When cattle slowly cross the shallow brook,
And shepherds pen their folds, and rest upon their crook.
Geo. Crabbe, 1754–1832.
THE MEMORY OF A WALK.
I have taken, since you went away, many of the walks which we have taken together; and none of them, I believe, without thoughts of you. I have, though not a good memory in general, yet a good local memory, and can recollect, by the help of a tree or a stile, what you said on that particular spot. For this reason I purpose, when the summer is come, to walk with a book in my pocket; what I read at my fireside I forget, but what I read under a hedge or at the side of a pond, that pond and that hedge will always bring to remembrance; and this is a sort of memoria technica which I would recommend to you, if I did not know that you have no occasion for it.
W. Cowper.—Letter to S. Rose, Esq., Jan. 19, 1789.
A BOWER.
In the pleasant orchard closes,
“God bless all our gains,” say we;
But, “May God bless all our losses,”