and dreading the consequence, if the poor girl should catch sight of the coffin that was expected every minute to arrive, I prevailed on her to walk out with me into the open air. Scarcely had we proceeded more than a few hundred yards, when I descried dimly in the distance, two men bearing a coffin. In vain did I point in an opposite direction, and strive to occupy the attention of the afflicted one. She turned round abruptly; saw what I had seen; uttered a heartrending shriek; and sank, apparently lifeless, in my arms.

The castle grounds, with their broad walks, are beautiful; the rocks are clothed with vegetation and lichens; and verdant grass, and creeping plants, and shrubs, and trees, in endless variety, adorn the sequestered dells. How delightful is the influence of natural scenery!

There is to him who reads the sacred page
With knowledge, faith, humility, and love,
A sweet and balmy influence in creation;
An alchemy that turns his griefs to gold.
The clear blue sky, the trees and verdant glebe,
The springing flower and gently running brook,
All soothe the mind with pure and tranquil thoughts,
E'en like a smiling, heavenly visitant,
Winning the weary heart from earthly ills,
Filling the mind with proofs of love Divine,
And pointing onwards to eternity.

I have visited the rocky glen where the dark tunnels of the three canals open to the watery basin. The rude crags of the glen, and the luxuriant foliage and creepers that adorn them, fling around an influence at once picturesque and impressive. The dark canals, hewn through the solid rock, run under the castle hill, and through them the limestone obtained from the extended excavations is conveyed in boats. I have descended the shaft to witness the labourers at work, and roamed through the whole of the subterraneous caverns that undermine the fair grounds above them. The scene has much excited me.

It is impossible to gaze on these capacious caverns, these awful vacuums and projecting crags, at one point illumined with light from above, and in another shrouded in gloom, without strong emotion. At one moment, I have groped my way in darkness, while a fragment of limestone, dislodged by my foot, has splashed into the water, far, far below the narrow ledge of rock that served me for a pathway; and, in another, a reflected light has made dimly visible the All that I have seen craggy canopy above me. in Derbyshire has crowded on my recollection, and the wonders of the grotto of Antiparos have been present to my fancy. The ponderous strata

over head, supported by huge pillars of opposing strength, have a vast and solemn influence. These excavations seem, as it were, to dissect the earth, and to lay bare the ribs of the solid world. I have felt myself to be an atom in the creation, while gazing with awe and wonder on the mighty formations of my Almighty Creator.

Again am I musing in the romantic ravine, with all that is wild, picturesque, and beautiful around me, and all that is arresting, impressive, and awful in the caverns beneath my feet. The ruins of the castle solemnize my mind, and I shall quit the place in a fit mood for solitary reflection.

If things that were have pass'd away,
The things that are will scarcely stay:
This goodly glen, this glowing scene,
Will be as though they had not been.

While changes thus around me rise,
May I be ready for the skies,
And seek a sure and bless'd abode
With my Redeemer and my God.

THE RIMY MORNING.

Now had I the dancing spirits, the buoyant elasticity of youth, how would my delighted eyes, and exulting heart, revel in the wondrous scenes around me! Even as it is, I can scarcely rein in my ardent imagination, which is ready to spring forward as recklessly as an unbroken steed. The sharp freshness of the air, the crimp snow beneath the foot, and the novelty of the scene, give a hilarity of feeling that is delightful.

This morning, when I rose, the beautiful frostwork on the window panes, spelled me with its rich variety of glass-like foliage, trees and grasses, floods and waterfalls, crystal rock-work, and landscapes of silvery brightness and now, in the open air, on the skirt of a wood, a richer treat awaits me. Every tree, shrub, bramble, thorn, and blade of grass, is covered with rime; and, look which way I will, I am gazing on a world of transcendent wonders. The snow, the frost, and the rime, mingle their several

attractions.

How poor are the pearls on the neck of beauty, compared with the coruscations How dim the of this spreading hawthorn! diamonds in a monarch's crown, in competition with the myriad gems that are sparkling on these frosty, straggling brambles. The most elaborate workmanship, the costliest carving of human hands, is a coarse and blundering performance, in comparison with the more than magical creations that are profusely flung on every brake and brier. Every leaf is, in itself, a study for the reflective mind; every shrub, a miniature museum ; and every bush, a cabinet of curiosities!

The fields around are only partially covered with snow; and the broad patches of brown, blend not inharmoniously, in the distance, with the white colour which mostly prevails; the trees are bold and dark in their stems, but faint and feathery in their sprays; and the sky is grey: neither sun nor cloud, neither shine nor shadow is to be seen above the horizon: all is grey, grey, monotonously grey !

On my road to this place, I gazed on the different trees and shrubs that adorned the gardens and pleasure grounds of the goodly mansions by the wayside: the dark mossy-green, flakyoliaged cypress, with its leaves beautifully edged