verses. In the passage referred to in 'The
Deutschland' _reeve_ is probably intended in its dialectal or
common speech significance: see Wright's 'English Dialect
Dictionary', where the first sense of the verb given is to
bring together the 'gathers' of a dress: and in this sense
_reeve_ is in common use.

p. 7. EARLY POEMS. Two school prize-poems exist; the date of
the first, 'The Escorial', is Easter '60, which is before
Poems G.M.H. was sixteen years old. It is in Spenserian
stanza: the imperfect copy in another hand has the first
15 stanzas omitting the 9th, and the author has written
on it his motto, _Batraxos de pot akridas os tis erisda_,
with an accompanying gloss to explain his allusions.
Though wholly lacking the Byronic flush it looks as if in-
fluenced by the historical descriptions in 'Childe Harold',
and might provide a quotation for a tourist's guide to
Spain. The history seems competent, and the artistic
knowledge precocious.

Here for a sample is the seventh stanza:

This was no classic temple order'd round
With massy pillars of the Doric mood
Broad-fluted, nor with shafts acanthus-crown'd,
Pourtray'd along the frieze with Titan's brood
That battled Gods for heaven; brilliant-hued,
With golden fillets and rich blazonry,
Wherein beneath the cornice, horsemen rode
With form divine, a fiery chivalry--
Triumph of airy grace and perfect harmony.

The second prize-poem, 'A Vision of Mermaids', is dated
Xmas '62. The autograph of this, which is preserved, is
headed by a very elaborate circular pen-and-ink drawing,
6 inches in diameter,--a sunset sea-piece with rocks and
formal groups of mermaidens, five or six together, singing
as they stand (apparently) half-immersed in the shallows
as described

'But most in a half-circle watch'd the sun,' &c.

This poem is in 143 lines of heroics. It betrays the in-
fluence of Keats, and when I introduced the author to the
public in Miles's book, I quoted from it, thinking it useful
to show that his difficult later style was not due to in-
ability to excel in established forms. The poem is alto-
gether above the standard of school-prizes. I reprint the
extract here:

Soon--as when Summer of his sister Spring
Crushes and tears the rare enjewelling,
And boasting 'I have fairer thing's than these'
Plashes amidst the billowy apple-trees
His lusty hands, in gusts of scented wind
Swirling out bloom till all the air is blind
With rosy foam and pelting blossom an