, I trust my readers will be pleased to
overlook the many faults of a bagatelle as insignificant and pitiable
as its author.

In the following pages I have introduced the first canto of Midsummer
Idylls in a revised form, and it has been my especial care to correct,
as far as it was consistent with the meaning of the passage, any hitch
in the Iambic Measure which might offend the ear. An author has
himself to please as well as his public, and it has been to me a
matter of much study that the Iambics should be as pure, or at least
as tolerable, as circumstances would allow, though, while I can ill
permit an irregular or inharmonious line, I hope I may not be found
guilty of sacrificing sense to sound. I beg to tender those my most
cordial thanks who have dealt indulgently with my rhymes hitherto, and
to acknowledge, with profound gratitude, the kind encouragement of
those great men of letters who have condescended to notice so small a
bard. The opinions of the Metropolitan, Provincial, and Foreign Press
could not have been other than gratifying to me, and it is with a
humble hope of favour that I submit the following pages to a
discerning public.

LENNOX AMOTT.

_CONTENTS._

PAGE

MIDSUMMER IDYLLS--CANTO I. 1

" " --CANTO II. 38

" " --CANTO III. 79

BRIGHT SCENES MUST ALL DEPART 97

MY BEAUTY'S HOME 98

AH, HAST THOU GONE? 99

STANZAS TO A LADY COMING OF AGE 100

GOOD NIGHT 101

THE FRIENDS 102

ON PLUCKING A HEDGEROW ROSE 103

THE SHADOW OF A LIFE 104

ALONE 105

DRINK 106

THE MUSICIAN'S GRAVE 109

THE SUMMER SHOWER 110

WHEN THE TWILIGHT SHADOWS DEEPEN 111

[Illustration: Decoration]

MIDSUMMER IDYLLS.