"Rural Felicity," however, though in a purer style than "Winifreda," can hardly be said to rise to poetry at all; and if the latter had been by the same author, it is most improbable that he would have excluded it from the volume containing the former. Looking at the two songs together, one is an evident imitation; and the conclusion I should come to with regard to the other is, that it was written by a man who knew the feeling he describes; by one of whom it could not be said, "He has no children;" by one to whom that more than identity of interest that centres in the—
"Unselfish self, the filial self of twain,"
was a familiar feeling. Stevens, perhaps, had repeated the poem, or made a copy of it, and thus gained the credit of being its author.
I am surprised that your correspondent T. W. should find any difficulty in the passage he quotes from Childe Harold:
"Thy waters wasted them while they were free,
And many a tyrant (has wasted them) since."
This mode of expression is only faulty when ambiguous; but here of ambiguity there is none.
SAMUEL HICKSON.
THE THREE ESTATES OF THE REALM.
(Vol. iv., pp. 115. 196.)
As CANONICUS EBORACENSIS considers that I have "not exactly hit the mark" in inferring that "the Lords, the Clergy in Convocation, and the Commons" are the "Three Estates of England" named in the Gunpowder Treason Service, I would claim, being not yet altogether convinced by CANON. EBOR.'S arguments that such is the case, a share of your space for discussing a question which must certainly be interesting to all who uphold "our Constitution in Church and State." My apology for prolixity must be, that having but just received "NOTES AND QUERIES" I have not had time to study brevity.