The minstrel

LENNOX AMOTT.
Rura mihi et rigui placeant in vallibus amnes Fulmina amem silvasque inglorius....
... O, qui me gelidis in vallibus Haemi Sistat, et ingenti ramorum protegat umbra!
— Virgil.
LEWES: FARNCOMBE & CO. 1883.
LEWES: FARNCOMBE AND CO., PRINTERS.
TO ONE, WHO AT ONCE COMBINES TRUE SENSE WITH TRUE HONOUR, UNSELFISH PRINCIPLES WITH UNSELFISH FRIENDSHIP, WHOSE SPECIAL PROVINCE IS TO SYMPATHIZE AND TRUST, WHOSE ONLY FAULT IS HIS READY CONFIDENCE IN NATURES TOO UNLIKE HIS OWN, TO Harold Matthews THIS WORK IS INSCRIBED, AS A JUST TRIBUTE OF THAT ESTEEM, WHICH ALONE IS THE REAL SOURCE OF ALL FRIENDSHIP, BY HIM WHO HAS VALUED HIS SOCIETY IN THE PAST, AND HOPES HE MAY LONG ENJOY IT IN THE FUTURE.
I am fully aware of the fact that the present volume is but an intrusion at the best; however, I trust my readers will be pleased to overlook the many faults of a bagatelle as insignificant and pitiable as its author.
In the following pages I have introduced the first canto of Midsummer Idylls in a revised form, and it has been my especial care to correct, as far as it was consistent with the meaning of the passage, any hitch in the Iambic Measure which might offend the ear. An author has himself to please as well as his public, and it has been to me a matter of much study that the Iambics should be as pure, or at least as tolerable, as circumstances would allow, though, while I can ill permit an irregular or inharmonious line, I hope I may not be found guilty of sacrificing sense to sound. I beg to tender those my most cordial thanks who have dealt indulgently with my rhymes hitherto, and to acknowledge, with profound gratitude, the kind encouragement of those great men of letters who have condescended to notice so small a bard. The opinions of the Metropolitan, Provincial, and Foreign Press could not have been other than gratifying to me, and it is with a humble hope of favour that I submit the following pages to a discerning public. LENNOX AMOTT.