Page:Blanchard on L. E. L.pdf/21

Rh which exercises would be, at night, a long story, or an account of her intended travels, to which he, more especially, had to listen. And listen he did, patiently for some time; but at last, perhaps he got tired, or annoyed at losing his only playfellow in so unaccountable a way: for a bargain was struck between the children, to the effect that on one day he was to listen while she talked, and on the next she was to adopt his amusements. "On her days," runs the reminiscence, "I had to undergo either the account of 'her island,' that is, of what she would do as another Robinson Crusoe, or some fairy tale or verse of her own composition; or perhaps the battle scene from the 'Lady of the Lake,' for the whole of that poem I think she knew by heart." The listener's patience, after a time, appears to have failed again, for a fresh stipulation was made that the something, whatever it might be, which was to fall from the lips of the eloquent young child, was not to be repeated "more than twice or three times at the most." L. E. L. has alluded, in some verses on the death of Sir Walter Scott, to the time and scene thus recalled by Mr. Landon. How well I can recall the time When first I turn'd thy page; The green boughs closed above my head, A natural hermitage. ***** I peopled all the walks and shades With images of thine; The lime-tree was a lady's bower, The yew-tree was a shrine: Almost I deem'd each sunbeam shone O'er banner, spear, and morion.

Her kind instructress also speaks of the ease and rapidity with which, at this time, she used to