plating the starry firmament, and gazing upon the planetary worlds which revolve around us, or watching for the first streak of orient red which marks the dawn of day. It was from the summit of a high hill, in the vicinity of Lawrencekirk, that he first beheld the sea, which made such an impression upon his mind as never to be effaced. His parents were not in affluent circum stances, but genius and talents of so superior a kind as those of young Beattie, are rarely allowed to remain unnoticed. He found a warm friend and patron in Lord Gardenstown, to whom he became accidentally known by his having found him one day in his favourite glen employed in writing with a pencil. On inquiring what he was about, and finding that he was employed in the composition of a poem, the gentleman's curiosity was awakened, and from that

period he took the juvenile bard under his own patronage. Some parts of

Thomson's Seasons contain beautiful descriptions of nature, as well as many parts of Cowper, Gray, Bloomfield, and Cunningham's poems.

"But I see we are already near the conclusion of our little voyage, and must therefore defer any further disquisition upon poetry till another opportunity."

Soon after this conversation the vessel moved round the Black Rock, as that point of the Cheshire coast, opposite Liverpool, is locally termed; the moon shone upon the masts of the numerous vessels assembled in the docks, and our travellers were presently safely landed on the pier. A coach was soon procured to convey them to the inn, whence they intended to proceed on the following morning towards their own long-deserted but delightful home.

A beautiful evening in August tempted Clara and her sisters, accompanied by their father, to extend their walk towards a solitary farm-house, between two and three miles distant from their own home. The children, long accustomed to the pleasures of a country life, were always delighted with rural sights and rural occupations; but their late excursion, having occasioned an absence of several months, gave to all their favourite walks the charm of novelty, and on this day the variety of interesting objects by which they were surrounded the wide tract of open champaign country-the village spire, tipped with gold and pointing upwards into the clear blue. sky the green hedges that intersected each otherthe aged oaks around whose venerable trunks the affectionate ivy firmly clung -the curling smoke that. ascended from

the little white cottages which peeped here and there among some grotesque old elms-the turrets and battlements of the city of Oxford, just appearing above a grove of trees,-in short, the agreeable stillness and natural simplicity of the scene, tout ensemble, afforded them the highest gratification. The present inhabitant of the pretty farm-house that crowned the top of the hill they were ascending, was a tenant of Mr. C.'s, and our young party therefore determined to rest there a quarter of an hour, in order to take some refreshment, as well as to give the little Rosina an opportunity of seeing the manner in which butter and cheese were made.

As the children returned towards home, they recurred to the hospitable kindness of the farmer and his family, and to the many interesting objects that

H

had engrossed their attention during their short stay the rick-yard, the farm-yard, the poultry and the pigeons, as well as the beauty of the scenery around the farm, for it was, as we have before stated, situated on the top of a hill which commanded a most extensive prospect on all sides. The western mountains that seemed to support the clouds, and behind which the declining sun was now about to disappear; the rural cots partly shaded with trees of luxu riant foliage, and around whose little trellis-porches the roses twined their fragrant, crimson blossoms; the plains empurpled with heath, and the meadows, upon which whole flocks of sheep were feeding at large, attended by their shepherds, the sound of whose pipes, together with the merry voices of the village children just let loose from school,' all contributed to afford agree