THE CHURCHYARD BY THE SEA.

A MEMORY.

Across the waste of years I see

One spot for ever soft and green,

Which, shrined within my memory,

In evening glow or morning sheen,

Tells of the golden, vanished years,

When smiles came oftener far than tears.

A churchyard by the restless sea,

Where, in deep calm and dreamless sleep,

The Dead lay resting peacefully,

Unheeding the tempestuous deep;

Careless alike of sun and breeze,

Or ebbing of those changeful seas.

And oft when shipwreck and despair

Came to the little sea-beat town,

Pale women, with dishevelled hair,

To the wild shore went hurrying down,

And tenderly dead eyes would close,

And smooth dead limbs for long repose.

Full many a weary, storm-tossed wight,

Year after year, in quiet was laid,

Safe from the blustering storms of night,

In this green spot, and undismayed,

Slept close beside the breakers’ roar,

Whose wrath should mar his rest no more.

And over each low-sleeping head,

Where thymy turf grew green and soft,

The wild bee hummed, and rosy-red

The brier-flower bloomed, and up aloft

The fleecy clouds went drifting by

Like shades, across the summer sky.

And ever as the years go by,

And one by one old memories creep

From out the sweet Past solemnly,

I seem to see, beside the deep,

That little, lonely, silent spot,

With many a childish dream enwrought.

J. H.

The Conductor of Chambers’s Journal begs to direct the attention of Contributors to the following notice:

1st. All communications should be addressed to the ‘Editor, 339 High Street, Edinburgh.’

2d. For its return in case of ineligibility, postage-stamps should accompany every manuscript.

3d. Manuscripts should bear the author’s full Christian name, Surname, and Address, legibly written; and should be written on white (not blue) paper, and on one side of the leaf only.

4th. Offerings of Verse should invariably be accompanied by a stamped and directed envelope.

If the above rules are complied with, the Editor will do his best to insure the safe return of ineligible papers.

Printed and Published by W. & R. Chambers, 47 Paternoster Row, London, and 339 High Street, Edinburgh.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Regents, Champions, Orkney Reds, &c., are mere varieties of the common species of potato.