard, but in every 
coppice, and haunting every stream, the hazel, so eulo¬ 
gized by the poet, so dear to our childhood. 
Burns leads us adown many a hazelly path, where 
“ twin nuts cluster thickand we almost hear 
“ The little birdies blythely sing, 
While o’er their heads the hazels hing, 
Or lightly flit on wanton wing, 
In the birks of Aberfeldy." 
Virgil makes frequent mention of “ the tangling 
hazel.” Indeed, in the following passage, he gives it 
more honour than is due: — 
“ Alcides’ brows the poplar leaves surround, 
Apollo’s beamy locks with bays are crown’d, 
The myrtle, lovely queen of smiles, is thine, 
And jolly Bacchus loves the curling vine; 
But while my Phyllis loves the hazel-spray, 
To hazel yield the myrtle and the bay.” 
In his second Georgic, however, he is less compli¬ 
mentary to our favourite, positively forbidding, on 
account of some supposed noxious quality, its entrance 
into the vineyard: — 
“ The hurtful hazel in the vineyard shun.” 
I 4 
