h narrow,
longitudinal slits of windows at the top of an old tower; and, after
repeating the summons several times, without waiting, we walked away as
we had entered this famous citadel. From the ramparts we enjoyed a
magnificent view of the Sound, and the coast of Sweden.

In Hamlet's garden, about a mile from the castle, across a dreary
common, the willow-sheltered tomb is still to be seen, where, it is
said, sleeps that Spirit "the potent poison quite" o'ercrew. A house
stands, tenantless, in the centre of this garden, protected at the back
from the north wind by a bank, on which spring here and there flowers
and weeds entwined; while its front, turned to the south's warm breath,
is enlivened by a few statues, round the pedestals of which creep the
vine and honey-suckle. Though the footfall of time is scarcely heard on
the soft moss, which oozes in patches from the broad terrace where
princes trod, the hand of desolation seemed to be busy here; and as I
looked around me, and observed how each relic of antiquity was crumbling
into dust, the oblivion of every thing connected with man, except the
monuments of his intellect, crawled coldly, like a slug, over my senses,
and apart from all visible objects, I felt, and saw with the mind's eye,
the immortality of poetry only in the air which I breathed.

Not far from Elsineur is Esrom. Near the Castle of Fredensborg, a
boat-house, on Esrom Lake, may be seen by the traveller; and there it
was, on this calm summer evening, I lay down upon the grass, looking on
hill, wood, dale, and water. The still air, the unrippled surface of the
lake, the tops of the trees, which form the vast and majestic avenues
leading to the castle, appearing to melt into the blue sky, were so
imposing, that the spirit of melancholy, not unpleasing, descended on
me; and leaping from scene to scene, and from one epoch of my life to
another, I found myself a boy again, and the heart, like a bended bow,
returning to its full length, sprung swifter to the thoughts of home;
and I could not help muttering aloud these verses to myself:

"There was a time, and I recall it well,
When my whole frame was but an ell in height;
Oh! when I think of that, my warm tears swell,
And therefore in the mem'ry I delight.

"I sported in my mother's kind embraces,
And climb'd my grandsire's venerable knee;
Unknown were care, and rage, and sorrow's traces:
To me the world was blest as blest could be.