“With glad and grateful tongue to join
        The lark at his matin hymn,
    And thence on faith’s own wing to spring
        And sing with cherubim! 
    To pray from a deep and tender heart
        With all things praying anew,
    The birds and the bees and the whispering trees,
        And heather bedropt with dew.—­
    To be one with those early worshippers,
        And pour the carol too!

    “Then off again with a slackened rein
        And a bounding heart within,
    To dash at a gallop over the plain
        Health’s golden cup to win! 
    This, this is the race for gain and grace,
        Richer than vases and crowns;
    And you that boast your pleasures the most
        Amid the steam of towns,
    Come taste true bliss in a morning like this,
        Galloping over the downs!”

Among the most notable prose pieces (though it is of little use to refer my readers to a book hopelessly out of print) there may be selected my panacea for Ireland, to wit, a Royal Residence there to evoke the loyalty of a warm-hearted people,—­I called my fable “The Unsunned Corner:”  I mean to quote some of it in a future political page of this book.  Also other papers, as “Bits of Ribbon,” suggesting as just and wise the more profuse distribution of honours,—­in particular recommending an Alfred or an Albert Order.  Also, many of my Rifle ballads,—­whereof, more anon.  And “The Over-sharpened Axe”—­applicable to modern Boardschool Educationals:  and Colonel Jade’s matrimonial tirades, all real life:  and “The Grumbling Gimlet,” a fable on Content, &c. &c.  With plenty more notabilia—­which those who have the book can turn to if they will.

I could fill many pages with the critiques pro and con this queer book has provoked, but it is useless now that the world has let it die.

CHAPTER XVII.

STEPHAN LANGTON—­ALFRED.

I wrote “Stephan Langton, a Story of the Time of King John,” because, 1st, I had little to do in the country; 2dly, I wished to give some special literary lift to Albury and its neighbourhood, more particularly as my story had a geographical connection with Surrey; 3dly, I had the run of Mr. Drummond’s library, and consulted there some 300 volumes for my novel:  so it was not an idle work though a rapid one; 4thly, I wanted to show that though in a Popish age England’s heart, and especially Langton’s, was Protestant, quite a precursor of Luther.  As this book is extant, at Lasham’s, Guildford, I refer my readers to it.  One curious matter is that my ideal scenes have taken such hold upon my neighbourhood that streams of tourists come constantly through Albury to visit “The Silent Pool” and other sites of scenes invented by me, and have thereby enriched our village inn and the flymen, as well as given to us a new sort of fame.  The book, so cheap in the Guildford edition, was originally published by Hurst & Blackett in 2 vols., illustrated by Cousins:  that edition is very scarce now.