THOMAS GRAY ODE ON A DISTANT PROSPECT OF ETON COLLEGE Ye distant spires, ye antique towers, That crown the watery glade, Where grateful Science still adores Her Henry's holy shade; And ye, that from the stately brow Of Windsor's heights th' expanse below Of grove, of lawn, of mead survey, Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among Wanders the hoary Thames along His silver-winding way.

Tread with respectful awe Windsor's green glades; where Denham, tuneful bard, Charmed once the listening dryads, with his song Sublimely sweet.

350 The morning sun that gilds with trembling rays Windsor's high towers, beholds the courtly train Mount for the chase, nor views in all his course

On Thursday morning the whole party, amounting to about twenty persons, confessed themselves to Hammond, a priest, received absolution from him, and partook of the sacrament together, and then, with their followers and servants, proceeded to Lord Windsor's house, at Hewell, from whence they took a great quantity of armour and weapons.

Now turn where high from Windsor's hoary walls, To keep her flag unstained thy Sovereign calls; Now wandering stop where wrapt in mantle dun, As if her guilty head Heaven's light would shun, London, gigantic parent, looks to thee, Foremost of million sons her guide to be; On the fair land in gladness now gaze round, And wish thy name with hers in glory bound.

Away, in the smooth "Flying Dutchman"; past Windsor's glorious towers and Eton's playing-fields; past the little village and churchyard where a century and a half ago the famous "Elegy" was written, and where, hard by "those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade," yet rests the body of the mighty poet, Gray.

The flag which sails o'er Windsor's stately towers must soon be lost to sight.

That crown the watery glade Where grateful Science still adores Her Henry's (1) holy shade; And ye that from the stately brow Of Windsor's heights the expanse below Of grove, of lawn, of mead survey, Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among Wanders the hoary Thames along His silver-winding way: 2 Ah, happy hills!

He took Ida over to Mr. Windsor's for a long day's visit, made a few calls, packed his trunk, bade Miss Giddings, who did not hesitate to express her sorrow at his departure, a regretful good-bye, and the next morning rode to Ashtabula, and there took a steamer down the lake.

Harrington, a still more celebrated hunter and pioneer, and who furnished a good idea of old Leatherstocking, and who was with Winchester at the battle of River Raisin, from which he escaped, and was one of Harrison's scouts, had been often at Basil Windsor's.

And Cobham's groves and Windsor's green retreats When Pope describes them have a thousand sweets.

Even as once the poet Gray looked down from the Windsor's heights up the distant prospect of Eton College, so did she regard the cluster of naphtha lights around the galloping horses on which, unconscious of their doom, the little victims played.