Note 83 — SONNET XLVII. ON MR SARGENT’S DRAMATIC POEM, THE MINE.[83]

Petra, and Fossilia, are personifications of the first and last division of the fossil kingdom. The author of this beautiful Poem supposes the gnomes to be spirits of the mine performing the behests of Petra and Fossilia, as the sylphs, gnomes, salamanders, &c. appear as handmaids of the Nymph of Botany in that exquisite sport of imagination, the Botanic Garden.