And, in disguise, a Milkmaid with her pail What shall I treat of? News from Mona's Isle? Such have we, but unvaried in its style; No tales of Runagates fresh landed, whence And wherefore fugitive or on what pretence; Of feasts, or scandal, eddying like the wind, Most restlessly alive when most confined. Ask not of me, whose tongue can best appease The mighty tumults of the HOUSE OF KEYS; The last year's cup whose Ram or Heifer gained, What slopes are planted, or what mosses drained: of fancy only can I cast An eye On that proud pageant now at hand or past, When full five hundred boats in trim array, Mona from our abode is daily seen, And some the hovering clouds, our telegraph, declare. But these poetic mysteries I withhold; For Fancy hath her fits both hot and cold, Let more substantial themes the pen engage, And nearer interests, culled from the opening stage Of our migration. Ere the welcome dawn Had from the east her silver star withdrawn, The Wain stood ready, at our Cottage-door, Thoughtfully freighted with a various store; And long or ere the uprising of the Sun, O'er dew-damped dust our journey was begun, A needful journey, under favoring skies, Through peopled Vales; yet something in the guise Of those old Patriarchs when from well to well They roamed through Wastes where now the tented Arabs dwell. Say first, to whom did we the charge confide, Who promptly undertook the Wain to guide Up many a sharply twining road and down, And over many a wide hill's craggy crown, Through the quick turns of many a hollow nook, And the rough bed of many an unbridged brook? A blooming Lass, who in her better hand Bore a light switch, her sceptre of command Would their lost strength restore and freshen the pale cheek? Such hope did either Parent entertain Pacing behind along the silent lane. Blithe hopes and happy musings soon took flight, For lo! an uncouth, melancholy sight. * A local word for sledge. On a green bank a creature stood forlorn, Its hinder part concealed by hedge-row thorn. We started, looked again with anxious eyes, The Curate's Dog,- his long-tried friend, for they, So that the very heaving of his breath Seemed stopped, though by some other power than death. Long as we gazed upon the form and face, On which he stood by spells unnatural bound, Advancing Summer, Nature's law fulfilled, The choristers in every grove had stilled; But we, we lacked not music of our own, For lightsome Fanny had thus early thrown, 'Mid the gay prattle of those infant tongues, Some notes prelusive, from the round of songs With which, more zealous than the liveliest bird That in wild Arden's brakes was ever heard, Her work and her work's partners she can cheer, The whole day long, and all days of the year. Thus gladdened, from our own dear Vale we pass, Such name Italian fancy would have given, Ah, Beaumont! when an opening in the road Stopped me at once by charm of what it showed, The encircling region vividly exprest Within the mirror's depth, a world at rest, * A word common in the country, signifying shelter, as in Scotland. |