Wide flies the chaff,
The rustling straw sends up a fragrant mist
Of atoms, sparkling in the noonday beam.
A pretty little vignette, which the threshing-machine has now made
antique. There were ramblings, picnics, and little dinner-parties.
Lady Hesketh kept a carriage. Gayhurst, the seat of Mr. Wright, was
visited as well as Weston Hall; the life of the lonely pair was fast
becoming social. The Rev. John Newton was absent in the flesh, but he
was present in the spirit, thanks to the tattle of Olney. To show that
he was, he addressed to Mrs. Unwin a letter of remonstrance on the
serious change which had taken place in the habits of his spiritual
children. It was answered by her companion, who in repelling the
censure mingles the dignity of self-respect with a just appreciation of
the censor's motives, in a style which showed that although he was
sometimes mad, he was not a fool.
Having succeeded in one great poem, Cowper thought of writing another,
and several subjects were started--_The Mediterranean_, _The Four Ages
of Man_, _Yardley Oak_.
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