"
It was from wandering in early life among this rich scenery, and
about the romantic solitudes of the adjoining park of Fullbroke, which
then formed a part of the Lucy estate, that some of Shakspeare's
commentators have supposed he derived his noble forest meditations
of Jaques, and the enchanting woodland pictures in "As You Like It."
It is in lonely wanderings through such scenes, that the mind drinks
deep but quiet draughts of inspiration, and becomes intensely sensible
of the beauty and majesty of nature. The imagination kindles into
reverie and rapture; vague but exquisite images and ideas keep
breaking upon it; and we revel in a mute and almost incommunicable
luxury of thought. It was in some such mood, and perhaps under one
of those very trees before me, which threw their broad shades over the
grassy banks and quivering waters of the Avon, that the poet's fancy
may have sallied forth into that little song which breathes the very
soul of a rural voluptuary:
Under the green wood tree,
Who loves to lie with me,
And tune his merry throat
Unto the sweet bird's note,
Come hither, come hither, come hither.
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