pro THE EDITOR OF THE "sracrasea."3 Stn,—I have been surprised
to notice that no mention has been made of a charming set of elegiac verses by the late Mr Arthur Munby which appeared in your own columns. The poem was entitled " Then and Now.—The North Downs, 1800," and was published in the Spectator of March llth,1899.
I enclose a short quotation from it.—I am, Sir, &c., S.
"Have you not heard of the road that we long ago travell'd with Chaucer,
Here on the Pilgrim's Way, spanning the length of the Downs ?
Have you not seen these yews, still green in their smenlar glory,
Marking the course of the route—older than Edward the Third?
Well, we are with them now, on the height that faces St. Martha's, Thus on a summer eve watching the sunset awhile ; Watching the golden moon, as she rises afar to the eastward, Over the Silent Pool, over the hollows of Shere.
Look toward the crest of the hills, to the south, where breezes of ocean Blow frcm the Sussex Weald, savouring still of the sea ; Look to the north, far down, where sheep-bells heard in the valley Tell of an order'd peace, safe in some sheltering farm : Yes, 'tis a noble view ! But more than the beauty of Nature, More than the things we see, lives in this quiet around ; Years that are gone long ago, and centuries dead and departed, Rise through our searching souls into their places again.
Ah, what a long, long line of lofty and storied emotion Glows through those gaunt old trees, out of a. far-away
world!"
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