'Tis lovelier than these cottage walls--
That seat among the flowers.
And I will learn of thee a prayer
To Him who gave a home so fair,
A lot so blest as ours--
The God who made for thee and me
This sweet lone isle amid the sea.

_From a volume of American Poetry, William Cullen Bryant._

* * * * *


[Illustration: TOMB OF THE POET, WALLER.]


In the churchyard of Beaconsfield, Bucks, stands the above handsome
tribute to the memory of the celebrated poet and politician, EDMUND WALLER.
The monument is of marble, with a pyramid rising from the centre, and a
votive urn at each corner. On the east side is a Latin inscription,
stating that Waller was born March 30, 1605, at Coleshill, in
Hertfordshire; his father being Robert Waller, Esq. (of Agmondelsham in
Buckingham, whose family was originally a branch of the Kentish
Wallers,[5]) and his mother of the Hampden family; that he was a student
at Cambridge; "his first wife was Anne, only daughter and heiress to
Edward Banks, twice made a father by his first wife, and thirteen times by
his second, whom he survived eight years; he died October 21, 1687." The
original inscription is by Rymer, and is to be seen in most editions of
the poet's works. The monument was erected by the poet's son's executors,
in 1700, and stands on the east side of the churchyard, near the family