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Rh river floods that the tragedy has occurred. When he stays with my Lord Bathurst at Cirencester, he is dreaming of a great canal which shall wed the Severn to the river by whose streams he was nurtured. Thames is the presiding deity of his rustic pantheon, and round him circle the satellites, the little streams which combine to enhance his glory:—

"The Rape of the Lock" is the culmination of this influence. The story, like its fair heroine, is and under all its brilliant epigram, and dipt, biting phrase, the ripple of the water is heard in every line. An excursion to Hampton Court was the foundation of the "heroi-comical poem," as its author calls it; and in nothing is the charm of the Palace in its renewed youth more happily expressed. To compose a serious dissension was the object, it is said, of Mr. Caryll ("a