"You run about, my little Maid, If two are in the church-yard laid, Then ye are only five." "Their graves are green, they may be seen," The little Maid replied, "Twelve steps or more from my mother's door, And they are side by side. care. And when the ground was white with snow, And I could run and slide, My brother John was forced to go, And he lies by her side." How many are you, then," said I, "If they two are in heaven?" "But they are dead; those two are dead! 'Twas throwing words away; for still The little Maid would have her will, And said, "Nay, we are seven !" "Retine vim istam, falsa enim dicam, si coges."-EUSEBIUS. [This was suggested in front of Alfoxden. The Boy was a son of my friend, Basil Montague, who had been two or three years under our The name of Kilve is from a village on the Bristol Channel, about a mile from Alfoxden; and the name of Liswyn Farm was taken from a beautiful spot on the Wye, where Mr Coleridge, my sister, and I had been visiting the famous John Thelwall, who had taken refuge from politics, after a trial for high treason, with a view to bring up his family by the profits of agriculture, which proved as unfortunate a speculation as that he had fled from. Coleridge and he had both been public lecturers; Coleridge mingling, with his politics, Theology, from which the other elocutionist abstained, unless it was for the sake of a sneer. This quondam community of public employment induced Thelwall to visit Coleridge at Nether Stowey, where he fell in my way. He really was a man of extraordinary talent, an affectionate husband, and a good father. Though brought up in the City, he was truly sensible of the beauty of natural objects. I remember once, when Coleridge, he, and I were seated together upon the turf on the brink of a stream in the most beautiful part of the most beautiful glen of Alfoxden, Coleridge exclaimed, "This is a place to reconcile one to all 1 1836. The little Maiden did reply. 1798. the jarrings and conflicts of the wide world." "Nay," said Thelwall, "to make one forget them altogether." The visit of this man to Coleridge was, as I believe Coleridge has related, the occasion of a spy being sent by government to watch our proceedings, which were, I can say with truth, such as the world at large would have thought ludicrously harmless.] 1 I HAVE a boy of five years old; His face is fair and fresh to see; One morn we strolled on our dry walk, 1802. My thoughts on former pleasures ran; A day it was when I could bear The green earth echoed to the feet Of lambs that bounded through the glade, From shade to sunshine, and as fleet Birds warbled round me-and each trace Of inward sadness had its charm; My boy beside me tripped, so slim "Now tell me, had you rather be," I said, and took him by the arm, "On Kilve's smooth shore, by the green sea, Or here at Liswyn farm?" 2 In careless mood he looked at me, My boy was by my side, so slim And as we talked I questioned him My boy beside me tripped, so slim, &c "My little boy, which like you more," "And tell me, had you rather be," I said, and held him by the arm, "At Kilve's smooth shore by the green sea, 1798. 1827. 1836. 1798. 2 "For, here are woods, hills smooth and warm :1 Why you would change sweet Liswyn farm At this, my boy hung down his head, "Why, Edward, tell me why?" 8 His head he raised-there was in sight, Then did the boy his tongue unlock, |