The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 20, No. 577 | Page 3

first the stars appear, would maidens come To fill their
pitchers at the Hawthorn Well, Attended by their swains; and often here
Were heard the cheerful song and jocund laugh Which told of
heart-born gladness, and awoke The slumbering echoes in the distant
wood.
But now the place is changed. The pleasant path, Which wound so
gently up the mountain side Is overgrown with bent and russet heath;
The thorn is withered to a moss-clad stump, And the fox kennels where
the turf-bank rose! The primrose and wild violet now no more Spread
their soft fragrance round. The hollow stone Is rent and broken; and the
spring is dry!
* * * * *

But yesterday I passed the spot, in thought Enwrapped--unlike the
fancies which played round My heart in life's sweet morning, bright
and brief: And as I stood and gazed upon the change, Methought a
voice low whispered in my ear: "Thy destiny is linked with that low
spring; Its course is changed, and so for aye shall be The tenor of thy
life; and anxious cares, And fruitless wishes, springing without hope,
Shall rankle round thy heart, like those foul weeds Which now grow
thick where flow'rets bloomed anew:-- Like to that spring, thy fount of
joy is dry!"
* * * * *

LINES
From the Italian of Scipione Maffèi[1]
BY E.B. IMPEY.
Quivi qual foste gia, non qual sarète. Con diletto mirando, in onta agli
anni Vostre belle sembianze ancor vedrete.
Scorn not, dear maid, this fond but faithful lay, That pictures, on no
perishable page, Thy beauties, rescued from the spoils of age, To live
and blossom with thy poet's bay: For when remorseless Time brings on
decay, When the loath'd mirror shall no more engage Thy smiles,
distorted into grief and rage, Alas! to think that youth must pass away--
Then in these lines contented shall thou trace, As in a lovelier glass, thy
lasting charms, Not as they shall be, but as now they grace, Fresh in the
bud of youth, these circling arms.
[1] The Marchese Scipione Maffèi was a native of Verona,
contemporary with Gio. Baptista Felice Zappi, Vincenzio di Filicaja,
and other Italian poets, who associated themselves together in an
academy, which they entitled Arcadia. The pastoral name conferred
upon the Marquess was Orilto Barentatico.
Vide Rime degli Arcadi, Venice, MDCCLXXIX.

* * * * *
LAWS RELATING TO BACHELORS.
(To the Editor.)
At page 53 of the present volume, your Correspondent "E.J.H." in his
remarks on "Laws relating to Bachelors," states at the conclusion
thereof as follows:--
"In England, bachelors are not left to go forgotten to their solitary
graves. There was a tax laid on them by the 7th William III., after the
25th year of their age, which was 12l. 10s. for a duke, and 1s. for a
commoner. At present they are taxed by an extra duty upon their
servants--for a male, 1l. 5s., for a female, 2s. 6d. above the usual duties
leviable upon servants."
Your Correspondent certainly must be in error upon these points, as the
additional duty to which bachelors in England are liable under the
present Tax Acts, for a male Servant, is only 1l. (the usual duty leviable
for such servant being 1l. 4 s.); and there is not, that I am aware of, any
law in existence in England taxing any person in respect of female
servants.
R.J.
Alton, Hants.
* * * * *

THE NATURALIST.
DEER OF NORTH-AMERICA, AND THE MODE OF HUNTING
THEM.
(From Featherstonehaugh's Journal.)

Deer are more abundant than at the first settlement of the country. They
increase to a certain extent with the population. The reason of this
appears to be, that they find protection in the neighbourhood of man
from the beasts of prey that assail them in the wilderness, and from
whose attacks their young particularly can with difficulty escape. They
suffer most from the wolves, who hunt in packs like hounds, and who
seldom give up the chase until a deer is taken. We have often sat, on a
moonlight summer night, at the door of a log-cabin in one of our
prairies, and heard the wolves in full chase of a deer, yelling very
nearly in the same manner as a pack of hounds. Sometimes the cry
would be heard at a great distance over the plain: then it would die
away, and again be distinguished at a nearer point, and in another
direction;--now the full cry would burst upon us from a neighbouring
thicket, and we would almost hear the sobs of the exhausted deer;--and
again it would be borne away, and lost in the distance. We have passed
nearly whole nights in listening to such sounds; and once we saw a deer
dash through the yard, and