horizontal shoots on each side were from eight to ten feet in length.
The tree had been judiciously pruned, and all the limbs were full of
very large gooseberries, considering the age of the fruit. This is only
one instance out of thousands that I saw of extraordinary pains taken
with the gardens."

* * * * *


A WINTER'S NIGHT.


How beautiful this night! The balmiest sigh
Which vernal Zephyrs breathe in evening's ear,
Were discord to the speaking quietude
That wraps this moveless scene. Heaven's ebon vault,
Studded with stars unutterably bright,
Through which the moon's unclouded grandeur rolls,
Seems like a canopy which Love had spread
To curtain her sleeping world. Yon gentle hills,
Robed in a garment of untrodden snow;
Yon darksome walls, whence icicles depend
So stainless, that their white and glittering spears
Tinge not the moon's pure beam; yon castled steep,
Whose banner hangeth o'er the time-worn tower
So idly, that wrapt Fancy deemeth it
A metaphor of Peace--all form a scene
Where musing Solitude might love to lift
Her soul above this sphere of earthliness;
Where silence undisturbed might watch alone