The thief was turned over
accordingly to the gardener as the ground officer, to see the punishment
duly inflicted. When the Thane of Glammis returned from his morning
ride, he was surprised to find both sides of the gateway accommodated
each with a prisoner. He asked the gardener, whom he found watching the
place of punishment, as his duty required, whether another delinquent
had been detected? 'No, my lord,' said the gardener, in the tone of a
man excellently well satisfied with himself, 'but I thought the single
fellow looked very awkward standing on one side of the gateway, so I
gave half-a-crown to one of the labourers to stand on the other side
_for uniformity's sake_.'"
* * * * *
ON LOCALITIES:
LITERARY RECOLLECTIONS OF LONDON.
_(To the Editor of the Mirror.)_
No intellectual enjoyment, in my opinion, can surpass the delight we
experience when traversing those spots of the habitable earth where
celebrated warriors fought, minstrels sang, philosophers pondered, or
where philanthropists have immortalized their names by deeds of charity.
To roam through the romantic vales of Italy--surrounded at all turns by
the sad memorials of its former magnificence--the mighty ruins of its
temples and palaces, and the mutilated remains of its statues and
triumphal columns, conveying to the mind mournful images of the fallen
fates of those who had for ages been its proud possessors; where the
Mantuan bard first caught inspiration from the deathless muse; where
Tully charmed the listening throng, whilst defending with mild
persuasion the arts and the sciences he loved, and condemning in
terrible denunciations the mad ambition that threatened the destruction
of his country; to wander among its groves, and say, here Ovid, in
lonely exile, soothed his sorrows with the melody of his heaven-inspired
strain; here Petrarch wooed his much-loved Laura in sonnets soft as the
affection that gave them birth; here Tasso made history and Jerusalem
immortal by crowning them with the garlands of his Promethean genius;
and here Ariosto, Dante, Metastasio, and a galaxy of poets and
philosophers shed the splendour of their gifted imaginations on the
expiring greatness of their country.
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