Of brightest verdure, bounded by rich meads Through which a silvery trout-stream rippling winds The hedge-rows garnished with tall, spreading elms, Whose dark and massive foliage well contrasts With the light poplars ranged along the brook. Lo! many an antique gable courts the eye, O'erspread with vines; and many a cloistered nook Of sweetest shade. No habitation there But hath its well-stored orchard, or fair croft, Descending, in its quiet solitude,
To the clear rill that murmurs at its feet. The hill beyond, which crowns this fairy vision, Is one wide range of sylvan loveliness, Groves, orchards, mingling in confused delight! Robert Bigsby.
RUINS OF RESTORMEL.
AY wanes apace, and yet the sun Looks as if he had now begun
His course, returning from the west; O'er Mawgan flames his golden crest, Roughtor's dark brow is helmed with fire, And the bluff headlands of Pentire Like shields embossed with silver glow. Glistening and murmuring as they flow, Camel and Fowey seek different shores; And north and south the eye explores
Two spreading seas of purple sheen, That blend with heaven's own depths serene. Inland, from crag and bosky height
Hoar turrets spring like shafts of light, While in the dales the deepening shades Extend, and reach the forest glades.
Descending from the breezy down,
I turn from Bodmin's ancient town And skirt the banks of Fowey's clear stream, And through the osiers see the gleam Of scales would please old Walton's eye, Did he with baited line pass by.
From the fair, hospitable roof Which Vivian reared I keep aloof,
And pass, though few to leave would choose, Lanhydrock's stately avenues.
At last, as if some mystic power
Had in the greenwood built his tower, Restormel to the gaze presents
Its range of lofty battlements:
One part in crypt-like gloom, the rest Lit up as for a royal guest, And crimson banners in the sky Seem from the parapets to fly.
Where tapers gleamed at close of day The sunset sheds its transient ray, And carols the belated bird
Where once the vesper hymn was heard.
Slowly the sylvan mount I climb, Like bard who toils at some tall rhyme;
And now I reach the moat's broad marge, And at each pace more fair and large The antique pile grows on my sight, Though sullen Time's resistless might, Stronger than storms or bolts of Heaven, Through wall and buttress rents has riven; And wider gaps had here been seen But for the ivy's buckler green,
With stems like stalwart arms sustained: Here else had little now remained
But heaps of stone, or mounds o'ergrown With nettles, or with hemlock sown.
Under the mouldering gate I pass, And, as upon the thick, rank grass With muffled sound my footstep falls, Waking no echo from the walls, I feel as one who chanced to tread The solemn precincts of the dead. There stood the ample hall, and here The chapel did its altar rear; All round the spacious chambers rose, Now swept by every wind that blows. By those stone stairs, abrupt and steep, You reach the ramparts of the keep, And thence may view, as I do now, Through opening trees or arching bough The distant town, its bridge and spire, And hostel, which some most admire; The valley with its sparkling wreath Of ripples; the empurpled heath
Of downs o'er which the lark still trills; The dusky underwoods; the hills, Some plumed with lofty nodding trees, And fringed with rich embroideries Of clover, corn, or woodland flowers, Some decked with granges, halls, and bowers. O, not in all the Western land From Morwenstowe to Kynance strand, Can lovelier prospect charm the eye, Yet with each rock-bound coast so nigh That you can hear the billows roar, And see the birds of ocean soar.
Along the streams? or walk the smiling mead? Or court the forest glades? or wander wild Among the waving harvests? or ascend, While radiant Summer opens all its pride, Thy hill, delightful Shene? * Here let us sweep The boundless landscape: now the raptured eye, Exulting swift, to huge Augusta send,
Now to the Sister Hills that skirt her plain,
* Ancient name of Richmond.
To lofty Harrow now, and now to where Majestic Windsor lifts his princely brow. In lovely contrast to this glorious view Calmly magnificent, then will we turn
To where the silver Thames first rural grows. There let the feasted eye unwearied stray: Luxurious, there, rove through the pendant woods That nodding hang o'er Harrington's retreat; And, stopping thence to Ham's embowering walks, Beneath whose shades, in spotless peace retired, With her the pleasing partner of his heart, The worthy Queensberry yet laments his Gay, And polished Cornbury wooes the willing Muse, Slow let us trace the matchless vale of Thames; Fair winding up to where the Muses haunt In Twit'nam's bowers, and for their Pope implore The healing God; to royal Hampton's pile, To Clermont's terraced height, and Esher's groves, Where in the sweetest solitude, embraced
By the soft windings of the silent Mole, From courts and senates Pelham finds repose. Enchanting vale! beyond whate'er the Muse Has of Achaia or Hesperia sung!
O vale of bliss! O softly swelling hills! On which the power of cultivation lies, And joys to see the wonders of his toil.
Heavens! what a goodly prospect spreads around, Of hills, and dales, and woods, and lawns, and spires, And glittering towns, and gilded streams, till all The stretching landscape into smoke decays! Happy Britannia! where the Queen of Arts,
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