Christmas Hymn. (From The Villager's Verse-Book.)

"While slowly wanders thy sequestered stream,     WAINSBECK, the mossy-scattered rocks among,     In fancy's ear making a plaintive song     To"

"On these white cliffs, that calm above the flood     Uprear their shadowing heads, and at their feet     Hear not the surge that has for ages be"

"Christian! for none who scorns that holy name      Can gaze with honest eyes on Southey's fame;      Christian! bow down thy head in humble fea"

"The mighty master waved his wand, and, lo!      On the astonished eye the glorious show      Burst like a vision! Spirit of the place!      Ha"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"