Ellen the Paper Doll
Cut-out paper Toys
Mazes
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Maze VI
The Bitannia
Maze
Once more
we are equipped for travelling, our knapsacks are on our backs,
our flasks filled with pear slung round our necks, our pockets
crammed with gingerbread nuts, and our stout walking-sticks in
our hands to help us over the hills and down the precipices which
we may meet on our road. To our right hand rises the Round Tower,
a mighty Norman fortress, in the interior of which is a curious
museum of ancient armour and a choice gallery of pictures. The
vaults and dungeons, where the prisoners are confined, make one's
blood run cold to look at them. In the neighbourhood of the Castle
live the Amiable Ape, and the Tailor who rides on the Goose, also
the little Boy taken before the Magistrate for picking a gentleman's
pocket. To the left, on enter, are perceive the ruins of an old
Abbey. How delightful to rest at midday among those quiet moss-grown
towers, and repose under the cool shade of the silent arches!
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But
we have scarcely been resting a few minutes when we hear a well-known
"Roo-ti-too-ti-too!" and recognize the voice of our friend
Punch, who tells us that he has come, like ourselves, on a visit to
the Maze, and can neither get in nor out. Presently we hear an organ,
and see coming alone a merry little Saxoyard-boy with his Monkey,
who promises to show us the way if we will accompany him. At the same
moment a horse dashes by at full speed, leaping over all the obstacles,
with a Jockey on his back, and we can only suppose that it is a steeple-chase!
To tell all the wonders we meet in this Maze would fill a whole book.
Some scenes remind us of foreign lands; a Venetian Palace, from the
balcony of which a lady is waving her handkerchief to a gay party
in a distant Gondola; a Grecian Temple and Archaway, a wild Alpine
bridge. At another spot, we find a Military encampment and open plain,
on which stands a Windmill; and Circus, in which and equestrian Juggler
is riding on a bare-backed horse, while overhead some excursionists,
more daring than ourselves, are exploring the realms of ether, supported
in mid-air by a frail fabric of silk! Presently we reach the shore
and admire the stately Lighthouse: "Holding its lantern o'er
the restless surge." We shall also have passed in the course
of our wanderings some emblems of the greatest of our native land;
the crown, a sign of her dominion; the cornucopia, of her plenty and
wealth; and the ships transporting her produce to far - off lands.
At last, we arrive at our place of destination, and, tired as we are,
we still find strength sufficient to sigh with heart and voice a stave
of the glorious, spirit-stirring song, BRITANNIA RULES THE WAVES!
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