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Updated: July 13, 2025
And so it was that, at the foot of the path which led down to this artificial lake, there might be seen, in its two tiers woven of trailing forget-me-nots below and of periwinkle flowers above, the natural, delicate, blue garland which binds the luminous, shadowed brows of water-nymphs; while the iris, its swords sweeping every way in regal profusion, stretched out over agrimony and water-growing king-cups the lilied sceptres, tattered glories of yellow and purple, of the kingdom of the lake.
Now they are as graceful and sinuous as water-nymphs, and now they come tumbling head over heels, throwing somersaults, like clowns in the circus, with a "Here we are!" I can think of nothing like it but Rabelais, who had the same extraordinary gift of getting all the go out of words.
A troop of witches dancing wildly on the sward, a ring of fairies, kelpies tripping from crag to crag, a sudden chorus of sweet-voiced water-nymphs nothing unreal or fantastical would have surprised Errington at that moment. Indeed, he almost expected something of the kind the scene was so eminently fitted for it. "Positively, I must wake Lorimer," he thought to himself.
"And now the winds, which had so long been still, Began the swelling air with sighs to fill; The water-nymphs, who motionless remained Like images of ice, while she complained, Now loosed their streams; as when descending rains Roll the steep torrents headlong o'er the plains.
In some places the river is big enough to support a ferry-boat, in others to turn a mill; in Pumpernickel itself, the last Transparency but three, the great and renowned Victor Aurelius XIV built a magnificent bridge, on which his own statue rises, surrounded by water-nymphs and emblems of victory, peace, and plenty; he has his foot on the neck of a prostrate Turk history says he engaged and ran a Janissary through the body at the relief of Vienna by Sobieski but, quite undisturbed by the agonies of that prostrate Mahometan, who writhes at his feet in the most ghastly manner, the Prince smiles blandly and points with his truncheon in the direction of the Aurelius Platz, where he began to erect a new palace that would have been the wonder of his age had the great-souled Prince but had funds to complete it.
and in his "Comus" tells the story with a slight variation, thus: "There is a gentle nymph not far from hence, That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn stream; Sabrina is her name, a virgin pure: Whilom she was the daughter of Locrine, That had the sceptre from his father, Brute, She, guiltless damsel, flying the mad pursuit Of her enraged step-dame, Guendolen, Commended her fair innocence to the flood, That stayed her night with his cross-flowing course The water-nymphs that in the bottom played, Held up their pearled wrists and took her in, Bearing her straight to aged Nereus' hall, Who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank head, And gave her to his daughters to imbathe In nectared lavers strewed with asphodel, And through the porch and inlet of each sense Dropped in ambrosial oils till she revived, And underwent a quick, immortal change, Made goddess of the river," etc.
A strange freak of the water-nymphs it is that has fashioned this wild gulf and gorge, softened it with the waving of verdure, and inspirited it with the energy of eager waters. Unsated we turn in again, thridding the resinous woods to track the shy Naiads hiding in their coverts.
In like manner there appertains unto Supernatural things, all the Water-Spirits, as the Syrens, Succubi, & other Water-Nymphs, with their Relations, as likewise the Terrestrial Spirits, and those which inhabit the Air, who sometimes are heard, seen, or perceived, sometimes foretelling Death or other Disasters, sometimes they discover by their Apparition Riches and good Fortune in certain places, and the Fiery Spirits appertain here also, which appear in a fiery shape, or like a burning Light; all these are Spirits having untangible Bodies, yet are they not such Spirits as the right Hellish Spirits, who hunt after mens Souls as an Eternal Jewel, even as the Infernal Lucifer, the Devil and his Dependents do, who were ejected with him; but these are such Spirits which are above Nature, set before Men for admiration, and are only maintained by the Elements, whereby they are nourished and fed; but when this Earthly world shall cease, they also shall decay and vanish with it, because they have no Souls to be saved.
He pined away and died; and when his shade passed the Stygian river, it leaned over the boat to catch a look of itself in the waters. The nymphs mourned for him, especially the water-nymphs; and when they smote their breasts Echo smote hers also.
Spring returned, and the sea of flowers again rippled in waves, as if Flora and her train had sportively taken lessons of the water-nymphs; but no little hands came laden with blossoms to heap in Emma's lap. The birds twittered and warbled, but the responsive whistle of the merry boy was silent; only its echo was left in the melancholy halls of memory.
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