several varieties and qualities of the various trees that grew in rich luxuriance on the Hunter Hill, or spread their umbrageous branches on the stately lawns that stretched in sylvan beauty around the ancient Castle of Glamis. I thus in the most delightful manner acquired that theoretical knowledge of landscape gardening, which not only proved a source of intense delight in my youth, but a precious mine of inexhaustible wealth in after-years. Previously the wooded glades and pine-clad hills were to me a rich yet undefined mass of luxuriant foliage. Now, their several undulating lines of ever-changing beauty analysed, individualised, I could name every tree of the forest, every bush in the thicket, and every wildflower that blushed in virgin beauty on the brow of the lonely hills. Had every lover of Nature even a limited knowledge of botany, zoology, geology, and the other kindred sciences, how much increased and intensified would his interest and delight be in the far-stretching landscape of hill and dale, in the bloom of the wayside flower, in the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, in the strata and formation of the rocks, and in the antediluvian deposits and remains embedded in the bowels and innermost recesses of the earth! In like manner, with a knowledge of architecture, be it Gothic or classic, how much more instructive and interesting to us the sight of a beautiful palatial city, with its gorgeous temples and castellated towers, than to him who knows not the difference between a Doric and Corinthian, an Ionic or Tuscan pillar, and cannot, for the life of him, distinguish the nave of a cathedral from its transept or choir. Ascending higher in the scale of intellectual enjoyment, how much more glorious and magnificent the midnight heaven of worlds and starry firmament above, when, by astronomical science, we can familiarly name every revolving planet and distant star, and calculate with the greatest exactness, their unvarying revolutions around the great centre of attraction in universal space, than when simply viewed through the telescope of ordinary observation, as a mere celestial blush of ethereal splendour, a spangled gewgaw of fretted, burnished workmanship, or a gilded childish spectacle of atmospheric effulgence of undefined, unmeaning beauty? Having exhausted the curriculum of the parish school, the time had now arrived when I must quit my native strath to pursue elsewhere my necessary studies preparatory to launching out on the great sea of life. On the evening previous to my departure, I had walked to the village for the purpose of bidding farewell to my schoolmates and numerous acquaintances, which I found to be a more difficult and affecting task than I had anticipated. It were needless to recount the many sorrowful adieus, the many expressions of good wishes, the many kindly shakings of the hand, that I gratefully received and affectionately returned. Suffice it to say that, while I felt the parting scene very deeply, I consoled myself with the comforting thought that the separation was not final, but temporary, and that I would yet have opportunities of paying occasional visits to my much-loved Howe, and renewing for a time those first sweet friendships which I so much valued, and which I should. ever cherish in fond remembrance of my early youth. Having purposely reserved my adieus to the inmates of the forester's cottage to the last, I now approached the little domicile by the well-known pathway up the side of the burn. I thought it strange-I don't so now-that the nearer I approached the cottage, I felt the greater hesitancy to enter it, my speed becoming every footfall more measured and slow, and my heart beating the quicker the more I lingered by the way. To my great relief, however, Mrs Wood now appeared at the open door in anticipation of my visit, and soon ushered me into the parlour, where I engaged for a few minutes in conversation with my good friend the forester, and the other members of the family, and then bade them all individually farewell. But where was Eliza? She was not amongst the family group that had assembled in the forester's cottage to bid her youthful companion farewell! As I slowly and thoughtfully went on my homeward way, the even-song of the happy birds above, resounded through the silent woods, like the requiem for departed spirits, and the sweet silvery song of the rushing burn below had in it, for the first time to me, a plaintive sound of sadness, akin to poignant pain, as if it mourned in hopeless grief for the absent and the lost. Full of such new and strangely depressing thoughts, I had reached a sudden turning of my woodland path, when, to my great surprise and infinite delight, I beheld Eliza sitting on a mossy bank, arranging carefully a bunch of wild flowers she had apparently gathered on the hill. Seeing me approach, she rose to meet me, when, without uttering a word of greeting, or bidding me a formal farewell, she presented me with the beautiful bouquet, and then suddenly turned her face homewards : But first love knowing no alarms, I round her threw my trembling arms, Two years passed away, during which time I had not seen, and heard but little, of my native Howe. How eagerly, therefore, I embraced the opportunity of returning home during the summer vacation of my third year at college! On the afternoon of the day succeeding that of my return, I took my way through the ancient wood to the cottage of the forester's daughter. With a mind full of doubt and anxiety, I hastily entered the well-known room in which I had been so often received as an ever-welcome guest. Eliza, now grown into a fine comely woman, received me with her usual kindness, yet with an apparent reserve and slight embarrassment of manner, for which I then was sorely puzzled to account. While her father and mother and other members of the family seated themselves beside me, and engaged in earnest conversation on topics of mutual interest, Eliza continued incessantly the performance of her household duties: indeed her assiduity seemed to increase in proportion to the length of time I remained in the cottage. Her finely-propor tioned figure and graceful movements, the spring flush of delicate beauty on her cheek, and the clear bright lustre of intelligence in her sparkling eye, did not, however, escape my notice, or fail to draw out my silent admiration of the lovely creature before me, in all the fascinating bloom of bursting womanhood, surrounded by a halo of virgin innocence and youthful love. I was in the act of attempting to draw the bashful maiden into conversation, when a horseman rode rapidly up to the door of the cottage, and delivered a startling message from my father, to the effect that my brother Charles had got himself entangled amongst the machinery of the mill, and that the injuries he had received in consequence, were of such a serious nature, that my presence was demanded at home without delay. While the horseman continued his journey to Forfar to fetch the medical attendant of the family, I hastily bade adieu for the present to my kind friends in the forester's cottage, and, as in duty bound, hastened with all speed to obey my father's summons home. As had been foreshadowed, the accident to my brother had well nigh proved fatal to him, and his recovery was, in consequence, exceedingly tedious and slow. Some considerable time elapsed before he could be pronounced out of danger, and when that period came round my vacation holidays had expired. Anxious to pursue my classical studies, without delay I bade a hasty adieu to my rural home, without having had the opportunity of paying a visit to the forester's cottage, and of bidding all my friends there, another temporary farewell. My studies being now completed, I returned home after other two years' absence, delighted to see once more "the old familiar faces," and the lonely glen and lovely strath I loved so well. My first visit was spontaneously paid to the forester's cottage, picturing to myself as I went on my way the charms of her who was indeed the delight and sunshine of that village home. It was early spring, and as I walked by the side of the burn, on the well-known footpath skirting the Hunter Hill, the welcome voice of the cuckoo resounded through the bursting woods, and the wooing love-songs of the happy birds gushed forth in richest melody from every budding spray. The stately elm was clothing herself with her feathery leaves, and the drooping willow with her silver palms; the poplar and the linden, the chestnut and the birch, were bursting into new life in every spreading bough; and the hawthorn, the laburnum, and the fir were loading the balmy air with the sweet virgin incense of a new and joyous life. In the pauses of their thrilling songs, the little finches, green and grey and gold, busied themselves in picking the sweetest buds from off the bursting boughs, while the mavis and the merle flitted restlessly among the thickets before attuning their richly toned notes to the far-resounding key-note of Nature's resurrection morn. Around me blushed in virgin purity the primrose and the snow-drop, first welcome flowerets of the year. Beyond in the glen the young wheat was upspringing green in the furrows, the morning dew upon its tender leaflets, like the tears of angels to fructify and bless the God-sent vegetation of the awakening earth for the joy and maintenance and wellbeing of man. In the distance, while the diligent husbandman guided the ploughshare on the uplands, the rooks following in his wake to catch the early worm, the no less diligent sower scattered with a plentiful hand the hopeful seed along the ridges of the plain, the harrows succeeding to level the uneven ground and distribute the seed into the long, straight lines of formal beauty, so pleasing to the eye before the luxuriance of summer has hidden by her rich effulgence |