which is apparently due to the desire on the part of each of the
little Macaulays to possess a copy of the great family epic. The
opening stanzas, each of which contains more lines than their
author counted years, go swinging along with plenty of animation
and no dearth of historical and geographical allusion.

Day set on Cumbria's hills supreme,
And, Menai, on thy silver stream.
The star of day had reached the West.
Now in the main it sank to rest.
Shone great Eleindyn's castle tall:
Shone every battery, every hall:
Shone all fair Mona's verdant plain;
But chiefly shone the foaming main.

And again

"Long," said the Prince, "shall Olave's name
Live in the high records of fame.
Fair Mona now shall trembling stand
That ne'er before feared mortal hand.
Mona, that isle where Ceres' flower
In plenteous autumn's golden hour
Hides all the fields from man's survey
As locusts hid old Egypt's day."

The passage containing a prophetic mention of his father and
uncle after the manner of the sixth book of the Aeneid, for the
sake of which, according to Mrs. Macaulay, the poem was
originally designed, can nowhere be discovered. It is possible