He drank till the summer sun went down,
And the stars began to shine :

And his greasy noddle was dazed and addle
With the nut-brown ale and wine.

Then up arose those four mad fellows,
And joining hand in hand,

They danced around the hostel floor,

And sung tho' they scarce could stand,
"We've aye been drunk on yester night,
And drunk the night before,
And we were drunk again to night,

If we never get drunk any more."

Bold Robin the butcher was horsed and away—

And a drunken wight was he;

For sometimes his blood-red eyes saw double,

And then he could scantly see.

The forest trees seemed to featly dance,

As he rode so swift along,

And the forest trees to his wildered sense
Re-sang the jovial song.

Then up he sped over Paislow Moss,

And down by the Chamber Knowle; And there he was scared into mortal fear By the hooting of a barn owl;

And on he rode by the forest wall,

Where the deer browsed silently;

And up the slack till on Tideswall Moor

His horse stood fair and free.

Just then the moon from behind the rack

Burst out into open view;

And on the sward and purple heath

Broad light and shadow threw ;

And there the butcher whose heart beat quick,

With fear of gramarye,

Fast by his side, as he did ride

A foul phantom did espy.

Up rose the fell of his head, up rose

The hood which his head did shroud;
And all his teeth did chatter and grin,
And he cried both long and loud;

And his horse's flanks with his spur he struck,
As he never had struck before:

And away he galloped with might and main,
Across the barren moor.

But ever as fast as the butcher rode

The ghost did grimly glide:

Now down on the earth before his horse,

Then fast his rein beside :

O'er stock and rock and stone and pit,

O'er hill and dale and down,

Till Robin the butcher gained his door-stone
In Tideswall's good old town.

"Oh, what thee ails, thou drunken butcher?" Said his wife as he sank down;

"And what thee ails, thou drunken butcher?"

Cried one half of the town.

"I have seen a ghost; it hath raced my horse
For three good miles and more;

And it vanished within the churchyard wall
As I sank down at the door."

"Beshrew thy heart for a drunken beast!"
Cried his wife, as she held him there;
"Beshrew thy heart for a drunken beast,
And a coward with heart of hare.
No ghost hath raced thy horse to-night,
Nor evened his wit with thine:

The ghost was thy shadow, thou drunken wretch!
I would the ghost were mine!"

UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME AND OF THE SAME SERIES.

From Frankfort to Munich.

pp. 54, eight plates.

Cloth, $1.50; paper, 85 cents, net.

Over the Hills to Broadway.

pp. 60, four plates.

Cloth, $1.50; paper, 85 cents, net.

The above volumes and the present volume belong to a proposed series of monographs on Old World Travel and Reminiscence. Each book is complete in itself, and yet is so written as to form part of a consecutive work. The illustrations are specially prepared for each volume.

"We have here, in 'Over the Hills to Broadway,' only an instalment, as we trust, of a work which will be completed if the present number shall be sufficiently appreciated to warrant the issuing of other numbers. It deserves to be appreciated. It is an edition de luxe, and is printed on large parchment paper, with uncut edges, and illustrated by four superb photogravures representing the Lygon Arms, Broadway, St. Eadburga's Church, Broadway, and a Roadside Cross, near Broadway. We are informed that this edition will be limited to four hundred copies, each of which will be illustrated in a similar way by photogravures of the same faultless execution. Friends of Dr. Stone and admirers of art in book manufacture will therefore be wise to secure copies in good time. Apart from the beauty of this publication, the matter itself is really almost unique. Dr. Stone describes a summer jaunt through a number of picturesque villages lying near the border-land of Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, taking his start from Shipston-on-Stour, about ten miles east by south of Stratford-on-Avon, and pursuing his course to Broadway. The district is one of the most beautiful agricultural regions in all England, and notwithstanding modern improvements, it is characteristically English, and includes constant reminders of the England of the olden time. As Dr. Stone rides on in his 'one-horse-shay' nothing escapes his attention. Natural objects, trees, flowers, birds, are all observed, and every one of them suggests some odd conceit or quaint reminiscence.

"In the villages through which he passes he finds strange and sometimes startling traditions, as at Ebrington, where he stops to tell the strange tale of a murder committed two hundred and thirty-three years ago. A woman and her two sons were arrested. One of the sons confessed that they had committed the crime, and gave minute details of the murder. His confession was incidentally confirmed by the discovery in his brother's pocket of a ball of coarse tape with a slip-knot at the end, with which he said that the victim had been strangled. The other two prisoners denied the crime and died denying it, for all three were hanged, and then, two years after their execution, the murdered man quietly walked back into his own house to the surprise and consternation of every one! Of clerical anecdotes Dr. Stone has an inexhaustible store, and the strange thing is that they are all good. Stranger still, perhaps, they are nearly all new. As one reads this delightful bit of travel through a district which is little known to Americans, one is possessed by a feeling of astonishment that any one man should be able to put together so many good things with such amazing rapidity. For Dr. Stone wrote as he journeyed; and we are inclined to think that if he had written more slowly he would have written less charmingly." -CHURCH STANDARD.

PORTER & COATES, Publishers, Philada.

WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

The Heart of Merrie England.

"Dr. Stone writes well, with many poetic touches, a strong feeling for nature, a reverential spirit and a knowledge of his subject which appears on every page."

New York Tribune. Christian Union, N. Y.

"An exceedingly interesting book.”
"Full of charms for the reader who delights in rural scenes and sounds."

"A book of unusual beauty and novelty."

Transcript, Boston. Evening Bulletin, Phila.

"No book on England, of the many we have read, so impresses us as this does with the fact that the author is in living contact with the people and understands them." Critic, N. Y. "The book is always entertaining, and is thoroughly penetrated with the charm of its subject." Literary Opinion, London.

12m0, 404 pp. Cloth extra. Price, $1.75.

Readings in Church History.

"This is a delightful and inspiring book. The style is glowing and graceful. Pleasing thoughts are pleasantly expressed. The author extracts the sweets, the melodies and the benedictions from the history with unerring skill and has made a book which it expands the heart to read." Independent.

"Upon the whole, we cannot but regard this as one of the best and most satisfactory pieces of work that has been turned out for some time." Churchman.

"The same facts may doubtless be found elsewhere by research, but nowhere can they be found so fully and impartially presented, and that in a manner so fascinating as to be read with intense interest, fixing a correct ideal forever in the mind."

Philadelphia Inquirer.

12m0, 584 pages. Cloth extra. Price, $1.50.

PORTER & COATES, Publishers, Philadelphia.