Page:Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands.djvu/184

 BIRMINGHAM AND SHEFFIELD. 159

Many a curious thing

Was shown us too at Sheffield, ornaments, And thousand-bladed knives, and fairy tools For ladies fingers, when the thread they lead Through finest lawn ; and silver richly chased, To make the festal board so beautiful, That, unawares, the tempted matron s hand Invades her husband s purse.

But as for me,

Though the whole art was patiently explained, From the first piling of the earthy ore, In its dark ovens, to its pouring forth With brilliant scintillations, in the form Of liquid steel ; or its last lustrous face, And finest net-work ; yet I m fain to say The manufacturing interest would find In me a poor interpreter. I doubt My own capacity to comprehend Such transmutations, and confess, with shame, Their processes do strike my simple mind Like necromancy. And I felt no joy Among the crucibles and cutlery, Compared to that, which on the breezy heights Met me at every change, or mid the walks Of the botanic garden, freshly sprang From every flower.

There was a quiet lodge

From whence peered forth, as guardian of the place, A mighty dog, of true St. Bernard s breed, With such a forehead as phrenologists

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