V. WATER-FOWL. "Let me be allowed the aid of verse to describe the evolutions "which these visitants sometimes perform, on a fine day to"wards the close of winter." Extract from the Author's Book on the Lakes. MARK how the feathered tenants of the flood, Their curious pastime! shaping in mid air (And sometimes with ambitious wing that soars A circuit ampler than the lake beneath, but ever, while intent On tracing and retracing that large round, Hundreds of curves and circlets, to and fro, Faint, faint at first; and then an eager sound They tempt the sun to sport amid their plumes; Almost to touch;- then up again aloft, As if they scorned both resting-place and rest! VI. YEW TREES. THERE is a Yew-tree, pride of Lorton Vale, Joined in one solemn and capacious grove ; Huge trunks! — and each particular trunk a growth Of intertwisted fibres serpentine Up-coiling, and inveterately convolved, Nor uninformed with Phantasy, and looks That threaten the profane; - a pillared shade, Of boughs, as if for festal purpose, decked May meet at noontide - Fear and trembling Hope, And Time the Shadow, there to celebrate, To lie, and listen to the mountain flood Murmuring from Glaramara's inmost caves. VII. VIEW FROM THE TOP OF BLACK COMB. THIS Height a ministering Angel might select: That British ground commands:- low dusky tracts, |