Reader, you must acknowledge, this
Was a strange metamorphosis:

At least, for my part, very odd I
Think it; thin air congealed to body!
As well the breeze might petrify;
And while it whisper'd, meet the eye.—
Phantom consolidate to wood!

Nay, furnish a child-flogging rod ;
Beshrew me--but 'tis monstrous odd!
Such transformations more than seem on
Par with the fate of old Philemon.
He-ere a ghost-became a tree;
More marvellous this prodigy :

At once are you firm body made,

- frondere Philemona Baucis,

Baucida conspexit senior frondere Philemon.

Ovid, Metam. Book 8, Fable 10.

Ostendit adhuc Tyaneius illic

Incola de gemino vicinos CORPORE truncos.

Ibid.

The Author, and two others, saw what they mistook for a figure in white; but which turned out to be a silver birch. In this occurrence, originated the above lines.

EDWARD AND ELEONORA ;

OR

NED AND NELLY.*

The night was chilly, dark, and drear;
A fitful wintry wind was wailing;
While sounds, unmeet for mortal ear,
Came, on the gathering tempest sailing.

Seem'd it, as tho' some goblin train

Upon the sweeping gust were driven;
Night-wandering Banshee, Wizard wain,

Or sinner's soul, unsaved, unshriven.

Within his cot, though safe from harm,
Nedt cross'd himself; appall'd to hear
The sad wild raving of a storm,

Which luckless Nelly well might fear:

For homeward Nelly must return;
Traverse alone the haunted lane;
Must pass the fatal pond; or turn,

And brave the horrors of the glen.

* Written by the same person who wrote The True Story. + Edward Bermingham, herd to the owner of Newtown. Ellen Quin, who chanced to be in his cottage, during the storm.

"O, Nelly! ere you cross the door, Chant the ave, say the creed; Repeat the paternoster o'er :

Then begone; and heaven speed !"

Nelly prayed the paternoster,

Mutter'd the ave, said the creed;

Trembling, last has Nelly cross'd her: "Ned, farewell !"-she flies with speed..

All along the horsepond dreary,

All along the haunted lane,
Nelly, shuddering, sad, and weary,
Startling, watch'd; but watch'd in vain.

Now she nears the dreaded gateway;
Now she spies the haunted post :
Heavens! who is it, in her straight way,
Leans upon it?" Oh! I'm lost."

Forgetting ave, pater, creed,

Cleaves her dry tongue to palate fast;
"Till nerved by fright,—with terror's speed,
And mad, wild, shriek, she flies at last.

THE DEMON OF THE STORM.

Though the following lines record no Newtown legend, and are of a more serious character than belongs to what has gone before, it is conceived that the Reader will tolerate their introduction here.

Saw you a wan and mist-like form,
The lurid welkin float along?

It was the Demon of the storm:

Wails on the gust his spectre song.*

Fork'd lightning flash'd, to form his spear;
A thunder-crash his armour gave:

Dark sevenfold clouds his buckler were ;
Snows o'er his morion seem'd to wave.

Sharp iron sleet, of arrowy shower,†

Has heap'd the groaning field with Dead,
When Carnage claim'd her crimson hour,
And falchion clash'd, and warrior bled.

* Ghosts ride on the tempest to-night:

Their songs are of other worlds.

OSSIAN.

Iron sleet of arrowy shower.-GRAY. Sharp sleet of arrowy shower.MILTON.

But, final hurricane untied,*

Its thunder roll'd, its lightnings hurled ;
Oh! where shall breathless Nature hide?
What shelter guard a crumbling world?

To elemental fury doom'd,

And havoc of tempestuous fire,
In its own wild abyss entomb'd;

For so must Earth's fair frame expire.†

But if, at thrilling voice serene,

Rose out of chaos-Heaven and Earth,
Shall not the same high bidding deign
To will them brighter, second birth?

All He had made, the Maker viewed ;

And His eternal love shall cherish :
For lo! He saw that it was good ;§
And what is good-can never perish.

Creation, die then into life:

Earth wither, but to bloom again;
Cleansed of all dross, in fiery strife ;

Meet dwelling for regenerate man. ||

*Though you untie the winds, and let them fight against the churches.

+ Second Epistle General of Peter, iii. 6, 7.

MACBETH.

+ In the beginning, how the Heaven and Earth rose out of Chaos.-MILTON. First Corinthians, xv. 46.

Genesis, i. 31.

Il Second Epistle General of Peter iii. 10-13.