Dark storms the murmuring forests shake,
Rain beats around a hundred rills.

12.

To Damon's homely hut I fly;

I see it smoking on the plain;
When storms are past and fair the sky,
I'll often seek my cave again.

Lonely fair means "fair one," Contemplation being poetically described as a person of the female sex.

Herd is a herdsman.

Hinds are properly household servants.

poets sometimes to mean peasants, rustics.

Hence the word is used by

Insidious wood is his fishing-rod, which insidiously or deceitfully sets a trap for the fish.

Damon is a proper name poets have employed to signify a country

man.

66

1. What is meant by 66

99.66

contemplation, a hermit," "reflected,' fowler," "pointer,' "musing"?

TULLY-VEOLAN IN THE SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS MORE THAN A HUNDRED

YEARS AGO.

1. THE village was more than half a mile long, the cottages being irregularly divided from each other by gardens, or yards, as the inhabitants called them, of different sizes, where the now universal potato was unknown, but which were stored with gigantic plants of kale, or colewort, encircled with groves of nettles, and exhibited here and there a huge hemlock, or the national thistle, overshadowing a quarter of the petty inclosure.

2. The broken ground on which the village was built had never been levelled; so that these inclosures presented declivities of every degree, here rising like terraces, there sinking like tan-pits.

3. The dry-stone walls which fenced, or seemed to fence (for they were sorely breached), these hanging gardens of Tully-Veolan, were intersected by a narrow lane leading to the common field, where the joint labour of the villagers cultivated alternate ridges and patches of rye, oats, barley, and pease, each of such minute extent, that at a little distance the unprofitable variety of the surface resembled a tailor's book of patterns.

4. In a few favoured instances there appeared behind the cottages a miserable wigwam, compiled of earth, loose stones, and turf, where the wealthy might perhaps shelter a starved cow or sorely galled horse.

5. But almost every hut was fenced in front by a huge black stack of turf on one side of the door, while on the other the family dunghill ascended in noble emulation.

6. About a bowshot from the end of the village appeared the inclosures, proudly denominated the

Parks of Tully-Veolan, being certain square fields, surrounded and divided by stone walls five feet in height.

7. In the centre of the exterior barrier was the upper part of the avenue, opening under an archway, battlemented on the top, and adorned with two large,

weather-beaten, mutilated masses of upright stone, which, if the tradition of the hamlet could be trusted had once represented, at least had been once designed to represent, two rampant bears, the supporters of the family of Bradwardine.

8. This avenue was straight, and of moderate length, running between a double row of very ancient horse-chestnuts, planted alternately with sycamores, which rose to such huge height, and flourished so luxuriantly, that their boughs completely overarched the broad road beneath.

9. Beyond these venerable ranks, and running parallel to them, were two high walls, of apparently the like antiquity, overgrown with ivy, honeysuckle, and other climbing plants.

10. The avenue seemed very little trodden, and chiefly by foot-passengers; so that being very broad, and enjoying a constant shade, it was clothed with grass of a deep and rich verdure, excepting where a footpath, worn by occasional passengers, tracked with a natural sweep the way from the upper to the lower gate.

II. This nether portal, like the former, opened in front of a wall ornamented with some rude sculpture, with battlements on the top, over which were seen, half-hidden by the trees of the avenue, the high, steep roofs and narrow gables of the mansion, with lines indented into steps, and corners decorated with small

turrets.

12. One of the folding leaves of the lower gate was open, and as the sun shone full into the court behind,

a long line of brilliancy was flung upon the aperture up the dark and gloomy avenue.

13. It was one of those effects which a painter loves to represent, and mingled well with the struggling light which found its way between the boughs of the shady arch that vaulted the broad green alley.

Sir Walter Scott.

Bat'-tle-ments, fortified edge of the

roof.

Chest'-nut, the tree so called.

De-cli'-vi-ties, slopes.

De-nom'-in-a-ted, called.

Waverley."

E-mu-la'-ti-on, desire to equal.

Ex-te'-ri-or, outside.

Lev'-el-led, laid flat.

Par'-al-lel, straight alongside.

The potato was brought to Ireland from Virginia by Hawkins, a slave-trader, in 1565, and to England by Sir Francis Drake, in 1585, without attracting much notice, till it was a third time introduced by Sir Walter Raleigh. From Ireland, where it was first generally cultivated, it was introduced into Lancashire about the end of the 17th century, and thence spread over England. The name "potato" is derived from the batata, or sweet potato, a sort of edible convolvulus, a native of the East Indies, first imported into England from Spain.

Kale or colewort, or seakale, is a sort of cabbage, found on the sea shores in various parts of Britain, and generally cultivated in Scotland and elsewhere.

The hanging gardens of Babylon, said to have been constructed by Semiramis or Nebuchadnezzar several centuries before the Christian era, were anciently reckoned amongst the wonders of the world.

1. Give a list of the vegetables usually eaten in this country.

2. Write the following words as they are pronounced :—Half, great, autumn, knowledge, rough, fruit, pear, tear, climate, village, mountain. For instance: harf, grate.

3. Parse: "The broken ground on which the village was built had never been levelled."