Page:Old Castles.djvu/25



. “How fair amid the depth of Summer green Spread forth thy walls, Carlisle! Thy castled heights Abrupt and lofty: thy Cathedral dome Majestic and alone; thy beauteous bridge Spanning the Eden, where the angler sits Patient so long, and marks the browsing sheep Like sprinkled snow amid the verdant vales. Old Time hath hung upon thy misty walls Legends of festal and of warlike deeds– King Arthur’s wassail cup; the battle axe Of the wild Danish sea-kings; the fierce beak Of Rome’s victorious eagle: Pictish spear And Scottish claymore in confusion mixed With England’s clothyard arrow. Every helm And dinted cuirass hath some stirring tale– Yet here thou sitt’st as meekly innocent As though thine eager lip had never quaffed Hot streams of kindred blood.”Mrs. Lydia Sigourney. T is an old adage that familiarity breeds contempt; and there is something of truth, but also something of untruth, in it for our contempt for what is familiar oftener arises from want