When beauty distils from the calm glad hills,
From the downs and dimpling vales;
And every grove, lazy with love,
Whispereth tenderest tales!

"O then to look back upon Time's old track,
And dream of the days long past,
When Rome leant here on his sentinel spear
And loud was the clarion's blast;--
As wild and shrill from Martyr's Hill
Echoed the patriot shout;
Or rush'd pell-mell with a midnight yell
The rude barbarian rout!

"Yes; every stone has a tale of its own,
A volume of old lore;
And this white sand from many a brand
Has polish'd gouts of gore;
When Holmbury Height had its beacon light,
And Cantii held old Leith,
And Rome stood then with his iron men
On ancient Farley Heath!

"How many a group of that exiled troop
Have here sung songs of home,
Chanting aloud to a wondering crowd
The glories of old Rome!
Or lying at length have basked their strength
Amid this heather and gorse,
Or down by the well in the larch-grown dell
Water'd the black war-horse!

"Look, look! my day-dream right ready would seem
The past with the present to join,--
For see! I have found in this rare ground
An eloquent green old coin,
With turquoise rust on its Emperor's bust--
Some Caesar, august lord,
And the legend terse, and the classic reverse,
'Victory, valour's reward!'

"Victory--yes! and happiness,
Kind comrade, to me and to you,
When such rich spoil has crown'd our toil
And proved the day-dream true;
With hearty acclaim how we hail'd by his name
The Caesar of that coin,
And told with a shout his titles out,
And drank his health in wine!

"And then how blest the noon-day rest,
Reclin'd on a grassy bank,
With hungry cheer and the brave old beer,
Better than Odin drank;
And the secret balm of the spirit at calm,
And poetry, hope, and health,--
Ay, have I not found in that rare ground
A mine of more than wealth?"

Another long-time friend also of the antiquarian sort was Walter
Hawkins, with whom I was intimate for many years. His private collection
of coins and curiosities was even larger and costlier than
Nightingale's, and was given by his administratrix to the United Service
Museum, where I believe the bulk of it (perhaps morally mine) still
remains i