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LECHMERE LEA.

And the cock, his clarion sounding,
Seems to bid the world rejoice,
As the messenger of morning,
With his thrilling trump-like voice.

At his call the village waketh—
Wakes to toil and labour's strife;
But there's one who never, never,
Will awake again to life.

Where the stream with windings myriad
Flows 'midst flowers on Lechmere Lea,
Where the willows downward drooping
Kiss the waters as they flee,

There, within the stillest corner,

'Midst the sedge and 'midst the reeds, Floats a form, whose golden ringlets Tangled mingle with the weeds.

And the face, with pallid features,
Gazes from its eyes of blue
On the pitying vault of heaven,

Cloudless with its azure hue.

LECHMERE LEA.

For that form no more the morning
Beams with all its cares and joys:
All forgotten is the village,

With its stir and busy noise.

All is past! life's joy and sorrow
Now are ended in the stream;
All is past life's joy and sorrow
Now are only as a dream.

Ah! forgive that form that sleepeth
In the stream on Lechmere Lea-
One whom sin and shame and madness
Hurled into eternity.

OXFORD.

111

C. T.

S, when the wind is high, with fearful roar The booming breakers wake the shingly shore, When lightnings dance abroad, and air is rent; A few short hours,-and all their rage is spent: Without a ripple sleeps the peaceful brine, And on its dimpled face the sunbeams shine: So come misfortunes: o'er the heads of men With fearful force they break ofttimes, but then Subside, and leave him placid as before,

And roll away to shake another shore.

EXETER COLL., Oxford.

P. W. L.

Preferences.

Favourite and most disliked characters

in history.

Favourite

and most disliked characters

in romance

Favourite and most disliked characters in men and

women.

VOL. VII.

SF all the names inscribed on History's

page,

Of king or statesman, soldier or of sage, First in the rank brave William Wallace stands, While infamy the traitor Menteith brands.

If in the pages of Romance you seek

To view reflected mirrored scenes of life:
Go, weep o'er Marguerite, so pure, so meek,
Or shrink with loathing from the Borgia's wife.

The noblest virtues that a man can have
Are these: To be both courteous and brave;
And woman's brightest gems I hold to be,
A loving heart and white-browed modesty;
The soul wrapt in itself alone, and sloth—
The devil's offspring I esteem them both.

I

114

PREFERENCES.

Chief ambition and hindrance in life.

Favourite style of beauty.

Favourite colour.

Favourite flower.

Favourite scent.

Favourite drink.

To do the actions that I would not do,

And leave undone the actions that I would:
These are the greatest let and hindrance to
My chief ambition-to be great and good.

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Blue eyes and flaxen hair and cherry lips,
From these sly Cupid sweetest honey sips;
Yet still-forgive me, blondes! I ne'er forget
The thrilling glances of a true brunette.

Blue roll the waves of the eternal sea;
Blue is the vaulted sky's immensity;
Blue reigns supreme—a heaven-awarded prize,
When beaming soft from lovely woman's eyes.

None lovelier bloom, none sweeter scent exhale,
Than thou, white-petal'd Lily of the Vale.

Sweetest the scent that Nature sheds around,
When evening rains refresh the thirsty ground.

Pindar said water, Horace wine was best;
Old wives grow maudlin over weak bohea;
But water, wine, bohea, and all the rest,
Can never, foaming ale, compare with thee!

C.C.C., OXFORD.

S.

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