THE FALLS OF LANARK.

The following lines in an album formerly kept at the inn at Lanark evidently suggested to Southey his playful verses on The Cataract of Lodore:—

What fools are mankind,

And how strangely inclined

To come from all places

With horses and chaises,

By day and by dark,

To the Falls of Lanark!

For, good people, after all,

What is a waterfall?

It comes roaring and grumbling,

And leaping and tumbling,

And hopping and skipping,

And foaming and dripping,

And struggling and toiling,

And bubbling and boiling,

And beating and jumping,

And bellowing and thumping.

I have much more to say upon

Both Linn and Bonniton;

But the trunks are tied on,

And I must be gone.

In the varied music of Schiller’s Song of the Bell may be found the same style:—