Having fastened my horse to the padlocked gate, I walked towards the gardener's cottage, near which, as I approached, I heard a female voice chanting the favourite lullaby of all good mothers in this part of his majesty's dominions, and beneath the charms of which I had in happy infancy often fallen asleep. Many and various were the events which had passed over my head since I had last listened to the soothing strain, and it had since, like Nebuchadnezzar's dream,' gone from me;' but resolving never more to forget it, ridiculous as it may seem, I committed it to paper, and shall now take the liberty of transferring it from the oblivion of a pocket-book to the pages of the Pocket Magazine: SONG. Hush-a-baby, lullaby 'Tis thy mother's arms surround thee- Hush-a-baby, lullaby, Dangers have no power to harm thee: Hush-a-baby, lullaby, While 'tis mine to watch beside thee- Hush-a-baby, lullaby, Ere the world hath power to move thee,- Maternal affection, believe me, could give to the above lines a music and a charm not to be compensated for by all the beauties of poetic diction; oh, that these also had been transferable! Having given the necessary directions respecting my steed, I struck into a narrow shady avenue which led me to the garden gate; where I was greeted by an old play-fellow-the dog Rambler-who, notwithstanding what has been said by Dan Homer and sundry other manufacturers of books, about the excellent memory of dogs, had very ungratefully forgotten me, and barked and growled most lustily as I passed. I knew the humour of the good Sir Oliver too well to use any ceremony upon entering his mansion, and accordingly made the best of my way to the hall, or front parlour, as it would be denominated in modern phraseology, without asking or answering a single question. Here every thing around me betokened that my octagenarian relative was as great an enemy to innovation as ever. furniture of the gothic apartment was at least a century and a half old; and, for aught I know to the contrary, Fitzhamon's mail-clad knights may have sat in the selfsame chairs. With the exception of an old mahogany spinet, every thing was substantial oak; the elaborately carved wainscoting presenting a beautiful specimen of the workmanship of former days. The The most striking feature of the whole was a large half-length portrait of the celebrated Cromwell, in the possession of which my uncle prided himself more than in all his castle contained beside, from the circumstance of its having been presented by the Protector himself to the famous colonel John Jones; who at the restoration paid the forfeit of his life, for having been bold enough to affix his signature to the death-warrant of Charles; and which painting is still universally acknowledged to be the best likeness extant of the ambitious Puritan. While contemplating this triumph of art,' with no ordinary feelings, I was aroused by the heavy, hobbling step of some one who appeared approaching the hall, and turning round, was not a little surprized to see my uncle enter, accompanied by his daughter. I had left him hale and healthy, and beheld him lame, and leaning upon a stick for support. Hastening towards him, VOL. 1. April, 1829. P I seized his half-proffered band, and found but little difficulty in making myself known. What, Hal, my boy, Hal!' exclaimed the veteran-I'm glad to see you, boy; by St. Athan's beard, but I thought you had forgotten your old uncle long ago! It's the fashion nowa-days to forget old friends, hey, boy, hey ?', 'A fashion I hope I shall never follow, sir,' was the reply. Sir! who do you call Sir? am not I your uncle, boy, hey? Come, fetch me that chair, and then tell me what new point of the compass is the wind in, that it blew you here? There sir, sit down now, unless oak is too hard for you, hey?' Having first greeted my cousin, I did as was commanded me, and then briefly related the occasion of my unexpected visit; concluding with a regret at finding its object so much worse than when I saw him last. Worse. boy, worse!' added the good Sir Oliver, -'no, thank the Lord, I'm no worse, though I am now ten years older; so are you, Hal, and so is Fonmon Castle too; but it will outstand many a finer and newer building yet,-hey, boy! Come, Judy, Judy, go and look after the dinner girl, and tell old Evans to come in, and not to stay all day counting the leaves on the cak trees, or lolling on the stone bench like that lazy old Greek Diogenes,-hey !' 'What,' said I, and is old Evans still alive?' 'Alive! ay, to be sure is he, and will play you as merry a jig now as when he was fifty years younger, boy, hey! While Judith was executing her sire's commissions we were left alone, and soon mutually entered into an interrogative sort of conversation. My uncle had a great antipathy to long stories, except when he happened to be the narrator, and disliked all needless discussion upon any subject whatever, because, to use his own words, Debate was the bane of friendship, and had made many a warm hearth cold, and many a cold hearth too hot for its owner.'-I succeeded tolerably well from running into long stories, but in avoiding Sylla I inadvertently ran foul of Charybdis. My uncle soon mounted his favourite hobby, and launched forth loudly in praise of the virtues of the good Old Times, and not a whit less loudly in his invectives against the degeneracy of the present. For some time I did not venture to say any thing in opposition to the sentiments of my choleric relative, but at length, one incautious observation which I let fall, did more harm than a long silence had done good. It is,' said I, 'impossible to restore the by-gone state of things; neither indeed is it desirable, since men could not now be happy therein.' Tush, boy, tush!' was the reply, you are like all the rest of the world in the present day, who fancy a man can't live happy unless he live by the rules they please to lay down for him. I tell you again, you know nothing at all about the matter. It is possible, and it is desirable, too; for say what you will, boy, men were never so happy as they were in the good Old Times, hey!' 'Then, uncle, you would have the ignorance and superstition of the dark ages hold mankind in slavery again?' Slavery!' exclaimed the knight, who dares pronounce that word in my house?-No, boy, no such thing; ignorance and superstition were marks of the bad Old Times, and I would never have them recalled. I never said as much; but this is the way with people now-a-days; they always confound the good and the bad together, as if the one belonged to the other, and was as inseparable as heat is from fire, or saltness from the sea. It doesn't follow because good and evil existed in former days, that a man must choose the evil, does it,-hey?' My uncle having passed some of the early years of his life at Oxford, was certainly better skilled in the labyrinths of logic and sophistry than myself; and I must confess his last remarks somewhat posed me; the distinction he made between the good and the bad Old Times had never once entered into my thoughts, and he had now so completely mystified the subject to my shallow comprehension, that I became involved in a dilemma from which, I believe, I should have found no little difficulty in extricating myself; at least to my nuncle's' satisfaction; for I could see by his manner that he conceived his last argument to be unanswerable. Fortunately-I may say so in more senses than oneold Evans happened to enter at the moment when my opponent was pausing for a reply, and relieved me from all anxiety on this score, by giving another and most welcome turn to the conversation. It was not until we had shaken hands and he had been told my name, that the aged minstrel recognized in the person before him the mischievous urchin, who was wont to cut his harpstrings, and then laugh at the vexatious frolic. The old bard was, however, glad to see me ; and I had the vanity to think my presence had annihilated twenty years of the ninety which weighed him down. When my uncle got first infected with the mania for restoring the reign of the good Old Times, I know not; but certain it is, that ever since he came into possession of his paternal estate he has acted with a single eye to the accomplishment of this object; and he has so far succeeded as to realize many of the dreams of the sons of song, and to satisfy himself that it was possible to recal all that was virtuous in the lives of our ancestors, while their vices were suffered to float down the stream of merited oblivion. But to return. · Dinner was at length laid upon the table,' and we all sat down to partake of the substantial fare provided for us by my country cousin. For my own part, a ride of upwards of twenty miles had given me an appetite well calculated to do it ample justice, and to enjoy with a peculiar relish the hospitality of my very kind relations; though it presented nothing to court the palate or please the eye of a modern epicure. Having seated himself, the worthy knight assigned to me a place on his right band, and commanded the matronly-looking Judith to seat herself on his left: lower down sat the family minstrel, and a venerable crony of my uncle's, who filled the important offices of his steward and companion; while beside our fair caterer was a face I had |