The Wildfire Club - The Emma Hardinge Britten Archive

HE l'HANTOllt: lIt:OrHER. 261
THE PHANTOM MOTHER,
OR THE STORY OF A RECLUSE.-
WHEN I was last in England, I visited an old lady of
retired habits, and quiet, unobtrusive manners, who
resided in a very remote locality in the wilds of Cum berland.
The cheerful benignity of her temper, and the calm piety with
which she contemplated her rapidly approaching end,bespoke
a pilgrimage of nearly ninety years, which endured
the retrospect of a virtuous mind. Her little cottage,
deeply embosomed amid the majestic pine-clad hills of that
district, was in summer nearly hidden by the clustering
wilderness of roses, clel;1latis, and star-shaped jasmine
which luxuriated around the latticed casements. Every
where the senses were regaled with the choicest airs, laden
with the richest perfume of flowers, and melodious with
the hum of restless bees and the tranquil songs of many
birds, happy in the security of a retreat where benevolence
. protected the tiny songsters from molestation in summer
and starvation in winter.
I love the neighborhood of flowers and birds; it evidences
a refined taste and a generous nature - the love of
the beautiful, and humane care of the weak; and I have
many a time stood in that little wilderness of perfume while
the liquid tones of the pathetic songster of the grove, the
lonely nightingale, poured her flood of melody through the
• Written for the (' Christian Spiritualist," In 1857.