Page:Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands.djvu/342

 HAMPTON COURT. 317

are to be attained by us women without some trouble? Is there not trouble in attempting to naturalize foreign hirelings ; and when they have become partially accus tomed to our idioms, see them flit away without warn ing, like the shadow, and all our training lost, as water upon the earth, never to be gathered up again ?

I trust these remarks will be forgiven, for the sake of the motive that prompted them. It is natural to desire to transplant to our own beloved, native land whatever we admire in a foreign clime, especially if it affects the beauty and order of domestic life, and the true happiness of that sex on whom its responsibilities devolve.

��T was with a bridal party that we went

To visit Hampton Court. Our thoughts were full

Of thrilling pictures we had seen at morn,

The youthful pair, the chapel, and the priest,

The gathered groups that marked the holy rite,

And that still smaller circle, in whose breasts

Wrought strong emotions, as the deathless vow

Trembled on lips beloved. With earnest gaze

The grateful poor, and that small Sunday class

Blest with her teachings, who returned no more,

Followed the bridal chariot, as it led

With milk-white steeds the fair procession back

To her paternal halls. Around the board,

For rich collation spread, the green-house strew d

Its glowing wealth, and mid the marriage guests

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