"Ere the high lawns appear'd
Under the opening eyelids of the morn."
In _L'Allegro_, 92, we have "upland hamlets," where Hales thinks
"upland=country, as opposed to town." He adds, "Gray in his _Elegy_
seems to use the word loosely for 'on the higher ground;' perhaps he
took it from Milton, without quite understanding in what sense Milton
uses it." We doubt whether Hales understands Milton here. It is true
that _upland_ used to mean country, as _uplanders_ meant countrymen,
and _uplandish_ countrified (see Nares and Wb.), but the other
meaning is older than Milton (see Halliwell's _Dict. of Archaic
Words_), and Johnson, Keightley, and others are probably right in
considering "upland hamlets" an instance of it. Masson, in his recent
edition of Milton (1875), explains the "upland hamlets" as "little
villages among the slopes, away from the river-meadows and the
hay-making."
101. As Mitford remarks, _beech_ and _stretch_ form an imperfect
rhyme.