AN HOUR AT MASS

BY A MEDICAL STUDent.
'TWAS to beguile an hour of care
I stole into that Minster high;
For thousands came to worship there,
To rest a weary heart thereby;
But slowly as my wandering eye
Did o'er the adoring masses stray,

A gentle form was bending nigh,
Instant I knelt-but not to pray.
No-God forgive me! not a thought
That hour had I of prayer or praise,
Unseen, unknown, I only sought
On that ethereal face to gaze;
And drinking its entrancing rays,
To give my very soul to sight,

And revel in the wildering maze
Of admiration and delight!

Yea, even as the errant sons

Of Israel's Heaven-adopted line,
Of deadly sting were heal'd at once
By looking on the holy sign;

Even so this poor stung heart of mine,
In that brief hour I well could deem,
By gazing on that face divine,
Was steep'd in balm of bliss supreme.
Still fondly rapt I look d, the while
The pompous ritual went on,
And all throughout the mighty pile,
The hallelujah vast was thrown!
The air was music-every stone
Of that great temple thrill'd and rung,
As high before the imaged Son,
Their smoke the golden censers flung.
But not an instant could the whole-
The tinted windows,-incense-cloud-
The mitred priests in gorgeous stole—
The chanted mass, or anthem loud,
Or pictured saints or kneeling crowd,
Make me apostate to the shrine

Of my devotion—we all bow'd,
They to their idol-I to mine.
Yes, 'twas an hour of rapture more
Than ever else my spirit knew ;
It ended-for their worship o'er
The multitude uprising threw
A moving mass between, and drew
Us far apart. 'Twas all in vain

That frenzied through the crowds I flew,

To catch the blissful glance again.

For ne'er since then, except in dreams
Of sorrow weary night or day,

Has that bright vision with its beams
Of radiant beauty lit my way—
Oh, happy he on whom it's ray
In daily smile of love descends.

Heavens! is there one so blest?-Away! The barbed thought my bosom rends !

THE FIRST OF SEPTEMBER;

OR,

A DAY'S PARTRIDGE SHOOTING.

BY ORNITHER.

Trahit sua quemque voluptas.

VIRGILII BUCOLICA, Ecloga 2.

ABOUT midday on the thirty-first of August, 184-, we began to collect our shooting appointments, and to make preparations for the morrow;-occupations that give the sportsman considerable pleasure, and which none can perform so satisfactorily as himself.

Every thing being complete and in readiness;-dogs carefully secured, gun and apparatus safely stowed in their places, and that sine quá non of costly crimson-paper, bearing the crown royal within a garter inscribed "Office for Taxes," tightly buckled in our pocketbook, we seized the reins and leaped joyfully into the vehicle which was to convey us some fifteen miles to P a remote village on the Welsh border of Herefordshire.

Our road lay through a hilly country, thinly populated when compared with other parts of England, but presenting to the eye an agreeably diversified landscape. Woods, for the most part, crowned the lofty hills, the lower slopes being allotted to arable purposes, while the valleys, through which a hundred blue rills pursued their fertilizing courses, formed the rich pastures, where those herds of splendid cattle fed, which are the pride and wonder of the agricultural world.*

The harvest had been an early one: the wheat was entirely gathered in, and the lent grain nearly so. Here and there, however, might still be seen a field of unripe oats, or standing beans, which would afford shelter for the birds, and annoy the sportsman.

The sun was about to sink behind the purple "Hatterel hills," when we entered the straggling village, at the end of which lay the antiquated "Manor House" where our journey was to close. It was a calm, clear evening, and the sunset promised fair weather for the morrow. The sturdy old battlemented tower and Norman church, gray with age, and picturesque from ill-repaired dilapidations, stood out in fine relief against the dark elm-rookery which screened "the rectory" from the northern winds. Groups of daws, perched indolently on coignes and pinnacles, seemed to look down upon some score, or thereabouts, of vociferous children on the greensward beneath, who, for their part, all rushed forward to the low parapet next the road, to scrutinize the strangers and their vehicle as they passed along. Numbers of screeching swallows were rapidly chasing each other in rings round the humble inn, and newly-filled stackyard of a neighbouring farm.

The village stithy yet rang with the sound of the anvil; but labour had chiefly closed, and decrepit old people of both sexes were sitting in the pleasant sunshine at their doors, proving, unconsciously, that

The Hereford and Durham breeds of cattle have been brought to that high state of perfection by thoughtful and judicious management, beyond which it appears impossible for human skill to carry them.

Sept.-VOL. LXVI. NO. CCLXI.

I

though age might have enfeebled and withered their once stalwart or buxom frames, it had not quenched their sympathy for the beautiful, and that mere existence was, for the time at least, both a boon and a blessing.

After passing" the common," where we saw women beating out and winnowing with snowy sheets the corn their families and themselves had gleaned, we soon arrived at the place of our destination.

It was a large old house of the Elizabethan age, seated in a natural hollow (for the architects of those days were not always happy in their choice of sites), and there was visible, not only in the house itself, but in the unpruned shrubs around, and the weed-choked fish-pond before it, unequivocal evidences of neglect and decay. It was tenanted by a respectable old man, who farmed pretty largely on his own account, and also acted as steward of the estates for our acquaintance, the proprietess, who lived in a distant part of the country.

Here, seated in a large oak-wainscoted dining-room, we found our good friend Captain S, in conjunction with whom we had shot over the manor for seven years, and who, during that time, had not once failed annually to meet us on this night.

66

"If the weather be fine," observed he, after the usual greetings had been exchanged, we shall have a prime day of it to-morrow." "Have you been over the ground then?" inquired I.

"Not since the last week in July; but I saw enough then to satisfy me that both hares and birds were abundant; and Howells (the wood-ward and keeper) has just told me that, to his knowledge, there are no less than five large and strong coveys on the Blackway's farm alone, to say nothing of Dulais and The Bacha, which you know are always lucky."

"That's pleasant news," rejoined I. "But mind! we must begin early to-morrow, and drive in the birds from the western boundary of the property; for I learnt from the toll-gate keeper at Pontrilais, that Herbert, the sporting publican from H, had passed with a stranger and dogs in a gig, and we may safely conclude, from former experience, that their point is the Red Oaks. Now if we don't set watch throughout the day, they will harry the entire skirts of the manor, on that side, of its game."

"Very proper precautions," returned the captain, "and they shall be observed. Pray what dogs have you brought?"

"The same as last year-Hassan, Zanga, and Duchess," replied I: "and hearing that your high-mettled pointer was here, I was careful in directing them to be locked up separately, dreading a rencounter between them, similar to that which disturbed and annoyed us last season."

Having spread out our apparatus, and adjusted every thing against the morning, we sat down to a substantial, and by no means inelegant supper; after which, directing candles to be brought us half an hour before daybreak, we retired.

There was a time when, on the night preceding a shooting excursion, so active has been our fancy, and such the eagerness of anticipation, that hour after hour, the God of Sleep, who hates excitement of all kinds, has refused to seal our eyes with his refreshing wand. Sick with impatience, often have we sprung from a restless pillow, even in mid-winter, and looking eastward, have chid the laggard sun for his

wearisome delay. But past, long past, are those phrensied moments; our enthusiasm is no longer irrepressible,-age and frequent indulgence in the pleasure have tempered it; and, notwithstanding that our passion for shooting has suffered no sensible abatement, our slumbers are never prevented by that cause, so we slept as soundly as could be wished.

At four the next morning we arose, and exclaimed with a feeling of great pleasure, as we donned our shooting-dress,

"At length the day of days," as the renowned Kit North lovingly and emphatically terms it, "has arrived, be it ours to improve, and make the most of it."

Descending to the breakfast-parlour, we were joined by our companion, and that first, and to a sportsman, most important meal of the four, discussed, we gave directions when and where dinner should be served, put on our ammunition gear, grasped our good guns, and sallied forth to the fields.

It wanted yet half an hour to sunrise; but, to occupy that time, we had to walk nearly two miles, to the boundary of the property, ere we commenced the beat.

A slight mist overhung the earth, partially concealing the tree-tops from our view. Yet that it was clear and cloudless at a brief height above, might be gathered from the large stars that, despite the waxing light, blazed in various directions through the vapour, like crimson lamps in the far distances of the firmament. The air was moist and chilly, indicative of autumn's arrival; and the silence of nature, at this early hour, was deep and universal. Of living creatures, only the bat and busy rook were astir: cattle and sheep lay on the dew-hoary grass, or under shelter of trees and hedges, watching the skirts of Night as she fled the advance of pale-eyed Day.

Soon, however, was heard, as we passed along, the low morning note of the partridge-happily unconscious of the evil that awaited him!-at which familiar, welcome sound, our dogs, who followed quietly at heel, pricked up their ears, and tugged crossways at their couples, impatient for the sport, which they well knew was at hand. After crossing two broad, rudely-cultivated banks, which form the lower steps of that Titanic staircase to Olympus, the Black Mountains, we reached the spot where, according to our previous arrangement, we were to cast off for the day. By this time it was broad daylight; in fact, the sun must have been up, though he was not yet visible.

Having uncoupled two wiry-limbed bony pointers, and a deepflewed setter-all stanch and fleet as ever stood on bird, or scoured a stubble, and who were rampant with joy on the occasion-we charged our long-disused, but carefully kept, gun, vaulted over a low gate, which led out of the deep, narrow lane we had been in, gave the signal of advance to our dogs, and thus the day's beat seriously began.

The field we had entered chanced to be an oat-stabble: it neither afforded game nor the traces of it. Adjoining was a rough, rushy meadow, near the middle of which our dogs made a momentary stand, then fell to creeping busily about, as they do where birds have been running.

artful doubles he has made in some weedy, thorn-covered ditch, some furzy meadow, or tangled brake, to baffle the dogs, and throw the shooter out of distance. He is also, we believe, the swiftest bird that flies, of the varieties protected by law, so that great steadiness, quickness, and certainty of aim are required to bring him to the bag.

At ten we overhauled our game-nets, which were well filled, and sent their contents to "the Manor," with directions to forward a brace of hares and four of partridges, to the fair owner of the property, and a leash of birds, with our compliments, to the rectory; after which, we both partook of a sandwich, and a small quantity of weak brandy-andwater; then rose from the shady bank where we had sat, and renewed the beat.

Almost directly, one of our dogs, making a range across a field of seed-clover, where we expected to find birds, suddenly drew himself up in a most extraordinary manner. He had evidently overrun his game, and was afraid of springing it. He stood with head erect, and weight thrown back on his haunches, in a striking, and one might think, a painful posture. Walking up to him, we found the game showed no disposition to move. Struck with this unusually magnificent spectacle, we exclaimed,

"How strong, how wonderful is Nature!"

"True," returned the captain; "for it can be nothing less than Nature that acts in this way. Education may teach a dog to pause when he arrives within a given distance of his game; but it can never produce such an intense physical orgasm as this. See how his eye gloats with ecstasy, and his nostril gapes-if I may so use the word. He is rigid, too, and motionless, as are, in reality, the marble dogs of Meleager."

Urging him gently forward with our knee, he began to draw and the game to run. It soon became evident, from the many rings and windings the dogs made, that they had a landrail before them. At length the bird, finding all his efforts to mislead them fruitless, and that they pressed hard upon him, reluctantly got up, and was killed. The flight of the landrail is slow, flickering, and feeble, and it is really most strange that a bird of such limited strength of wing should be able to pass the channel in its southward migration, as it is known to do. So much does this bird depend on its legs in escape from danger, and such is its aversion to flying, that, when forced to rise, we have frequently seen it, after being more than once shot at, drop again in the same field, though not a pellet had touched it. Moreover, it is a cow

ardly bird, that the slightest blow will bring down.

The day proved overpoweringly hot; but we were both of us too zealous sportsmen to remit our exertions through that cause. On we went, through heavy potato-grounds, stubbles, pastures, and cool green turnip-fields; and many were the coveys we raised, scattered, and thinned in our progress.

It was now high noon. The blazing chariot of the sun passing the meridian had gathered huge trains of clouds that moderated his fervour for this nether world; and, at the same time, produced the grandest effects imaginable, by the breadths of shadow they cast on the landscape beneath them. Those who breakfast at four in the morning need an early dinner. For our part, wishing to pursue the sport as long as possible, and, as our accustomed dinner-hour would trespass upon a