Page:Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands.djvu/198

Rh The choicest pictures, and the power to quaff

Immense potations from the wassail-bowl

Envied accomplishment.

But Haddon tells

Still of another age, and suits itself

To their more courtly manners. Carvings rich,

And gilded cornices, and chambers hung

With tapestry of France, and shapely grate

Instead of chimney vast, and fair recess

Of oriel window, mark the advancing steps

Of comfort and refinement.

Here moved on,

In stately minuet, lords with doublet slashed,

And ladies rustling in the stiff brocade;

And there, the deep-mouthed hounds the chase pursued,

The maiden ruling well her palfrey white,

With knight and squire attendant.

Hear we not

Even now their prancing steeds?

'T is passing strange!

Dwell death and life in mystic company?

Do hands invisible, of spectres pale

Tend these young plants, and bind yon straggling boughs

In beautiful obedience?

—Come they back,

From their old mouldering vaults, when none are near,

And with their spirit-eyes inspect the flowers

That once they loved? Toil they in shadowy ranks

Mid these deserted bowers, then flit away?