Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 006.djvu/79

 And there, sure as fate, came the knock of you two, Then the lanthorn, the laugh, and the "Well, how d'ye do?" Then your palm tow'rds the fire, and your face turned to me, And shawls and great-coats being—where they should be,— And due "never saw's" being paid to the weather, We cherished our knees, and sat sipping together, And leaving the world to the fogs and the fighters, Discussed the pretensions of all sorts of writers.

There is too much reason to believe, that this everlasting tea-drinking was the chief cause of Leigh Hunt's death. The truth is, that he had for many years been sipping imitation-tea, a pleasant but deleterious preparation—more pernicious by far than the very worst port; and there can be little doubt, that if he had drunk about a bottle of black-strap in the fortnight, and forsworn thin potations altogether, he might have been alive, and perhaps writing a sonnet at this very moment.

Mr Hunt informs us, that of all the poets of the present day he was the fondest of rural scenes.

Having got into this situation, Mr Hunt did not long for his wonted cup of tea, but for "poetic women"

What vast ideas of tobacco does "fill of pipes" awaken! and what a game at romps is signified by "leafy playing!" after this violent exertion the poet and his nymphs lie down to sleep.

How beautifully he describes the Hampstead clouds of heaven.

These are singing clouds, and ought to be introduced on the stage.

But it is needless to enter at greater length into Mr Hunt's "love of the country," for it all hangs on one great principle—every grove has its nymph, and that is enough for the author of the story of Rimini.

It is much to be regretted, that the deceased bard's rural life was so limited and local. He had no other notion of that sublime.expression, "sub Dio," than merely "out of doors." One always thinks of Leigh Hunt, on his rural excursions to and from Hampstead, in a great-coat or spencer, clogs over his shoes, and with an umbrella in his hand. He is always talking of lanes, and styles, and hedgerows, and clumps of trees, and cows with large