As up the hill and o’er the heath they stray’d,

A curious form beside the hawthorn laid.

A silvery white its outer surface shone;

Its bottom ended in a pointed Cone,

One inch in length; and in the broader Space

Was the faint picture of an human face— 820

Dead to the Eye, but in the hand a Strife

Of waking Nature shew’d the latent Life.

“Now tell me, Maiden, from that silver shape,

What prison’d Beauty shall from hence escape?