With no restraint but such as springs Of thoughts that lie beyond the reach "What hand but would a garland cull Thou art to me but as a wave Of the wild sea and I would have Though but of common neighbourhood.. Thy elder Brother I would be, Thy Father-anything to thee. Now thanks to Heaven! that of its grace Hath led me to this lonely place! Joy have I had; and going hence I bear away my recompence. Our Memory, feel that she hath eyes ; ୮ Then, why should I be loth to stir? I feel this place was made for her; And Thee, the Spirit of them all." In a somewhat primitive way, and having to contend with bad roads, accidents to their car, and sometimes hard lodging and scanty fare, they managed to traverse a great part of the country which has since become so familiar to tourists, taking on their way Inverary, Glen Coe, Loch Tay, the Pass of Killicrankie, Dunkeld, Callander, back by the Trossachs to Loch Lomond, and eventually to Edinburgh. Approaching Loch Lomond for the second time, Miss Wordsworth remarks that she felt it much more interesting to visit a place where they had been before than it could pos sibly be for the first time. By the lake they met two women, without hats but neatly dressed, who seemed to have been taking their Sunday evening's walk. One of them said, in a soft, friendly voice, "What! you are stepping westward ?" She adds: "I cannot describe how affecting this simple expression was in that remote place, with the western sky in front, yet glowing with the departed sun." Wordsworth himself some time afterwards, in remembrance of the incident, wrote the following poem :— "What! you are stepping westward?' 'Yea.' -Twould be a wildish destiny, If we, who thus together roam In a strange Land, and far from home, "The dewy ground was dark and cold, I liked the greeting; 'twas a sound "The voice was soft; and she who spake The salutation was to me The very sound of courtesy ; Its power was felt, and while my eye Was fix'd upon the glowing Sky, A human sweetness, with the thought With Edinburgh Miss Wordsworth was delighted. She says; "It was impossible to think of anything that was little or mean, the goings on of trade, the strife of men, or every-day city business; the impression was one, and it was visionary; like the conceptions of our childhood of Bagdad or Balsora, when we have been reading the Arabian Nights' Entertainments."" Not the least memorable part of their tour was a visit to Sir-then Mr.-Walter Scott, who was then unknown to fame as a novelist, but who, as Sheriff of Selkirk, and considered a very clever and amiable man, was universally respected. With him they visited Melrose and other places of interest. Miss Wordsworth writes: "Walked up to Ferniehurst—an old hall, in a secluded situation, now inhabited by farmers; the neighbouring ground had the wildness of a forest, being irregularly scattered over with fine old trees. The wind was tossing their branches, and sunshine dancing among the leaves, and I happened to exclaim, 'What a life there is in trees!' on which Mr. Scott observed that the words reminded him of a young lady who had been born and educated on an island of the Orcades, and came to spend a summer at Kelso, and in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. She used to say that in the new world into which she was come nothing had disappointed her so much as trees and woods; she complained that they were lifeless, silent, and, compared with the grandeur of the ever-changing ocean, even insipid. At first I was surprised, but the next moment I felt that the impression was natural. Mr. Scott said that she was a very sensible young woman, and had read much. She talked with endless rapture and feeling of the power and greatness of the ocean; and, with the same passionate attachment, returned to her native island without any probability of quitting it again. The Valley of the Jed is very solitary immediately under Fernichurst; we walked down the river, wading almost up to the knees. in fern, which in many parts overspread the forestground. It made me think of our walks at Alfoxden, and of our own park-though at Ferniehurst is no park at present-and the slim fawns that we used to startle from their couching-places, among the fern at the top of the hill." The journal contains many short passages which might be quoted to show its poetic character. The following are selected almost at random: "I can always walk over a moor with a light foot; I seem to be drawn more closely to Nature in such places than anywhere else; or, rather, I feel more strongly the power of Nature over me, and am better satisfied with myself, for being able to find enjoyment in what, unfortunately to many persons, is either dismal or insipid." "The opposite bank of the river is left in its natural wildness, and nothing was to be seen higher up but the deep dell, its steep banks being covered with fine trees, a beautiful relief or contrast to the garden, which is one of the most elaborate old things ever seen a little hanging garden of Babylon." Again, she writes: "The greatest charm of a brook or river is in the liberty to pursue it through its windings; you can then take it in whatever mood you like-silent or noisy, sportive or quiet. The beauties of the brook or river must be sought, and the pleasure is in going in search of them; those of the |