sparence through the golden.

"For busy thoughts the stream flow'd on
In foamy agitation;
And slept in many a crystal pool
For quiet contemplation:
No public and no private care
The free-born mind enthralling,
We made a day of happy hours,
Our happy days recalling.

* * * * *

"And if, as Yarrow through the woods
And down the meadow ranging,
Did meet us with unalter'd face,
Though we were changed and changing;
If _then_ some natural shadow spread
Our inward prospect over,
The soul's deep valley was not slow
Its brightness to recover.

"Eternal blessings on the Muse
And her divine employment,
The blameless Muse who trains her sons
For hope and calm enjoyment;
Albeit sickness lingering yet
Has o'er their pillow brooded,
And care waylays their steps--a sprite
Not easily eluded.

* * * * *

"Nor deem that localized Romance
Plays false with our affections;
Unsanctifies our tears--made sport
For fanciful dejections:
Ah, no! the visions of the past
Sustain the heart in feeling
Life as she is--our changeful Life
With friends and kindred dealing.

"Bear witness ye, whose thoughts that day
In Yarrow's groves were centred,
Who through the silent portal arch
Of mouldering Newark enter'd;
And clomb the winding stair that once
Too timidly was mounted
By the last Minstrel--not the last!--
Ere he his tale recounted."

Thus did the meditative poetry, the day of which was not yet, do
honour to itself in doing homage to the Minstrel of romantic energy
and martial enterprise, who, with the school of poetry he loved, was
passing away.

On the 23rd September Scott left Abbotsford, spending five days on his
journey to London; nor would he allow any of the old objects of
interest to be passed without getting out of the carriage to see
them. He did not leave London for Portsmouth till the 23rd October,
but spent the intervening time in London, where he took medical
advice, and with his old shrewdness wheeled his chair into a dark
corner during the physicians' absence from the room to consult, that
he might read their faces clearly on their return without their being
able to read his. They recognized traces of brain disease, but Sir
Walter was relieved by their