Northumberland Yesterday and To-day Part 21

_--Wilfrid W. Gibson_.

(In "The Northern Counties Magazine," March, 1901).

MY NORTH COUNTRIE.

O though here fair blows the rose, and the woodbine waves on high, And oak, and elm, and bracken fronds enrich the rolling lea, And winds, as if in Arcady, breathe joy as they go by, Yet I yearn and I pine for my North Countrie!

I leave the drowsing South, and in thought I northward fly, And walk the stretching moors that fringe the ever-calling sea, And am gladdened as the gales that are so bitter-sweet rush by.

While grey clouds sweetly darken o'er my North Countrie.

For there's music in the storms, and there's colour in the shades, And joy e'en in the grief so widely brooding o'er the sea; And larger thoughts have birth amid the moors and lonely glades And reedy mounds and sands of my North Countrie!

--_Thomas Runciman_.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sketch Map Of Northumberland.]