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Page 61:-
an oak, whilst the magpie chatters at safe distance, and the
more innocent squirrel peeps down upon you from a bough of
the canopy, and then, hoisting his tail, glides into the
obscurity of the loftiest umbrage." - Ascending from these
shades through a more straggling woodland, the stranger
arrives at a clump on the ridge,- the last clump, and
thenceforth feels himself wholly free. His foot is on the
springy mountain moss; and many a cushion of heather tempts
him to sit down and look abroad. There may still be a
frightened cow or two, wheeling away, with tail aloft, as he
comes onwards; and a few sheep are still crouching in the
shadows of the rocks, or staring at him from the knolls. If
he plays the child and bleats, he will soon see how many
there are. It is one of the amusements of a good mimic in
such places to bring about him all the animals there are, by
imitating their cries. One may assemble a flock of sheep,
and lead them far out of bounds in this way; and bewildered
enough they look when the bleat ceases, and they are left to
find their way back again. It is in such places as this that
the truth of some of Wordsworth's touches may be recognised,
which are most amusing to cockney readers. Perhaps no
passage has been more ridiculed than that which tells of the
"solemn bleat" of
"a lamb left somewhere to itself,
The plaintive spirit of the solitude."
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