COLLOQUY I. CHAPTER II. "Whate'er you see, whate'er you feel, display THE habitation of the individual with whom I had thus become acquainted, and for whom I was sensible of a sudden and singular interest, was situate in one of the pleasantest environs of London. The daylight had not departed when I arrived; and there was something in the neatness of its external aspect, and in the arrangement of a limited parterre, which bespoke its owner's sense of chasteness and propriety. Its character was more rural than, in that neighbourhood, suburban dwellings are in general; and whilst its size and situation might have adapted it for the retreat of a merchant, the absence of certain customary features dear to the soul of a commerçant, convinced you that it was not the harbour of a merchantman, or that if it was, its appearance might be accepted as a guarantee for good taste and true gentility. [I pro test, en passant, against any illiberal deduction from this remark, which involves merely a matter of goût and not of worth:-I have several unexceptionable clients in "the commercial interest," whom I prize highly for their prompt payments.] The entrancegate opened by a peculiar catch, and formed part of a wood fencing of lattice-work, which, being high and over-run with ivy, concealed from pedestrian passersby the lower rooms of the lodge. The house also was nearly covered with the same vagrant root, displaying two distinct hues-that which grew upon the projections of the building appearing of a darker green than that which overspread its recesses. A few vases and rustic flower-stands were dispersed in judicious display, and were garlanded with the snowdrop and primrose. And facing the doorway was a roomy dog-house, from the entrance of which there partially protruded (both a type of quaintness and terror to petty miscreants) the caput of a mastiff, "life-like and awful to view," though merely carved from wood and colored (as you discovered on a closer and keener scrutiny), and representing the sentinel as keeping a vigilant eye upon the wicket, although in couchant attitude. The public thoroughfare to which the domicile was contiguous, was not the most-frequented route to the metropolis, although sufficiently peopled; yet, from the height and density of the fence that bounded it, the gate was no sooner closed on the inside, than you seemed in an outer realm of Silence,-in a sanctuary only intruded upon by the casual note of some woodwarbler, And many a weary wing had its quiet resting-place there not more secure in leafy solitudes, than in the depths of that redundant ivy and the guardianship of the kind heart it sheltered! The stillness that reigned without the lodge presided more intensely within:it was almost a realisation of Peace made palpable. Windows, some partially and others wholly composed of amber-colored glass, imparted to the interior "a dim, religious light" of that chastened hue, neither silvery or golden purely, but a commingling of both, such as you may have beheld in the west at eventide, and fancied the Day in devotion, ere its lustrous Orb suffused the horizon with the deep crimson radiance which consummates his setting. There is a peculiarly-tranquillizing influence in that soft amber light; and perhaps from associating it with the quietude that prevails at sunset, or with the solemn splendour which it sheds over sacred places, we connect it instinctively with serenity. The apartment in which I found the genius loci, had an air of luxurious comfort, utterly apart from ostentation: the walls supported the effigies of six generations of his fathers; and though the room was not large, the chief portion of the space left unoccupied by his ancestors was devoted to the accommodation of four capacious bird-cages, the lodging' (as he observed smilingly, the instant he perceived my eye upon them,)' the lodging of a few parlour-boarders, in addition to a numerous singing-class in the eaves and leaves without.-I feel,' he continued, in reply to a remark I made connected with his in-door aviary, "I feel a sacred and home-felt delight' in the strains of my domestic quire, which, by-the-bye, the last few days of warmth and sunshine have driven to such excess of riot, as made them almost 6 · vex with mirth the drowsy ear of Night:' but my joy was well-nigh at an end, and my band in danger of being broken up, by a doctrine of humanity taught with the power of poesy by that dear Disturber in the North, the undying CHRISTOPHER of that name, for whom I will not impute to you the barbarism of a want of love and reverence. He denominates the singing of caged birds a rueful simulation of music;' and 'upon this hint I spake,' though loth, a sentence of emancipation in favor of that unconscious captive roosting on the upper perch there, (still wide 6 awake, per Hercule!) my feathered knight, Sir Frederic-to whom esteem yourself as introduced. My servant is infected with his master's prejudices, and did the part of Liberator as lazily as would a more reputed son of Fame, were his liberating efforts honorary. And indeed my newly-born humanity was nearly convulsed at the bird's embrace of Liberty, whom I had not heart to hail then as the merry mountain nymph;' for, independently of the favoritism induced by long companionship, I had gloomy forebodings of a compulsory indolence and disenchanted solitude, if the 'fytte' caught from the Recreations of Christopher should have four days' continuance. What matinal employment could I invent, as a substitute for the duty of preparing sustenance for those devourers? That same blithe bigot, sir Fred, turns sullen and threatens felo de se by starvation if any other hand than mine presumes to meddle with his provision; and the Queen Dowager-near my honored grandsire's portrait-even she does despite to a hallowed Name, by signs of unamiable temper, if other than I prepare her royal board. But away-after long pausing and beginning late-away went sir Frederic on his advent'rous flight,' to a shrub five yards distant from his prison-house, whence, after a perplexing reconnoitre, he adjourned to the ivy above the window here. We saw no more of the knight until morning, and then F |