Note 50 — TUDOR SCHOOL-BOY LIFE (continued 2)

“Such days, I trow, at the infancy of earth, Shone forth, and kept the tenor of their birth; True spring was that, the world was bent on spring, And eastern breezes check’d their wintry wing: While cattle drank new light, and man was shown, A race of iron from a land of stone; Then savage beasts were launch’d upon the grove, And constellations on the heaven above; Nor could young Nature have achieved the birth, Unless a period of repose so sweet Had come to pass, betwixt the cold and heat, And heaven’s indulgence greeted the new earth.” R. D. Blackmore’s Translation.