3-011-696 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Birkett Foster's "Pictures of English Landscape": the Stepping-stones, 1862. Among books recently published and plainly intended to sell as a "Christmas present" or "New-Year's gift" is the volume from which we have borrowed an Illustration, "Birket Foster's Pictures of English Landscape," engraved by the Brothers Dalziel, with Pictures in Words by Tom Taylor (Routledge and Co.). We have selected one of the best engravings of this book...It is entitled "The Stepping-stones;" and we subjoin Mr. Taylor's versified accompaniment: "Still broad'ning on with every rood. None may the brook o'erleap, Even when innocent of flood, It's summer shallows sleep. Answ'ring the whispers of the beech, With whisper'd ripple-tones, From wavelets that scarce midway reach The sun-warmed stepping-stones. Too shallow, if it willed, to drown, The babes that cross its play; Too clear to hide one pebble strewn Along its harmless way. Ah! youth of man, and youth of stream Who dreams, while smooth and clear The summer-shallowed waters gleam. The winter spate so near? When every rounded stepping-stone, Where babies fearless stood, To fierce desire a barrier grown. Serves but to chafe the flood".' From "Illustrated London News", 1862.