In the autumn of 1835, the family removed to "Ruremont," an old-fashioned country house near New York, on the banks of Long Island Sound. The character and situation of this place seized powerfully on Margaret's imagination. "The curious structure of this old-fashioned house," says her mother, "its picturesque appearance, the varied and beautiful grounds around it, called up a thousand poetic images and romantic ideas. A long gallery, a winding staircase, a dark, narrow passage, a trap-door, large apartments with massive doors and heavy iron bolts and bars,--all set her mind teeming with recollections of what she had read, and imagination of old castles, &c." Perhaps it was under the influence of feelings thus suggested that she composed the following "STANZAS. "O for the pinions of a bird, To bear me far away, Where songs of other lands are heard, And other waters play!-- For some aerial car, to fly On, through the realms of light, To regions rife with poesy, And teeming with delight. O'er many a wild and classic stream In ecstasy I'd bend, And hail each ivy-covered tower As though it were a friend; Through many a shadowy grove, and round Full many a cloistered hall, And corridors, where every step With echoing peal doth fall. . . . . . . . . . . O, what unmingled pleasure then My youthful heart would feel, And o'er its thrilling chords each thought Of former days would steal! . . . . . . . . . . Amid the scenes of past delight, Or misery, I'd roam, Where ruthless tyrants swayed in might, Where princes found a home. . . . . . . . . . . I'd stand where proudest kings have stood, Or kneel where slaves have knelt, Till, rapt in magic solitude, I feel what they have felt."