Page:Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands.djvu/361

 HAMPSTEAD.

COME out to Hampstead. For t is beautiful To scape the city s atmosphere of smoke, Which, like an inky curtain, wrappeth it, And drink the breezes of this vale of health. T is beautiful to view the broad expanse, County on county stretching, till at last The fading outline, like a misty dream, Blends with the blue horizon.

Yon wide heath,

From which the prospect opens, oft hath lured The truant urchins of the neighboring school To leave their restless bed, and scale the walls, Stealing a starlight ramble. Fancying oft A vengeful usher in each prickly bush, Whose intercepting arms their path oppose, They snatch a trembling taste of liberty, Dashed with the dregs of fear. Ah, happier then Deem they the cottage child, who wakes at morn Unvexed by thistly learning, uncondemned To pore o er lexicons, oft drenched in tears, But at its simple leisure free to roam,

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