Fell on hini, so that he was driven at last There is a comfort in the strength of love; 'Twill make a thing endurable, which else Would overset the brain, or break the heart: I have conversed with more than one who well Remember the old Man, and what he was Years after he had heard this heavy news. His bodily frame had been from youth to age Of an unusual strength. Among the rocks He went, and still looked up to sun and cloud, And listened to the wind; and, as before, Performed all kinds of labour for his sheep, And for the land, his small inheritance. And to that hollow dell from time to time Did he repair, to build the fold of which His flock had need. 'Tis not forgotten yet The pity which was then in every heart For the old Man-and 'tis believed by all That many and many a day he thither went, And never lifted up a single stone. There, by the Sheep-fold, sometimes was he seen Sitting alone, or with his faithful Dog, Then old, beside him, lying at his feet. The length of full seven years, from time to time, He at the building of this sheep-fold wrought, And left the work unfinished when he died. Survive her Husband: at her death the estate Is gone the ploughshare has been through the ground On which it stood; great changes have been wrought In all the neighbourhood:-yet the oak is left That grew beside their door; and the remains Of the unfinished Sheep-fold may be seen Beside the boisterous brook of Green-head Ghyll. 1800. MARGARET; OR, THE DESERTED COTTAGE. AN EXTRACT FROM THE FIRST BOOK OF THE EXCURSION. 'Twas summer, and the sun had mounted high: Southward the landscape indistinctly glared Through a pale steam; but all the northern downs, In clearest air ascending, showed far off spots Determined and unmoved, with steady beams no A twilight of its own, an ample shade, man, Half conscious of the soothing melody, With side-long eye looks out upon the scene, Upon that open level stood a grove, The wished-for port to which my course was bound. Thither I came, and there amid the gloom Him had I marked the day before-alone Turned toward the sun then setting, while that staff Afforded to the figure of the man Detained for contemplation or repose, Graceful support; his countenance meanwhile At such unthought-of meeting.-For the night * Plain his garb; Such as might suit a rustic Sire, prepared Active and nervous was his gait; his limbs But had not tamed his eye; that, under brows |