Note 165 — The Auction Room.
Reading edition
"In the wild depth of Winter, while without The ceaseless winds blow ice, be my retreat Between the groaning forest and the shore, Beat by the boundless multitude of waves, A rural, sheltered, solitary scene!"—— Winter.
One would like a situation somewhat more sheltered, when "The ceaseless winds blow ice!"
[166] "Flumen est Arar, quod per fines Æduorum et Sequanorum in Rhodanum fluit, incredibili lenitate, ita ut oculis, in utram partem fluat, judicari nos possit." De Bell. Gall., lib. i., § x. Philemon might as happily have compared Orlando's quiet stream to "the silent river"
——quæ Liris quietâ Mordet aquâ——
which Horace has so exquisitely described, in contrast with
——obliquis laborat Lympha fugax trepidare rivo. Carm., lib. i., Od. xxxi., lib. ii., Od. ii.
Yet let us not forget Collin's lovely little bit of landscape—
"Where slowly winds the stealing wave."
[167] There is a curious proclamation by Q. Elizabeth, relating to some Sabbath recreations or games, inserted in Hearne's preface to his edition of Camden's Annals, p. xxviii. It is a little too long to be given entire; but the reader may here be informed that "shooting with the standard, shooting with the broad arrow, shooting at the twelve score prick, shooting at the Turk, leaping for men, running for men, wrestling, throwing the sledge, and pitching the bar," were suffered to be exhibited, on several Sundays, for the benefit of one "John Seconton Powlter, dwelling within the parish of St. Clements Danes, being a poor man, having four small children, and fallen to decay."