"The lav'rock shuns the palace gay, BURNS. RAMBLE FROM BURY TO ROCHDALE. "Its hardly in a body's pow'r How best o' chiels are whiles in want, But, Davie, lad, ne'er fash your head, We're fit to win our daily bread, BURNS. ONE fine afternoon, at the end of February, I had some business to do in Bury, which kept me there till evening. As the twilight came stealing on, the skies settled slowly into a gorgeous combination of the grandest shapes and hues, which appeared to canopy the country for miles around. The air was very clear, and it was nipping cold; and every object within sight stood out in beautiful relief in that fine transparence, softened by the deepening shades of evening. Every thing seemed to stand still and meditate, and inhale silently the air of peace which pervaded that magnificent and tranquil hour of closing day, as if all things on earth had caught the spirit of "meek nature's evening comments on the fuming shows and vanities of man." The glare of daylight is naturally fitted for bustle and business, but such an eventide as this looked the native hour of devout thought and recovery. It is said that the town of Bury takes its name from the Saxon word byri, a burgh, or castle. One of the twelve ancient baronial fortresses of Lancashire, stood in "Castle Croft," near the town, and upon the banks of the old course of the very B river Irwell. Immediately below the eminence, upon which the castle once reared its frowning walls, a low tract of ground, of considerable extent, stretches away from below the semicircular ridge upon which the northern extremity of the town is situated, up the valley of the Irwell. Less than fifty years since, this low tract was a great stagnant swamp, where, in certain states of the weather, the people of the neighbourhood could see, to the dismay of some of them, the weird antics of the "Wild Fire," or, "Jack o' Lantern," that fiend of morass and fen. An old medical gentleman, of high repute, who has lived his whole life in the town, lately assured me that he remembers well that during the existence of that poisonous swamp, there was a remarkable prevalence of fevers and ague amongst the people living in its neighbourhood; which diseases have since then comparatively disappeared from the locality. There is something rich in excellent suggestions in the change which has been wrought in that spot. The valley which was so long fruitful in pestilences, is now drained and cleared, and blooms with little garden allotments, belonging to the working people thereabouts. Oft as I chance to pass that way, on the East Lancashire Railway, on Saturday afternoons, or holidays, there they are, working in their little plots, sometimes assisted by their children, or their wives; a very pleasant scene. Most Englishmen, of any station, glory in a bit of garden of their own, and take pleasure in the pains they bestow upon it. I lingered in the market place a little while, looking at the parish church, with its new tower and spire, and at the fine pile of new stone buildings, consisting of the Derby Hotel, the Town Hall, and the Athenæum. Lancashire has, upon the whole, for a very long time past, been chiefly careful about its hard productive work, and practicable places to do it in; and has taken little thought about artistic ornament of any sort; but the strong, old county palatine begins to flower out a little here and there, and this will continue to increase as the enor mous wealth of the county becomes influenced by elevated taste. In this new range of buildings, there was a stateliness and beauty, which made the rest of the town of Bury look smaller and balder than ever it appeared to me before. There they stood in the town, but not, apparently, of the town; for they looked like a piece of the west end of London, dropped among a cluster of weavers' cottages. But my reflections took another direction. At "The Derby," there, thought I, will be supplied to anybody who can command "the one thing needful," in exchange-sumptuous eating and drinking, fine linen, and downy beds, hung with damask curtaining; together with grand upholstery, glittering chandelier and looking glass, and more than enough of other ornamental garniture of all sorts; a fine cook's shop and dormitory, where a man might make shift to tickle a few of his five senses very prettily, if he was so disposed, and was fully armed to encounter the bill. A beggar is not likely to put up there; but a lord might chance to go to bed there, and dream that he was a beggar. At the other end of these fine buildings, the new Athenæum was quietly rising into the air. The wants to be provided for in that edifice were quite of another kind. There is in the town of Bury, as, more or less, everywhere, a thin sprinkling of naturally active and noble minds, struggling through the hard crust of ignorance and difficulty, towards mental light and freedom. Such salt as this poor world of ours has in it, is not unfrequently found among this humble brood of strugglers. I felt sure that such as these, at least, would watch the laying of the stones of this new Athenæum, with a little genuine interest. That is their grand citadel, thought I; and from thence, the fatal artillery of a few old books shall help to batter tyranny and nonsense about the ears;-for there is a reasonable prospect that there, the ample page of knowledge, "rich with the spoils of time," will be unfolded freely, to all who desire to consult it; and that from thence the seeds of thought may |