Old-Fashioned Houses

Sweet are old Courts with dates above the doors,
And yew-trees clipped in shapes, and cedar walks,
And lawns whereon a quiet peacock stalks,
And leaden casements, and black shining floors,
And arm-chairs carved like gbod cathedral stalls,
And huge French clocks, and bedsteads most invitiag,
And stiff old ladies hung upon the walls,
Famed in the days of English Memoir-writing: —
Places whose very look kind thoughts might draw
E'en to Anne Stuart or William of Nassau.
Sweeter than Tudor-stricken shrines are they,
With pleasant grounds and rivers lingering by, —
Quaint homes, that shed a pure, domestic ray
O'er the dull time of English history.