I^ALKS IN A FOREST: 
 
 O R, 
 
 POEMS 
 
 DESCRIPTIVE OF SCENERY AND INCIDENTS 
 CHARACTERISTIC OF 
 
 A FOREST, 
 
 AT DIFFERENT SEASONS OF THE TEAR. 
 
 By THOMAS GISBORNE, M. A. 
 
 n 
 THE FIFTH EDITION, CORRECTED* 
 
 ', Poeticse propofitum aut duplex, aut ex duobus alterum, 
 jilgo ftatuitur ; nimirum aut ProdefTe, aut Delegare, aut etiam 
 ftrumque. Mallem equidem Utilitatem folumtnodo, quad 
 Itimum ejus finem, ftatuifTent ; Delettationem vero, quafi 
 .itionem & viam, per quam ad iflum finem unice perveniret : 
 ft ut judicaretur ProdefTe Dele£tando a 
 
 Lowth, De Sacra Poefi Hebr 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed by A. Strahan, Printers Street, 
 FOR T. CADELL JUN. AND W. DAVIE S, IN THE STRAND 
 
 l80I. 
 
?1? 4"? 1 
 
 .a 
 
 r 
 
 % 
 
 ?° 
 
TO THE 
 
 Rev. WILLIAM MASON, 
 
 OF ASTON, TORKSHIRE, 
 
 THE FOLLOWING 
 
 POEMS 
 
 ARE INSCRIBED 
 
 BY HIS OBLIGED AND 
 
 AFFECTIONATE FRIEND, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 1 HE fcenes and incidents noticed in 
 the fubfequent Poems are fuch, with fome 
 exceptions, introduced by way of contrail, 
 as occur in the Forefts of Great Britain. 
 The Author has endeavoured to delineate 
 them with fuch a degree of particularity 
 as might mark the charadteriftic features 
 of each ; and to avoid on the one hand 
 florid and indeterminate defcription, and 
 on the other, that minutenefs of detail 
 which would be fcarcely intelligible to 
 perfons not accuftomed ftudioufly to 
 examine the face of nature, and might 
 prove tedious even to accurate obfervers. 
 He has alfo had in view another objeft 
 which he willingly avows ; namely, to in- 
 culcate, on every fit occafion, thofe moral 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 truths, which the contemplation of the 
 works of God in the natural world 
 fuggefts, and that reverence and love for 
 the great Creator which it is adapted to 
 infpire. He trufts therefore that, not 
 only when occupied in a profeffed enquiry 
 into human duties, but alfo when engaged 
 in compofing the following pages, he 
 has been employed in his proper vocation. 
 And he would gladly hope that the pre- 
 fent performance may tend to infufe into 
 the minds of perfons who delight in na- 
 tural fcenery, and efpecially of the young, 
 thofe momentous principles, the influence 
 of which, whether he folicits attention in 
 profe or in verfe, he is chiefly anxious 
 to promote. 
 
 Yoxall Lodge, 
 December 2, 1795. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 WALK THE FIRST. SPRING - - I 
 
 WALK THE SECOND. SUMMER NOON - 2J 
 
 WALK THE THIRD. SUMMER MOONLIGHT 41 
 
 WALK THE FOURTH. AUTUMN 6l 
 
 WALK THE FIFTH. WINTER SNOW - 89 
 
 WALK THE SIXTH. WINTER — FROST. 99 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Page ii line 9 dele the comma after " combined" 
 12 — 10 for " protentous" read w portentous" 
 39 "™ 3 f° r tl primaeval" read " primeval" 
 46—23 for i( battle" read beetle" 
 47—4 for " withering" read " whirring'' 
 92 — laft, put a colon after il eve" 
 95 — for " prefentcd" read " prefented" 
 io 1 — 16 inftead of a period put a colon after 
 " mows" 
 
WALK THE FIRST. 
 
 y 
 

 ARGUMENT. 
 
 An ancient Poet's Companion of the fuppofed Non-exiftence of 
 
 Man after Death with the vernal Revival of the Vegetable 
 Woilc! — The Leflbn which ought to have been deduced from 
 that Revival — Appearance: of a Foreft in May — Foreft Tfees— 
 The Angler — Foreft Flowers — Analogy between the Diverfity 
 of* Vegetable Productions and the Diverfity of Human Talents 
 — Foreft Birds — Addrefs to Parents — Deer — Cattle from the 
 Highlands of Scotland, and their attendant Herdfman — Bene- 
 fits of the Union of England and Scotland — The Herdfman's 
 Hiftory — Fall of Timber—Charcoal-burners — Nature provides 
 for the Succeffion of Trees — Comparative Freedom of Foreft 
 Trees, and of Trees taken under the more immediate Control 
 of Man — This Subject illuftrated by a Ccmparifon between the 
 State of the People of Great Britain and that of the Hindoos- 
 Duty of the former towards the latter. 
 
WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 WALK THE FIRST. 
 
 SPRING- 
 
 
 1 he meaneft * herb we trample In the field, 
 " Or in the garden nurture, when Its leaf 
 " In Autumn dies, forebodes another Spring, 
 * 4 x^nd from fhort {lumber wakes to life again. 
 u Man wakes no more ! Man, peerlefs, valiant, wife, 
 " Once chiird by death, deeps hopelefs in the dud, 
 " A long, unbroken, never-ending ileep i" 
 
 * 
 
 H t« X^~Z CC o"=Xtya, to t EuQaKzg &\ov av>j0ov, 
 
 Tt'zpov tzv ^k'ovl*, x.ca uc sro: ccXXo $vo~U. 
 
 Auui; o oi psyaXw, Ktyi xagTepoi, n cro$oi xy$gs$ 3 
 
 Vyjjou-: iv p%h& pxKpVy alcp^ova, wpygelov vkvov* 
 
 Mcschus, in Epitaph. Bion. 
 B 2 
 
WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 Such was thy plaint, untutor'd bard, when May, 
 
 As now, the lawns reviv'd ! 'Twas thine to rove 
 
 Darkling, ere yet * from Death's reluctant fhade, 
 
 In cloudlefs majefty, the Son of God 
 
 Sprang glorious ; while Hell's Ruler, he who late, 
 
 With frantic feoffs of triumph, to his powers 
 
 Pointed the fad proceffion as it moved 
 
 From Calvary to the yet unclofed tomb, 
 
 Saw the grave yield its Conqueror;* and aghaft, 
 
 Shunn'd, in the deepeft: midnight of his realms, 
 
 The wrath of earth's and heaven's Almighty Lord. 
 
 Said the defponding lay, * c Man wakes no more \' 9 
 O blind ! who read'il not in the teeming foil, 
 The frefhemng meadow, and the burfling wood, 
 A nobler leflbn ! — He., who fpake the word, 
 And the fun rofe from Chaos, while the abyfs 
 From the new fires with fhuddering furge recoil'd ; 
 He, at whofe voice the moon's nocturnal beam, 
 And ftarry legions, on the admiring earth 
 Rain'd luftre ; He, whofe providence the change 
 Of day and night and feafons crowri'd with food 
 
 * Mofchus flourished about two hundred years before the 
 Chriftian.^era, 
 
SPRING. 
 
 And health and peace proclaimed ; bade Nature's hand 
 
 Point to the fcenes of dim futurity. 
 
 He on a world, in Gentile darknefs loft, 
 
 Pitying look'd down : He to bewilder'd man 
 
 Bade Spring, with annual admonition, hold 
 
 Her emblematic taper ; not with light 
 
 Potent each fhade of doubt and fear to chafe,- 
 
 Yet friendly through the gloom to guide his way, 
 
 'Till the dawn crimfon'd, and the impatient Eaft, 
 
 Shouting for joy, the Day-ftar's advent hail'd. 
 
 That ftar has rifen, and with a glow that fharaes 
 The fun ? s meridian fplendor, has illumed 
 The diftant wonders of eternity. 
 Yet may this fylvan wild, from winter's grafp 
 Now refcued, bid the foul, on loftieft hopes 
 Mufing elate, anticipate the hour * 
 When, at the Archangel's voice,- the {lumbering dull 
 Shall wake, nor earth nor fea withhold her dead : 
 
 * " Vide quam in folatium noftri refurreclionem futuram 
 omnis natura meditetur. Sol demergit & nafcitur; aftra labuntur 
 & redeuntj flores occidunt & revivifcunt ; poll fenium arbufta 
 frondefcunt $ femina non nifi corrupta revirefcunt. lta corpus in 
 faeculo, ut. arbores in hiberno occultant virorem sriditate mentita. 
 Quid feftinas ut cruda adhuc hyeme revivifcat & redeat r Expec- 
 tandum nobis etiam corporis ver eft."— Minucius Felix, 
 
 B 3 
 
WALKS IN A FOREST, 
 
 When ftarting at the crafh of burfting tombs, 
 Of maufoleums rent, and pyramids 
 Heaved from their bafe, the tyrant of the grave* 
 Propt on his broken fceptre, while the crown 
 Falls from his head, beholds hrs prifon-liouie 
 Emptied of all its habitants ; beholds 
 Mortal in immortality abforbM, 
 Corruptible in incorruption loft. 
 
 How fwells the enraptured bofom, while the eye 
 Wanders unfated with delight from made 
 To made, from grove to thicket, from near groups- 
 To yon primeval woods with darkening fweep 
 Retiring ; and with beauty fees the whole 
 Kindle,' and glow with renovated life ! 
 For now, at Spring's reanimating call, 
 Each native of the foreft, from the trunk 
 Towering and huge down to the tangled bufli, 
 Its own peculiar character refumes. 
 Chief of the fylvan realms, its verdant wreath 
 With tender olive ftain'd the oak protrudes,. 
 Proud of a fhelter'd monarch, proud to lend 
 A chaplet ftill to Britifh loyalty* 
 Even yet with ruddy fpoils from autumn won 
 Loaded, the beech its lengthen'd buds untwines- 
 Its knotted bloom fecured, the afh puts forth 
 
SPRING. 
 
 The winged leaf : the hawthorn wraps its boughs 
 In fnowy mantle : from the vivid greens 
 That mine around, the holly, winter's pride* 
 Recedes abafh'd : the willow, in yon vale, 
 Its filver lining to the breeze upturns ; 
 And ruftling afpens fhiver by the brook ; 
 While the unfullied ftream, from April mowers 
 Refined, each fparkling pebble Ihews that decks 
 The bottom : and each fcaly habitant 
 Quick glancing in the mallows, or in queft 
 Of plunder flowly failing in the deep- 
 There oft at eve, by fhadowing alders veil'd 
 From keen- eyed trouts, fix'd where the fable flood 
 Mantled with foam, with twilled roots o'erhung,- 
 Portends a giant prey, the angler drops 
 His fly in quivering circles on the pool 
 Fluttering with mimic wings ; then, while his hand 
 Trembles with hope, beholds, ill-omen'd fight, 
 That tells of dire misfortune ! fractured lines 
 Dependent, or in complicated folds 
 Linking the tangled boughs that fweep the fiream,. 
 And rife and fall with every paffing wave- 
 Beneath the fylvan canopy, the ground 
 Glitters with flowery dyes : the primrofe, firft 
 la moffy dell returning Spring to greet i 
 
 H 
 
WALKS IN A FOREST, 
 
 Pilewort, that o'er her roots of old renown 
 
 Expands the radiance of her ftarry bloom : 
 
 Arum, that in a mantling hood conceals 
 
 Her fanguine club, and fpreads her fpotted leaf 
 
 Arm'd with keen tortures for the unwary tongue : 
 
 Anemone *, now robed in virgin white, 
 
 Now blufhing with faint crimfon : fraudful fpurge f , 
 
 That feeks in beauty's garb her fnares to hide, 
 
 In milky ftream her poifon veils, her ftem 
 
 In ruddy mantle wraps, and from a zone 
 
 Of duiky foliage elevates more bright 
 
 Her creft of gold : forrel J, that hangs her cups, 
 
 Ere their frail form and ftreaky veins decay, 
 
 O'er her pale verdure, till parental care 
 
 Inclines the fhortening ftems, and to the (hade 
 
 Of clofing leaves her infant race withdraws : 
 
 Orchis § with crowded pyramids the bank 
 
 * Wood anemone. Anemone nemorofa Linn, 
 
 f Wood fpurge. Euphorbia amygdaioicies Linn. 
 
 % Wood foirel. Oxalis acetofa Linn. This plant, as foon as 
 its petals have fallen off, thrufts its feed-veflels, with a motion in 
 appearance almoft voluntary, under the contiguous leaves j th& 
 foot-ftalk, which till then had been ftraight, bending itfelf back 
 in a (harp angle, and thus bringing down its charge to the Shelter 
 provided by nature. 
 
 § Orchis mafcula Linn. Wood orchis. 
 
SPRING. 
 
 ,_ 
 
 Purpling : the harebell, as with grief depreft, 
 Bowing her fragrance : and the fcentlefs plant % 
 That with the violet's borrow'd form and hue 
 The unfkilful wanderer in the fhade deceives. 
 
 In fize, in form, in texture, and in ufe, 
 How various are the tribes whofe verdure warms 
 And decorates the earth ! Some from the wild 
 Untrack'd by foot of man, from mountain glens, 
 And rifted precipices ftarting, urge 
 Aloft their tapering boles and knotted ftrength, 
 Deftined with fleets to fpread the main, or build 
 Engines, whofe ponderous and convulfive ftrokes 
 Thundering fhallrock the ground. With penfile boughs 
 Some droop o'er willowy ftreams, and yield their growth 
 For humbler fervice. Some in graffy pile 
 And flowery broidure clad, with fragrance cheer, 
 With food fuftain, the animated world. 
 Yet all one forming hand, one fource fupreme, 
 Own mid diftinctions infinite, one Lord, 
 Boundlefs in might, in wifdom, and in love ; 
 And as his eye with vivifying beam 
 Smiles, or the golden flood of life withdraws, 
 
 * Dog's violet, Viola canina Linn, 
 
IO WALKS IN A FOREST, 
 
 Flourifh or fade* PJans of concordant aim 
 
 Speak the fame Author. Mark the varied dower « 
 
 Of talents given to men- Thefe trace the laws 
 
 That bind the planet to its orb, and heave 
 
 The billowy tide* The helm of empire thofe 
 
 Rule, in the ftorm ferene \ or poife the leaks 
 
 Of juftice ; or when mad ambition feoffs 
 
 The facred league, nor recks the landmark, hurl 
 
 The long^fufpended thunderbolt of war* 
 
 Some in tranflucent narrative recall 
 
 Paft ages, or in vifionary fong 
 
 Heroic worth pourtray. Inventive, feme 
 
 Call art the paths of life with needful aid 
 
 To fmooth, or grace with ornament. Some ply 
 
 The fpade and ploughfhare, fkilful to foreknow 
 
 What beft each foil may yield. Vain of his powers, 
 
 Thee, the great Giver, thee, Parent of good, 
 
 Man overlooks or fcorns. Thy feveral gifts, 
 
 Harmonious though diffimilar, all confpire 
 
 To fwell the fum of general blifs, all work 
 
 Thy glory ; all well pleafing in thy fight, 
 
 Who bad'ft the children of the dull perform 
 
 Each his peculiar office, and combin'd 
 
 In one vaft family with fraternal love, 
 
 Lend mutual aid* and praife their common God. 
 
SPRING. 12 
 
 While thus the imprtfon'd leaves and waking flowers 
 Burft from their tombs, the birds that lurkM unfeen 
 Amid the hybernal fhade, in bufy tribes 
 Pour their forgotten multitudes, and catch 
 New life, new rapture, from the fmile of Spring, 
 The oak's dark canopy, the mofs-grown thorns, 
 Flutter with hurried pinions, and refound 
 With notes that fuit a foreft ; fome perchance, 
 Rude fingly, yet with fweeter notes combined, 
 In unifon harmonious ; notes that fpeak, 
 In language vocal to the liftening wood, 
 The fears and hopes, the griefs and joys, that heave 
 The featherM breaft. Proud of ccerulean ftains 
 From heaven's unfull'ied arch purloin'd, the jay 
 Screams hoarfe. With fhrill and oft-repeated cry. 
 Her angular courfe, alternate rife and fall, 
 The woodpecker prolongs ; then to the trunk 
 Clofe clinging, with unwearied beak affails 
 The hollow bark ; through every cell the ftrokes 
 Roll the dire echoes that from wintry fleep 
 Awake her infect prey ; the alarmed tribes 
 Start from each chink that bores the mouldering Hem : 
 Their fcatter'd flight with lengthening tongue the foe 
 Purfues ; joy gliftens on her verdant plumes, 
 And brighter fcarlet fparkles on her creft. 
 From bough to bough the reftlefs magpie roves, 
 
12 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 And chatters as fhe flies. In fober brown 
 Dreft, but with nature's tendered pencil touch'd, 
 The wryneck her monotonous complaint 
 Continues ; harbinger * of her who, doom'd 
 Never the fympathetic joy to know 
 That warms the mother cowering o'er her young, 
 A ftranger robs, and to that Granger's love 
 Her egg commits unnatural : the nurfe, 
 Unwitting of the change, her nettling feeds 
 With toil augmented ; its protentous throat 
 Wondering fhe views with ceafelefs hunger gape, 
 Starts at the glare of its capacious eyes, 
 Its giant bulk, and wings of hues unknown. 
 Meanwhile the little fongfters, prompt to cheer 
 Their mates clofe brooding in the brake below, 
 Strain their fhrill throats ; or, with parental care, 
 From twig to twig their timid offspring lead ; 
 Teach them to feize the unwary gnat, to poife 
 Their pinions, in fhort flights their ftrength to prove, 
 And venturous truft the bofom of the air. 
 
 * The Welfh conficier this bird as the forerunner or fervant of 
 the cuckoo, and call it gwas y gog, or the cuckoo's attendant. 
 The Swedes regard it in the fame light. Pennant's Brit. Zool. 
 4th edit. vol. i. p. 238. Jn the midland counties of England, the 
 common people call it the cuckoo's maiden. 
 
SPRING. Ij| 
 
 O ye ! whofe knees a youthful progeny climbs, 
 While mirth^ the fruit of innocence and love, 
 Dimples their cheeks, and fhuts their laughing eyes, 
 Think on your charge ! Faft as the expanding mind 
 Imbibes the leffon, from her fount above 
 Bid Truth in ampler ftream infufe her lore. 
 Leave not, in vernal dawn when life invokes 
 Your culturing hand, the vacant field a prey 
 To weeds quick fprouting : plant w r ith earlied care 
 The feeds you mod defire fhould fill the foil : 
 And nurfe, with zeal proportioned to its worth, 
 Each riling produce. Teach your infant race, 
 That 'tis not theirs, like fongfters of the grove, 
 Born but to fport and flutter for a day, 
 To dote on vain and tranfitory joys. 
 Teach them the harder nobler talk decreed 
 To prove the fons of Adam. Teach them love 
 Supreme of God, and, next to God, of man. * 
 Teach them 'cis theirs, in arduous conflict ranged 
 'Gainft Sin and Powers of Darknefs, to make known 
 Their firm allegiance to the King of Kings. 
 
 I Teach them, though weak, to triumph in the flrength 
 
 ' Omnipotence, fpecTator of the war, 
 
 1 At fupplication's cry delights to yield 
 The faithful combatant ; while Heaven fpreads wide 
 
J^ WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 ' - ■ - TE 
 
 Her glories, and difplays the victor's crown, 
 A crown eternal ; and beneath, Hell yawns 
 Infatiate, thunders through each quivering gulf, 
 And heaves her floods of ever-during fire. 
 
 Nor want thefe lawns that terminate the woods 
 Their cenants. O'er the gorfe the fportive deer 
 Vault with elaftie bound, and fweep the plain 
 In mock purfuiu Pour'd from the neighbouring farms, 
 O'er their new realms, with broad inquiring gaze, 
 The wide-fpread cattle ftray. Behold yon herd 
 Dragging, as worn with toil, the heavy ftcp, 
 Or ftretch'd innumerous in recumbent eafe : 
 Mark the unguarded front, the {lender limb, 
 The tawny ear, the fable-vefted fide. 
 From Scotian hills they come. There were they wont 
 To pick from rocky chinks the blade, and crop 
 The faplefs twigs of heath ; there, fchool'd in arts 
 Taught by neceflity, with docile feet 
 Uplifted and again defcending quick, 
 The frubborn furze they bruifed, and of its arms, 
 Pungent in vain, defpoil'd their wintry fare : 
 Or in the ftormy Hebrides forlorn, 
 Rufh'd duly from the moor, fcenting afar * 
 
 * See Pennant's Voyage to the Hebrides, 4to. 1774? p. 308; 
 and Lightfoot's Flora Scotica, vol. ii. p. 906. 
 
 , 
 
SPRING. I5 
 
 The ebbing tide ; and prowling on the fand, 
 And o'er the flippery ftones, with weeds marine 
 And ocean's refufe famine's rage repell'd. 
 Now to gay funs and fields of plenty brought, 
 Their driver quits them ; he who, deckM in plaid 
 And plumed bonnet, had their fteps purfued, 
 While flocking children gaz'd and wonder'd loud, 
 All the long tedious march ; and ftill, when fhowers 
 Beat fleety, round his limbs regardlefs wrapt 
 His chequer'd covering ; and when crofs the road 
 A bright rill hurried, from the knapiack drew 
 His bowl and oaten flour, and frugal mix'd 
 The food delicious to his palate braced 
 By labour, and by luxury unpall'd. 
 
 How bleft thy counfels, Policy, infpir'd 
 By Wifdom, Juftice, Mercy ! At thy nod, 
 Contiguous kingdoms, once by rival aims 
 And favage feuds disjoin'd, and mutual wrong, 
 Like kindred drops of living filver blend 
 In one congenial mafs. Their bordering plains 
 No more with piles of flaughter'd warriors heap'd^ 
 Invaders and invaded, nor illum'd 
 By midnight gleams from hamlets waked by fhout 
 Of dire incurfion fpreading flames and death, 
 Smile grateful. Mouldering on its craggy bafe, 
 
l6 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 Its ufelefs towers unvifited by man, 
 Years of alarm, of conflict, and of woe 
 The caftellated manfion fcarce records. 
 O'er the rude ftorms that vex'd a jarring ifle 
 Her veil Oblivion draws : refentment, hate, 
 In filence with the buried warrior fleep. 
 Hence with a filler's love, her wealth, her arts, 
 Albion to Thule's utmoft beach, to feas 
 That round Hebridian cliffs rebellow, yields 
 Unfparing. Hence yon herdfman, he whofe fires 
 Trod not on Englifh ground but fire and blood 
 And rapine mark'd their fteps, from Thule's beach 
 And Hebrid cliffs the pledge of concord bears, 
 And pours o'er Mercian * vales the annual joy. 
 
 Far other toils his early youth engag'd, 
 When with unequal hands the huge clymore f 
 
 * The ancient kingdom of Mercia comprehended feventeen of 
 the middle counties of England. 
 
 •j* The great two-handed broad-fwcrd of the Highlanders, ufed 
 from ancient times down to the battle of KJllicrankie ; and pro- 
 bably of the fame kind with the " ingentes gladii," which Tacitus 
 defcribes the Caledonians as employing at the battle of the Gram- 
 pian Hills. The target was commonly uied in conjunction with 
 it. See Pennant's Voyage to the Hebrides, 4-to. 1774, P* a ^9> 
 290 j and his Tour in Scotland, 4to. 3d edit. p. 191 5 and Part 2d, 
 4to. 1776, Additions at the end, p. 28. 
 
SPRING- 17 
 
 Staggering he ftrove to whirl, and fcarce upheld 
 The target's weight. Oft have I feen his fears, 
 And often have I liften'd to his tale. 
 Him uninform'd attachment to his chief, 
 That chief mifguided loyalty, arranged 
 Beneath Rebellion's ftandard. At thy frowii, 
 Infulted Albion, on Culloden's plain 
 Each frantic hope expired I With terror wing'd, 
 Through pathlefs folitudes the chieftain fled 
 The hot purfuit ; together fled the youth 
 Breathlefs and pale, nor reck'd the throbbing wound. 
 JLong were the hours, O Morvern ! ere thy beach, 
 
 • Way-worn, with tottering fpeed they trod, and gazed 
 Impatient for the bark, ordain'd to plow 
 
 Thy unfrequented billows,, if mifchance 
 
 Should blight their enterprize : as he who, ftretch'd 
 
 Sleeplefs and toiling on his feverifti bed, 
 
 Pants for the dawn, and to the adverfe wall 
 
 Still turns his wearied fight, eager to catch 
 
 • The fir ft pale ray that mitigates the gloom, 
 And tells of twilight's birth. Four tedious days 
 Each formlefs fpeck, that on the horizon's verge 
 Hover'd obfeure, with ftraining eyes they watch'd 
 From morn to lateft eve ; whether the moon 
 Bade ocean his recoiling floods abforb, 
 
 Or hurl'd the deluge on the expecting fliore 
 
 c 
 
1 8 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 The fifth morn rofe : a bark drew nigh : the chief, 
 High on a rock projecting o'er the deep, 
 The appointed fignal waved. — At once the cliffs 
 Rebellowing fhook.— -The foes, who on his track 
 With vengeful wile had hung, noted their prey, 
 And Jaunch'd the murderous bullet. Prone he fell ; 
 And o'er his head the reddening furges clofed. 
 Fear-ftruck, and forrowing for his haplefs lord, 
 The youth from flaughter fled : the adverfe band 
 Perceived him not. O'er many a houfelefs moor, 
 And bog beneath his footfleps quivering wide, 
 And craggy height he wander'd, till he gain'd 
 The piny foreil that o'er Jurna's * deeps 
 Flung its black horrors ; while amid the gloom 
 Gray rocks their glittering fummits rear'd, and dafh' 
 From precipice to precipice, through clouds 
 Of fparkling mill the headlong torrent fhone* 
 There in a cavern, from whofe beetling roof 
 The native fir fhot pillar-like to heaven, 
 And lightly waving in the wind the birch 
 Stream'd its Jong branches, he found refuge. Mofs 
 
 * Loch Jurn, a falt-water loch an the weftern ocaft of Invc 
 nefs-fiiire, penetrating many miles inland, and furrounded 
 mountains and pine-icrefts of Alpine magnificence. See Pennan 
 Voyage to the Hebrides, p. 343, 343. 
 
SPRING. 19 
 
 Supplied his couch, decaying boughs his fire* 
 With fylvan berries, and thy tuberous root, 
 Cormeille *, by Famine's delving hand explored, 
 
 * The Heath-pea, Orobus tuberofus Linn. 5 called the Cormeille, 
 or Carmele, in the Highlands. 
 
 " Among other vegetables, we have in great plenty in the 
 " heaths and woods the following berries 3 wild rafps, wild ftraw- 
 < c berries, blue berries, bugberries, uva urfi, &c. And we have 
 <; one root I cannot but take notice of, which we call Carmele. 
 €C It is a root that grows in heaths and birch woods to the bignefs 
 w of a large nut, and fometimes four or five roots are joined by 
 <( fibres ; it bears a green ftalk, and a fmall red flower. Dio, 
 " fpeaking of the Caledonians, fays, Cerium clbi genus parant ad 
 * c omnia $ quern Ji ceperint, quantum eft unmi fabte magnitude, minimi 
 (i efurire aut fitire folent. Caefar, de Bell. Civ. lib. 3tio, writes that 
 " Valerius's foldiers found a root called Chara, quod admiftum la&e 
 u multam inopiam levabat 3 id ad fimiliiudinem panh efficiebant. I am 
 u inclined to think that our Carmele (that is, fweet root) is Dio's 
 <c CM genus, and Csefar's Chara. I have often feen it dried, and 
 i( kept for journies through hills, where no provifions could be 
 u had, I have likewife feen it pounded and infufed ; and when: 
 <c yeft or barm is put to it, it ferments, and makes a liquor more 
 « agreeable and wholefome than mead. It grows fo plentifully, 
 << that a cart-load of it can eafily be gathered ; and the drink of 
 •* it is very balfamic." Mr« Shaw's Account of Elgin. Pennant's 
 Tour in Scotland, p. 292. 
 
 " The Highlanders have a great efteem for the tubercles of the 
 « roots of the Cormeille ; they dry and chew them, in general to 
 <c give a better relifh to their liquor: they alfo affirm them to be 
 *< good again ft moil diforders of the thorax, and that by the ufe 
 <( of them they are enabled to repel hunger and thirft for a Ion 5 
 
 c 2 
 
20 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 His ftrength exhaufted lie renew'd. And oft 
 With fhaft uncouth, while envious falcons fcream'd, 
 Floating in air, and from the mountain's brow 
 The indignant eagle mark'd him, he transfix'd 
 The roe *, bounding in vain; and fnowy hare f 
 Changeful ; and from the pine's high top brought down 
 The giant grous J, while boaiiful he difplay'd 
 
 " time. In Breadalbane and Rofsmire, they fonutimes bruife and 
 u fteep them in water, and make an agreeable fermented liquor 
 " with them. They have a fweet tafte, fomething like the roots 
 " of liquorice 5 ar.d when boiled, we are told, are well flavoured 
 " and nutritive, and in times of fcarcity have ferved as a fubititute 
 «< for bread." Lightfoot's Flora Scotica, vol. i. p. 389. 
 
 * Roes are mentioned by Mr. Pennant as common inhabitants 
 of the Scotch pine forefts, from the banks of Loch Lomond to the 
 entrance into Caithnefs. When the ground is covered with fnow, 
 they broufe on the extreme branches of the pine and juniper. 
 Pennant's Tour, p. 94. Eagles and falcons alfo frequent the fame 
 fcenes. 
 
 f The Alpine Hare; of which Mr. Pennant (Tour, p. 84) 
 fays, that it inhabits the fummits of the higheft hills, is lefs than 
 the common hare, and, when purfued, feeks (helter as foon as 
 pomble under ftones. During fummer its predominant colour is 
 grey. About September it begins to affume a fnowy whitenefs 5 
 and becomes entirely white, except about the edges and tips of the 
 ears. In April it aflumes its grey coat. 
 
 J The Capercalze, called alfo Auercalze, Capercally, and Cock 
 of the Wood, and occafionally from its great fize the Horfe of the 
 Woods, as it fometimes weighs fifteen pounds, is the Jargeft of 
 the grous fpecies# It inhabits pine forefts, and perches on the top of 
 
SPRING. 21 
 
 His bread of varying green* andxrow'd, and clapp'd 
 His glofly wings*. Oft, peering round with eye 
 That fear'dthe glance of human eye to meet, 
 Beneath the clin> where many a fragment rude 
 Skirted the. ebbing lake,, at eve he roam'd ; 
 Sprang on the feagull fluttering in the fnare 
 His art had woven ; from their caverns drew 
 The fhell-clad race, or feiz'd the finny prize 
 Left floundering in the fhallows. Peace meanwhile 
 Brighten'd the land, and Juftice through the depths 
 Of glens and woods proclaimed the fated fword. 
 He heard, and flew to his paternal vale. 
 
 A deeper tinge imbrowns the wild ; yon hill 
 With bridling terror heaves ; the fored quakes ; 
 Through every glade portentous echoes roll. 
 Heard ye not Britain's voice ? Her oaks mature, 
 To brave the Ihock of elements, the might 
 Of Gaul,.fhefummons; bids them guard her peace 
 
 very tall trees, and feeds on the extreme (hoots. The colour of the 
 breaft is green, refembling that of the peacock. Pennant's Tour 
 in Scotland, p. 198 and 293 5 and do. part 2d, 4to, 1776, p. 23, 
 24. In the fpring, this bird is accuftomed to take its ftation on a 
 high tree, clapping its wings, and crowing with a loud and fhrill 
 voice. It may then be approached with the utmoft eafe by the 
 fowler. See Pennant's Britifh Zoology, 4th edit. vol. i. p. 264, 
 and p. 266, note. 
 
 C3 
 
22 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 With tributary aid, and round her ifle 
 Build on the feas an adamantine wall. 
 Pierce we the dells. The folitude refounds 
 With bufy life. The uplifted axe, urged deep 
 By fmewy arms, while the well-planted feet 
 Keep firm each mufcle of the {training back, 
 Delves the refilling trunk ; from every ftroke 
 Wide fly the fragments. Now the afTailants paufe, 
 Breathlefs and faint ; now, to determined rage 
 By mutual exhortation fired, return 
 Fierce to the charge. The fylvan monarch groans, 
 And fliakes his leafy crown prefageful. Hark 1 
 That blow was fatal. From his bafe disjoin'd, 
 While from his furious fweep the victors fly, 
 He falls : loud founds the fliock ; his fplinter'd arms 
 Crafh ; the hills tremble ; ruin fpreads the ground. 
 So, Youth of Pella, by thy vengeful arm 
 Call from her throne when mighty Perfia fell, 
 Earth, ocean, fhook : fnapt from their parent flock, 
 Her hundred provinces in fragments huge 
 Spread Empire's ruin o'er the aftonifh'd Eafl. 
 Now this, now that way drawn the harfli faw grates, 
 Severing the mighty limbs. Thofe flrip the bark ; 
 Tn heaps thefe build it. Thofe the feebler boughs 
 Hew to fit lengths ; thefe in well-order'd tiers 
 Arrange them, fedulous the pile to form, 
 
SPRING. 
 
 Where fmother'd heat {hall drink the fap, and change 
 The green to footy charcoal. Near its fide 
 Yon children deep in earth their yielding poles, 
 Ribs of the temporary cabin, fix 
 With tops united : thefe with pliant fhoots 
 Wattled, his wigwam as the Indian weaves 
 In tranfatlantic fhade, or cloth'd with turf, 
 The fummer hut on Snowdon's windy brow 
 As Cambrian herdfmen rear, from dews of eve 
 And noontide funs the clamorous train fhall guards- 
 While the flow-kindling mafs they tend, and watch 
 To ope in time frefh inlets for the breeze, 
 And pierce new chimnies for the impriibn'd fmoke. 
 Thus eager in the fylvan toil unite 
 Brifk youth and fturdy manhood ; each abforb'd 
 In his own tafk, nor confcious that the arm 
 Of induftry, plied hard for daily bread, 
 Plants the foundations of a kingdom's power, 
 And props the fplendid fabric of the ftate. 
 Soon the peel'd trunk, reft of its branched head, 
 Seized by thy grafp, Mechanic Art, fhall quit 
 Its native lawn ; while the tired oxen pant, 
 And the wain groans beneath the ponderous load. 
 So fade the chieftains of the wood ; their place 
 Knows them no more ; the defolated blank 
 Gapes, and admits the long-excluded day, 
 
 C4 
 
24 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 Yet fhall contiguous faplings through the void 
 Pufh their fwift growth ; and with columnar ftems 
 Mounting through ether, and with ample fpread 
 Darkening the plain, fhall emulate their fires. 
 Thus when the ftatefman and the warrior fall, 
 Dejecled Albion mourns. Ere long a race, 
 With memory of paternal virtue warm'd, 
 Pleads in the fenate, conquers in the field ; 
 And while approving heaven the purpofe crowns, 
 Upholds the reign of freedom and of law, 
 Of focial order and domeftic peace. 
 
 All hail, free forefters ! I hail you free, 
 Though at the call of Man, Vicegerent Lord 
 Of earth, your heads in homage bow. For man 
 Regards your rights, nor haraffes the wild 
 With needlefs interference. There his hand 
 Controls you not : while yet he fpares the tree, 
 He fpares its freedom ; leaves the trunk to fhoot 
 As nature prompts the kind ; nor ftrains the boughs 
 To forms uncouth, nor trims with piaftie fheers, 
 And calls the havock beauty. Think on thofe, 
 Your kindred, whom the taflelefs tyrant lhapes 
 At his own will ; and dooms their living ftems 
 To fervice more degrading than his pile 
 Of roots and logs and refufe brufhwood knows. 
 Think on the yew, that fix'd in lucklefs hour 
 
 
SPRING, 25 
 
 Its growth befide his dwelling. See its creft 
 
 Lopt to a flump, its horizontal range 
 
 Curtail'd ; while from the mutilated ftock 
 
 Pillars and pyramids and flatues rife, 
 
 Giants and dwarfs. Behold the tortured box, 
 
 Now frown, a bear ; now grin, an ape ; now feign 
 
 A peacock's pride, and in eternal green 
 
 Still ftrut, ftill fpread its unrelenting tail. 
 
 Mark, happy forefters, your brethren's fhame, 
 
 And triumph in your liberty ! And ye, 
 
 Britons, ye fons of freedom, turn your eyes 
 
 To climes that Ganges floats with ftreams of gold : 
 
 In links of fleel where fuperftition binds 
 
 The unfufpedting native ; to his caft 
 
 Tethers him ; cramps his powers ; condemns to ply 
 
 With joylefs hands the trade his fires have plied 
 
 With joylefs hands for centuries 5 profcribes 
 
 All hope of change, all profpect to o'erleap 
 
 Or burft her barriers, to the fkies upraifed, 
 
 And ftedfaft as the chambers of the grave. 
 
 Behold, and blefs the Power who gave your lot 
 
 In Freedom's land, where genius unconfined 
 
 Purfues his favourite path ; where Science warms 
 
 Each latent energy of foul ; and Truth 
 
 Heaven-born her holy radiance pours abroad. 
 
 And ! for India's wretched fons ye deem 
 
2$ WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 Your fubje&s, yet, even yet, at length fulfil 
 
 A mailer's charge. Ye have a Matter too, 
 
 Throned in the fides, and watchful to avenge 
 
 Negle&ed duty. With perfuafive lore, 
 
 Not force, but truth perfuafive, loofe the chains 
 
 They ignorantly prize ; bid them be free 
 
 To acT: as men ; teach them alike to fcorn 
 
 The fenfelefs image and the wily prieft, 
 
 Bow to the fceptre of impartial law, 
 
 And hail the dawn of evangelic day. 
 
WALK THE SECOND, 
 

 ARGUMENT. 
 
 A Summer Noon contrafted with a Summer Morning— Burners 
 of Fern— Great Conflagrations occafioned by Fern Fires— 
 Story of a Cottager — A Foreft Pool — Horfes and Cattle col- 
 lected by it— Village Boy come in fearch of his Matter's 
 Cattle — Hazy Effect of Noon on remote Woods -Diftant 
 View of a Church — Reflections — A Forefl, though without 
 the characterise Grandeur and Beauty of Mountains, of 
 Rocks, of Lakes, or of Sea-mores, has Grandeur and Beauty 
 of its own. 
 
WALK THE SECOND, 
 
 SUMMER. NOON- 
 
 1 he folftice rages: Nature finks oppreft 
 Beneath the fultry glow. Hide me, ye woods 5 
 Hide in your ihades impenetrable ; waft 
 A breeze reviving from your inmofl depths ; 
 While your tall trunks between I gaze abroad 
 On the parch'd world, or watch the trooping deer 
 Safe in the covert from the fcorching ray. 
 What though with lifted ears to every found 
 They turn i They fly not me ; no murderous tube 
 Gleams in my hand : but far aloof they fhun 
 Him, whofe green vefture and infidious gait 
 Mark him their authorized deftroyer. Few 
 And fhort the hours fmce from its height the lark 
 Sang the firft carol to approaching morn, 
 And broke the twilight {lumber of the grove s 
 Yet that brief interval the clime has changed 
 
30 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 ' »■ » ■■■ r— wn ■ ii i i i n i» ' ■ i i n 1 1 i I. ,, .i ■ tm^mmmm^^mmmmm^mmim 
 
 From temperate zone to torrid. Scatter'd clouds, 
 With orient blufh empurpled, half obfcured 
 The afcending orb of light ; gray mills, effufed 
 O'er the wide lawn, and from the wooded hill 
 Dim through their Hurts difcern'd retiring flow, 
 His labouring beams reflrain'd ; yon reverend oaks, 
 Fronting the eaft, acrofs the illumined vale 
 Stretch'd their long fhadows ; dewy fpangles gemm'd 
 The grafs ; o'er thymy banks and opening flowers 
 On gelid wings a gale of fragrance mov'd. 
 Now from the burning firmament the fun 
 Each cloud has driven ; with univerfal light 
 Blazing, the earth repels the dazzled eye, 
 Save where a lonely fpot of fliade lies clofe 
 Beneath fome mafly tree, or woods extend 
 Their dark receffes ; the faint traveller's flep 
 On the tann'd plain Aides printlefs, as when froft 
 Has glazed the downward path ; no wandering breeze 
 The hufh'd aerial ocean moves ; and fierce 
 As when through Indian fkies it rages, heat 
 Cleaves the parch' d earth, and drains the ebbing firearm 
 
 Yet cannot heat's meridian rage deter 
 The cottage-matron from her annual toil. 
 On that rough bank behold her, bent to reap 
 The full-grown fern, her harveft, and prepare 
 Her afhy balls of purifying fame. 
 
SUMMER.— NOON. 3I 
 
 Lo, yon bare fpot fiie deftines for the hearth ; 
 
 Now ftrikes the fteel, the tinder covers light 
 
 With wither'd leaves and dry ; now ftoops to fan 
 
 The glimmering fparks, and motionlefs remains, 
 
 Watching the infant flame from fide to fide 
 
 Run through the thin materials. Round her ftray 
 
 Children or grandchildren, a cheerful train, 
 
 Difperfed among the bullies ; earneft each 
 
 To execute the talk her nod affigns, 
 
 Half fport, half labour, fit for early youth. 
 
 One plies the hook, the rake another trails ; 
 
 Another, ftaggering, bears the verdant load 
 
 Uplifted in his arms ; another haftes 
 
 Her apron's burthen to difcharge. Each ftep 
 
 Active and prompt obedience quickens, zeal 
 
 Infpired by love ; the temper of the foul 
 
 Which to the parent moil endears the child, 
 
 The chriftian to his God. Well-pleafed the dame 
 
 Receives their tribute ; part fhe heaps afide 
 
 In ftore for night, the embers to preferve 
 
 From quenching dews ; part on the kindled pile 
 
 Adroit fhe fprinkles ; duly with her fork 
 
 Then opes the finking ftrata to admit 
 
 Currents of needful air ; at every gale 
 
 The enlivened mafs glows bright, and crackles loud. 
 
 Puffing from numerous chinks the fmcke unfolds 
 
32 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 Its wreathed volumes ; not as when, condenfed 
 By evening's gelid atmofphere, it creeps 
 Below the hill, and draws along the ground 
 Its lengthening train, and fpreading as it rolls, 
 Melts in blue vapour ; but afpiring ihoots 
 Its growth columnar, and difplays afar 
 Its broad and du(ky head, to pilgrim's eye 
 As view'd o'er Salem's plain the palm afcends. 
 Hence fhall the matron in the diftant town 
 With lifted hands her fnowy flax admire, 
 And fcorn the produce of Hibernian looms. 
 
 Oft from thefe fires malignant fparks adrift 
 Borne by the wind ; or thrown by ruftic hands 
 With inward purpofe that the foil, from bafe 
 And noxious vegetation freed, may yield 
 Salubrious pafture to the grazing herd ; 
 Seize the dead grafs, the furzy brake invade, 
 Kindle the matted brufhwood, and from hill 
 To hill the fudden conflagration pour. 
 Woe to the mighty oak that on the plain 
 Grown old in folitary grandeur, meets 
 The fiery deluge in its courfe : the blaze 
 Round the root rattles, climbs the fmged trurit, 
 Devours the leaves, and o'er the topmoft bough 
 Its fmoke- ftain'd canopy triumphant rears. 
 Thus when with dizzy heads and armed hands 
 
SUMMER. NOON- 33 
 
 The unbridled multitude the talk aflumes 
 To cleanfe from ftains and mould to happier form 
 A date's well-order'd frame, if time or craft 
 Some nuifance to the public weal has raifed, 
 The caufe that moved or feem'd to move the ftorm, 
 It finks unpitied : but the infatiate blaft 
 Sill rages, Uproar thunders, Havock ftalks 
 Fearlefs ; Law, Empire falls ; the reverend pile 
 By hoary wifdom plann'd, by patriot ftrength 
 Uprear'd, by patriot blood cemented, falls 
 Headlong, and frantic myriads fliout for joy. 
 Wider and wider o'er the blacken'd wafte 
 Her burning tide Deftruction rolls. From fleep 
 Roufed by the unaccuftom'd found, the fox 
 Starts, liftens quick, the fcent of fire inhales 
 AppalPd, and rufhes forth : the heath-cock wakes, 
 And fprings in terror through the fervid air. 
 Meanwhile the clouds dark rifmg from the fpoil 
 The neighbouring hamlets with familiar gaze 
 View unalarm'd : but at the clofe of day, 
 The horizon red with fettled glow, and oft 
 With fpiry flafhes gleaming, fills with awe 
 Tracts far remote ; and to the boding mind 
 The picture holds of harvefts reap'd in vain, 
 Of ravaged farms, and villages deftroy'd. 
 And are thefe terrors vain ? Behold yon fpot 
 
34 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 t - - . , — 
 
 Beneath the Hoping covert, where the eye 
 Along the ditch yet faintly to be traced, 
 And edged with interrupted mounds of earth 
 By mouldering time but half worn down, purfues 
 The fence that once exifted ; while within, 
 The fmoother furface and the livelier green 
 The cultivating hand of man record. 
 There by the fhelterM vale a peafant youth 
 Attracted, fought his cot to rear ; nor fought 
 Hopelefs : the indulgent lord of the domain 
 Nodded a/Tent. Swift rofe the humble wall, 
 And fwift the ftraw-clad roof. Thither ere long 
 The happy bridegroom led the maid whofe charms 
 Had won his heart. Soon his induftrious fpade 
 Reclaimed a corner from the wafte : in vain 
 The lofty-vaulting deer, the fearching hare, 
 His wattled hedge afTail'd. The garden fpread 
 Its herbs falubrious, gay with mingled flowers, 
 Crocus and fnowdrop, tulip brought from far, 
 Violet now blue, now white, and primrofe drawn 
 From neighbouring thicket. Rolling feafons nurfed 
 His orchard's vernal fragrance, and weigh'd low 
 The boughs far gleaming with autumnal gold. 
 Oft when the plain before the rufhing North 
 In fnowy waves moved wild, his chimney's fmoke, 
 Whirl'd rapid in blue eddies, to his door 
 
SUMMER. NOON. 35 
 
 The wilder'd traveller led. The peafant grafp'd 
 His oaken ftaiF, and wading through the drift, 
 Pointed the buried road ; or to his fire 
 Convey'd the fhivering ftranger, and renew'd 
 The crackling blaze, while from her fecret flore 
 His partner culPd the hofpitable meal. 
 Thus glided on the peaceful years, till age 
 Sprinkled their locks with filver : fcarce had grief 
 E'er clogg'd the wing of time, fave when their child, 
 An only daughter, o'er her hufband's grave 
 Mourn'd ceafelefs, and by wailing anguifh bow'd, 
 Soon follow'd him ; yet left two orphan babes 
 The ancient pair to foothe. Their prattling mirth 
 Cheer'd the long winter-eve, and added joy 
 To blifsful fummer. One unhappy night, 
 The grandfire, who had mark'd the neighbouring hill 
 By kindled furze illumed o'erpower the moon, 
 From unrefrefhing deep with fudden ftart 
 Woke gafping : fuffocating vapour denfe 
 The cottage fill'd. Scarce confcious, he fprang forth 
 Untainted air to breathe. He turn'd and faw 
 The fiercely vollied fparks, the pillar'd fire, 
 Burft from the chatch. Inward he rufiVd to fave 
 What more than life he lov'd. At once the roof 
 Sunk ; higher tower'd the flame : wife, huiband, babes. 
 One ruin whelm'd ; one grave their bones received. 
 
 T) 2 
 

 36 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 Behold yon pool, by unexhaufled fprings 
 Still nurtured, draw the multitudes that graze 
 The plains adjacent ! On the bank worn bare, 
 And printed with ten thoufand (leps, the colts 
 In fhifting groups combine ; or, to the brink 
 Defcending, dip their patterns in the wave. 
 Bolder the horned tribes, or lefs of heat 
 And teafing infects patient, far from fhore 
 Immerge their chefls ; and while the hungry fwarm 
 Now foars aloof, now refolute defcends, 
 Lafli their tormented fides ; and, (lamping quick 
 And oft, the muddy fluid fcatter round. 
 FixM many an hour, till milder ikies recall 
 Defire of long forgotten food, they (land 
 Each in its place ; fave when fome wearied bead 
 The preffure of the crowd no longer brooks, 
 Or in mere vagrant mood her (lation quits 
 Reftlefs ; or fome intruder, from afar 
 Flying o'er hill and plain the gadbee's fling, 
 (For ftill the dreaded hum fhe hears, and (hakes 
 The air with iterated lowings,) fpies 
 The wat'ry gleam. With wildly-tolling head, 
 And tail proje&ed far, and maddening gait, 
 She plunges in, and breaks the ranks, and fpreads 
 Confufion, till conftrain'd at length fhe (lops, 
 Wedged in the throng. Beneath a neighbouring bufh, 
 
SUMMER.-— NOONr 37 
 
 Poor fhelter from the potent ray, reclines 
 
 The ruftic boy, to count his matter's herd 
 
 Sent from yon hamlet ; left fome ftraggler, feized 
 
 By iharp and fudden malady, fhould pine 
 
 Untended in the wood ; or, refolute 
 
 To crop forbidden pafture, overleap 
 
 The well-plafti'd fence, and roam the diftant field. 
 
 Panting, bareheaded, and with out-ftretch'd arms - 
 
 He fleeps ; and dreams of winter's frofty gale, / 
 
 Of funlefs thickets, rills with breezy courfe, 
 
 Morn's dewy frefhnefs, and cool reft at eve. 
 
 So when in dumber the poor exile feeks 
 A paufe from woe, delufive fancy's hand 
 Prefents each object of his fond defire. 
 He reads the joyful fummons to return ; 
 Beholds the bark prepared, the fwelling fail ; 
 Hears the impatient feamen murmur ; grafps 
 The pendent rope exulting ; climbs the deck ; 
 Skims o'er the wave, and hails his native fhore. 
 
 From the whole furfaee of the tepid earth, 
 But moft from rivers rippling fwift, and pools, 
 And trickling fprings, and oozy fwamps exhaled* 
 A vapoury fteam floats, with the loaded air 
 Yet uncombined ; and undulating (till 
 And ever twinkling, o'er the diftant woods 
 Sheds a blue haze, and dims their ihadowy forms. 
 
 D 3 
 
38 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 Where through the tufted coverts of the grove 
 
 That opening glade defcends, and leads the eye 
 
 To fcenes beyond the forefl's bound removed, 
 
 How nobjy mid the fading landfcape (lands 
 
 Yon * fane pre-eminent ! It warms my heart, 
 
 When through the wide-fpread provinces I ftray 
 
 Of this fair realm, to view the flender fpire 
 
 And mafTy tower from deep -embowering (hades 
 
 Oft rifing in the vale, or on the fide 
 
 Of gently-floping hills, or, loftier placed, 
 
 Crowning the wooded eminence. It looks 
 
 As though we own'd a God, adored his power, 
 
 Revered his wifdom, loved his mercy; deem'd 
 
 He claims the empire of this lower world, 
 
 And marks the deeds of its inhabitants. 
 
 It looks as though we deem'd he fills all fpace 
 
 Prefent throughout ; and bends from heaven's high 
 
 throne 
 With ear attentive to the poor man's prayer. 
 It looks as though we fhrunk not from the thought 
 Of that laft manfion (laft as far as earth 
 Detains us) where, in folemn filence laid, 
 Our duft (hall (lumber, till a voice, like that 
 Which, fpeaking by the aftonifiVd f prophet's mouth, 
 
 * Lichfield Cathedral. f Ezekiel, chap, xxxvii. 
 
SUMMER. NOON. ^O, 
 
 Roufed the dry bones that ftrew'd the ample vale 
 To fudden life, mall call the unnumber'd dead, 
 Primaeval Adam with his lateft fons, 
 From every clime before their Judge's face 
 To (land, and hear their everlafting doom. ■ 
 
 God clothes his works with beauty. What tho' here 
 He has not wrapp'd in clouds the mountain's head 
 Magnificent, nor piled the fractured rock ; 
 Nor delved the ftony cavern flretching wide 
 Its unfupported roof; nor dow r n the deep 
 Pour'd the rude cataract ; nor bid the lake 
 Expand its lucid mirror to the fun ; 
 Nor ocean's billowy furges wafli the bafe 
 Of promontories, whofe white cliffs, with fowl 
 Swarming of every feaborn tribe, refound 
 With countlefs wings, and never-wearied cries : 
 Yet has his hand the intermingling charms 
 Of hill and valley, lawn, and winding dell, 
 In rich exuberance fpread ; yet has his hand 
 Hung thefe wild banks with fylvan majefty. 
 
 D4 
 
WALK THE THIRD. 
 
ARGUMENT. 
 
 A Summer Evening defcrihecl — Moon rifes— Stars and Planets— 
 Addrtfs to them— Nodtumal Birds in purfuit of Jnfecls — The 
 Subject illufhated by the annual Migration of Herrings— 
 Wild-Cat — Weafei deftroving a Leveret — An Evening in an 
 African Foreft — The Slave-Trade— Deer-Stealer— His Method 
 of proceeding defcribed — Purfuit of him by the Keepers — 
 Addrefs to the Votaries of Luxury — The Turtle — Effects of 
 the Luxury of the Wealthy on the Morals and Fate of the 
 Fort ft Peafant. 
 
 
WALK THE THIRD, 
 
 SUMMER.. 
 
 MOONLIGHT. 
 
 e glow of eve is faded. Scarce the Weft 
 .etains a pale memorial of the beams 
 'hat fired it, when the horizontal clouds, 
 ith purple dyes and fiflures edged with gold, 
 reak'd the calm ether ; while through fparkling haze 
 Mie faint hills glimmer'd, fainter as their chain 
 pproachM the fount of brightnefs, fainter ftill 
 r here funk the parting orb, and with the fky 
 In undiftinguifhable fplendor join'd. 
 Frowning on yonder eminence, the oak 
 Stretch'd his wild arms, and with contrafting gloom 
 Athwart the blaze his fable curtain flung v 
 Milder, flill milder, the fubfiding glow 
 Spared the pain'd eyeball, and with fober rays 
 Quench'd in the gathering dufk refrefh'd the fight : 
 As when remembrance of a buried friend 
 
44 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 No longer with intenfity of grief 
 Harrows the foul ; but, mellow'd down by time f 
 From fadnefs to compofure foothes the breaft, 
 Sacred compofure, near allied to joy. 
 Soon o'er the hill the yellow-tinctured moon 
 Rofe through the twilight, and with flanting ray 
 Gilded the topmoft boughs ; while all the vale 
 And all its Hoping boundaries lay wrapt 
 In fliade unvaried. Now with leffening orb 
 And filver afpect climbing, through the leaves 
 And thinner fpray a tremulous gleam fhe throws, 
 Chequering the moffy path beneath our feet. 
 Round her the ftars and planetary balls 
 With cloudlefs luftre burn ; not ranged in heaven 
 With mere defign a twinkling aid to yield 
 To the late-wandering ftranger, nor ordain'd 
 To rule our deftinies, as craft averr'd, 
 And ignorance believed ; thy power, thy love, 
 Parent of all, they fpeak : they tell of worlds 
 Innumerable, warm'd by other funs, 
 And peopled with innumerable hofts 
 Of beings, wondrous all, nor lefs than man 
 Work of thy hand, and children of thy care ! 
 Ye fparkling ifles of light that ftud the fea 
 Of empyrean ether! Ye abodes 
 Of unknown myriads, fpirits, or in bands 
 
I 
 
 SUMMER. MOONLIGHT. 45 
 
 Held of corporeal frame ! Fain would my foul, 
 A third for knowledge unreveal'd to man, 
 Queftion your habitants, and fain would hear 
 A voice refponfive from your diflant bourn. 
 Tell, tell me who poffefs your radiant climes ; 
 What are their forms, their faculties, their hopes, 
 Their fears, if fubjed or to hope or fear ? 
 What fond purfuits, what animating toils, 
 Diverfify exiftence with deligh t ? 
 Rove they in courfe aerial unconfined 
 From fphere to fphere, with interchange of joy 
 eightening their mutual blifs ; or dwell they fix'd, 
 ach in his native folitary orb, 
 nconfcious of the lot of neighbouring worlds ? 
 hat homage, what returns of grateful love 
 ield they to Him who made them ? Stand they fall 
 undecaying bleffednefs, fecure 
 om rifk of lofs : or tread they yet the flage 
 f perilous probation ? Hath Sin won 
 onquefts through difobedience o'er thofe hofts ? 
 
 your bright regions yawns the gate of Death ? 
 alls he, who falls, for ever ?— Power fupreme ! 
 ardon the afpiring thoughts that would prefume 
 o pierce the veil which ftirowds from mortal eye 
 he wonders of thy realms ! Enough, to know 
 hat thou art Lord ! Thy univerfal love 
 
^6 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 Pervades Creation ; on each living form 
 Showers down its proper happinefs ; and, when guilt 
 Wakes thy reluctant vengeance, (lays the bolt 
 Of wrath, and pales its mitigated fire ! 
 
 While with their heads beneath their ruffled plumes 
 Conceal'd, the birds that fported during day, 
 Reft in thefe fheltering bullies, at whofe roots 
 The vivid worm her nightly fpark illumes ; 
 And couching in that brake, the timorous deer 
 Slumbers forgetful of each paft alarm ; 
 The tribes of evening ifTue from their cells, 
 To animate the dufk. Heard ye the owl 
 Hoot to her mate refponfive ? 'Twas not flie 
 Whom floating on white pinions near his barn 
 The farmer views well pleafed, and bids his boy 
 Forbear her neft ; but flie who, cloth'd in robe 
 Of unobtrufive brown, regardlefs flies 
 Moufe-haunted cornftacks, and the threfher's floor, 
 And prowls for plunder in the lonely wood. 
 On leathern wing in changeful jerks the bat 
 Flitting, and twittering flirill and weak, renews 
 The wonted chace. Nor is the chace in vain. 
 For ever and anon the battle dull 
 Smites us with fudden ftroke, flopping at once 
 Its heavy hum : while moths of fize and form 
 And motion various, flutter by, with plumes 
 
SUMMER.— MOONLIGHT. 47 
 
 Lefs gorgeous, not lefs delicate, than theirs 
 Whofe painted wings the noontide flowers adorn. 
 Hark ! from yon quivering branch your dire ft foe, 
 Infects of night, its withering note prolongs *, 
 Loud as the found of bufy maiden's wheel : 
 Then with expanded beak, and throat enlarged 
 Even to its utmoitftretch, its cuftomed food 
 Ptirfues voracious. Thus from Zembla's deep 
 On warmer climes when herring armies f pour 
 
 * The goatfucker. M This bird agrees with the fwallow tribe 
 
 * in food, and in the manner of taking it j differs in the time of 
 
 * preying, flying only by night 5 fo with fome juftice may be 
 
 * called a nocturnal fwallow. It feeds on moths, gnats, dorrs, or 
 ( chaffers; from which Chariton calls it a Dorr- hawk ; its food 
 1 being entirely that fpecies of beetle during the month of July. 
 c — Scopoli feems to credit the report of its fucking the teats 
 ( of goats j an error delivered down from the days of Ariftotle. 
 e Its notes are moft fingular ; the loudeft fo much refembles that 
 f of a large fpinning-wheel, that the Welch call this bird aderyn 
 ( y droell, or the wheel- bird. It begins its fong moft punctually 
 1 on the clofe of day, fitting ufually on a bare bough. The noife 
 ( is fo very violent, as to give a fenfible vibration to any little 
 c building it chances to alight on, and emit this fpecies of note." 
 
 Pennant's Britifh Zoology, vol. i. p. 416, 417. See alfo White's 
 NaturaliiVs Calendar, p. 79. 
 
 f The winter habitation of the herrings is the fea within the 
 Arctic circle. "This mighty army," fiys Mr. Pennant (Britifh 
 Zoology, 4th ed. vol. Hi. p. 336, 337), " begins to put itfelf in 
 " motion in the fpring. We diilinguim this vaft body by that name j 
 
48 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 The living tide of plenty ; to the fun 
 
 With gold and green and azure many a league 
 
 When ocean glitters like a field of gems, 
 
 Gay as the bow of heaven, and burns by night 
 
 In every billow with phofphoric fire ; 
 
 Their march innumerous foes attend. Behold, 
 
 In light-wing'd fquadrons, gulls of every name, 
 
 Screaming difcordant, o'er the furface hang, 
 
 And ceafelefs ftoop for prey. Lo ! gannets huge 
 
 " for the word herring is derived from the German heer, an army, to 
 " exprefs their numbers. It is divided into diftincl: columns of five 
 " or fix miles in length, and three or four in breadth." The fame 
 author, in his Tour in Scotland, 1772, 2d ed. p. 373, 374, obferves 
 further, : " In a fine day, when the fim appear near the furface, 
 '• they exhibit an amazing brilliancy of colours. All the various 
 <c corufcations that dart from the diamond, fapphire, and emerald, 
 " enrich their track 5 but during night, if they play on the fur- 
 " face, the fea appears on fire, luminous as the brighter!: phof- 
 " phorus.— The figns of the arrival of the herrings are flocks of 
 ** gulls, which catch up the fifli while they fkim on the furface : 
 " and of gannets, which plunge and bring them up from confi- 
 '* derable depths. Codfifh, haddocks, and dogfifh follow the 
 " herrings in vaft multitudes 5 whales, pollacks, and porpoifes 
 ** are added to the number of their foes : thefe follow in droves 5 
 " the whales deliberately, opening their vail mouths, taking them 
 < c in by hundreds. Thefe monfters keep on the outfide 5 for the 
 " body of the phalanx of herrings is fo thick as to be impene- 
 « trable." 
 
SUMMER. — MOON-LIGHT. 49 
 
 And ofpreys *, plunging from their cloudy height 
 With leaden fall precipitate, the waves 
 Cleave with deep-dafhing breaft, and labouring rife, 
 Talons and beak o'erloaded : while beneath 
 Monfters marine with fanguine inroad gore 
 The loofer files : and, floating vaft, the whale 
 Infatiate lops the impenetrable hoft, 
 Unbars his mighty jaws, clofe-crowded troops 
 Ingulfs at once, and clafps the gates of death. 
 Frefh from its den, yon hollow trunk, behold 
 The wild-cat, deadlieft of the favage tribes 
 That roam in Britifh foreft ; wont on high 
 To feize the rapid fquirrel, or by guile 
 Pluck from her neft the unfufpecling dove, 
 * Or to the ground defcending thin the race 
 That bores the fandy warren. Thus from fea 
 To fea, from fhore to fliore, athirft for fpoil, 
 
 * « The ofprey feeds chiefly on fi/h, taking them in the fame 
 " manner as the fea-eagle does, by precipitating itfeJf on them. — 
 " The Italians compare the violent defcent of this bird on its prey 
 " to the fall of lead into water, and call it auguifta piumbina, the 
 }*< leaden-eagle." Brit. Zool. 4th edit. vol. i. p. 175. The fea- 
 eagle is thus finely charafterifed by Pliny: " Supereft haliaeetos, 
 « clariflima oculorum acie, librans ex alto (e(e, vifoque in mari 
 " pifce, praeceps in eum ruens, & difculTis peclore aquis rapiens." 
 On the fimilar habits of the gannet, fee Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 617. 
 
 E 
 
50 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 " i ■ ■ i =C 
 
 The pirate fleers ; now chafes o'er the wave 
 The merchantman in ever-changing courfe 
 Tacking in vain ; now lands the midnight crew 
 Havock and flame through fome defencelefs town 
 To fpread ; now, braving noon's indignant eye, 
 Sacks the lone village : fcatter'd o'er the plains 
 To every wind, the fhepherds pant ; and oft 
 Snatching a glance reverted, mark the fmoke 
 And fiery gleam that tell the tale of woe. 
 See from his cave beneath the brambly bank 
 The fox glide forth, fcenting the feather'd prey 
 Perch'd at the neighbouring cottage. Creeping flow 
 The weafel, and in filence, through the fern 
 Steals on the dozing leveret. From her feat 
 She ftarts, and bears away the aflailant fix'd 
 Fafl to her neck, and from the flowing vein 
 Sucking the vital current. Lo, fhe falls. 
 The puny murderer flinks into the brake 
 From the drain'd carcafs, fated with the blood. 
 
 Amid the nightly prowlers of thy wilds, 
 Britain ! man walks ferene : in all their tribes 
 None found to bid him tremble, none to aim 
 Talon or fang againft their rightful lord. 
 O wretched he, whom Senegambian fhades 
 Inclofe at eve ! He, while a vault of flame 
 Smote on his brow, and fcorch'd his gafping throat, 
 
SUMMER. — MOONLIGHT. 5I 
 
 Day after day through fandy oceans toil'd, 
 
 Where deathlike filence brooded o'er the wafte, 
 
 And boundlefs fpace feem'd but a larger grave : 
 
 No fign that ever foot the burning earth 
 
 Had track'd, or life inhaled the vapoury fire* 
 
 Save when fome camel's bleaching ribs he paft, 
 
 Or corfe of long-loft pilgrim parch'd to ftone. 
 
 If to a bordering foreft, when the fun 
 
 Kindles the weft, his weary courfe draw nigh ; 
 
 Soon as the orb its laft red crefcent dips, 
 
 At once the lion's defert-fhaking roar, 
 
 The gaunt hyena's fhriek, the panther's growl, 
 
 And yells of every tone that breathes difmay 
 
 Strain'd from unnumber'd throats, athirft for blood, 
 
 Join diflbnant : with ferpent hifs the gloom 
 
 Quivers : the herded elephants advance 
 
 With thundering fhock, and through oppofing woods 
 
 Crufli their wide way. Now the brief twilight fades : 
 
 In agony he fhudders ; through the dufk 
 
 Sees fiery eyeballs glare ;and hears the rout 
 
 Of countlefs antelopes, than tropic ftorms 
 
 More fleet, rufti headlong from the gripe of death ; 
 
 Hears famifh'd monfters panting in the chace, 
 
 And cries and groans proclaim the arrefted flight 
 
 Of victim after victim. Stretch'd on earth, 
 
 Each limb with icy dread convulfed, he lies, 
 
 E 2 
 
5^ WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 Lies powerlefs, hopelefs: and with vain regret 
 Sighs for the horrors of the fervid noon, 
 Where deathlike filence brooded o'er the wild, 
 And boundlefs fpace feem'd but a larger grave ; 
 Where late the camel's bleaching ribs he pad, 
 And corfe of long-loft pilgrim parch'd to (lone. 
 O wretch, whom noon fhall never light again! 
 
 And are the lion's defert-fhaking roar, 
 The ferpent hifs, wide quivering through the gloom, 
 The gaunt hyena's fhriek, the panther's growl, 
 And yells of every tone that breathes difmay 
 Strain'd from unnumber'd throats athirft for blood, 
 The direft founds that thrill the fhuddering wafle ? 
 Inferior monfters ! hence : a fiercer brute 
 Advances on his prey. Man, favage man, 
 Prowls to enflave his brother. See the burft 
 Of flame : thofe outcries hear ! Yon ruffian band 
 Surrounds the blazing village. Sleep is fled. 
 Naked, with frantic fteps, panting for life, 
 And freedom more than life, from fide to fide 
 The wretched inmates hurry, and in vain 
 The guarded circle try. What foe profeft 
 Utter'd the mandate ? None. From him, yes him, 
 It came, who bears the fceptre of the land, 
 Bears the paternal name of King ; from him, 
 Who foremoft in the battle -fliould have bled 
 
SUMMER."*— MOONLIGHT. 53 
 
 To fhelter them from wrong. The white men's bribe 
 Prevailed. Defencelefs, guiltlefs,unaccufed r 
 He feized them, ibid them ; mother, hufband, babes, 
 And all that ever fbail from them be. born, 
 Beneath a foreign Lord, a foreign fky, 
 To ftripes and chains and mifery confign'd. 
 And yet when famifh/d, friendlefs, and forlorn, 
 The poor white man beneath the village-tree 
 Drench'd by the ftorm flood fhivering ; pity's hand 
 Call'd him within the hut, prepared him food, 
 Andfpread his couch: while many an artlefs lay 
 Mourn' d o'er the friendlefs poor white man ; for he 
 No mother had to bring him milk, nor wife 
 To grind his corn*.— Thou fcandal to the name 
 
 * " I was obliged to fit all day without victuals, in the made 
 (c of a tree : and the night threatened to be very uncomfortable, 
 ** for the wind rofe, and there was great appearance of a heavy 
 " rain ; and the wild beads are fo very numerous in the neigh- 
 " bourhood, that I mould have been under the neceflity of 
 ** climbing up the tree, and retting amongft the branches. About 
 u funfet, however, as I was preparing to pafs the night in this 
 " manner, and had turned my horfe loofe, that he might graze at 
 " liberty, a woman, returning from the- labours of the field, 
 '* flopped to obferve me, and perceiving that I was weary and 
 H dejected, inquired into my fituation, which I briefly explained 
 " to her j whereupon, with looks of great companion, me souk 
 
54 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 Of Englifhman and Chriftian ! Thou, who ftand'H: 
 In yonder Tropic Ifle thy flave befide, 
 His nervous limbs, as though he were thine ox, 
 With greedy eye perufmg : take the book 
 
 M up my faddle and bridle, and told me to follow her. Having 
 " conduced me into her hut, fhe lighted up a lamp, fpread a mat 
 4< on the floor, and told me I might remain there for the night. 
 " Finding that I was very hungry, (he faid me would procure me 
 " fomething to eat. She accordingly went out, and returned in a 
 ** mort time with a very fine fifh j which, having caufed to be 
 u half broiled upon fome embers, fhe gave me for fupper. The 
 * c rites of hofpitality being thus performed, towards a ftranger in 
 (i diftrefs; my worthy benefadtrefs (pointing to the mat, and 
 " telling me I might fleep there without apprehenfion) called 
 M to the female part of her family, who had flood gazing on me 
 ■" all the while in fixed aftonifhment, to refume their talk of 
 " fpinning cotton ; in which they continued to employ themfelves 
 -" great part of the night. They lightened their labour by fongs, 
 " one of which was compofed extempore ; for I was myfelf the 
 «' fubject of it. It was fung by one of the young women, the reft 
 " joining in a fort of chorus. The air was fweet and plaintive j 
 iC and the words, literally tranflated, were thefe :— " The winds 
 <; roared, and the rains fell. The poor white man, faint and 
 " weary, came and fat under our tree. — He has no mother to 
 <c bring him milk ; no wife to grind his corn. Chorus. Let us 
 " pity the white man ; no mother has he, &c. &C.** Trifling as this 
 " recital may appear to the reader, to a perfon in my fituation 
 << the circumftance was affecting in the higheft degree. I was 
 " oppreffed by fuch unexpected kindnefsj and fleep fled from my 
 
 
 
/ 
 
SUMMER.— MOONLIGHT. 55 
 
 Thy father gave thee, when his faltering voice 
 
 Pour'd a laft bleffing on thy parting fteps, 
 
 And bade thee ferve thy Maker. Take the book : 
 
 It is the facred record of thy faith, 
 
 Faith real or pretended. Mark the curfe 
 
 Hurl'd at " Manftealers i" ponder on the law 
 
 Of univerfal duty, a What thou wilt 
 
 " Others fhould do to thee, do thou to them." 
 
 Then haften to the port, and hail the bark 
 
 That cleaves the wave from Guinea : from her throng 
 
 Of agonized victims cull the prime : 
 
 Fetter them, talk them, with thy bloody fcourge 
 
 Teach them a Briton's mercy : count thy gains : 
 
 Add yet another and another year : 
 
 And when, the goodly computation clofed, 
 
 O'erjoy'd thou paufeft, write beneath the fum; 
 
 " What if I gain the world, and lofe my foul V 
 
 Why rufh'd that horfeman with impetuous cour/e 
 Acrofs the glade, ftill looking back ? Why fhook 
 The foreft with the deep-toned bloodhound's roar I 
 
 u eyes. In the morning I prtfented my companionate landlady 
 u with two of the four brafs buttons which remained on my 
 tl waiftcoat ; the only recompence I could make her." See Park's 
 Travels in the Interior of Africa, 4to. p. 197, 198* 
 
 E4 
 
^6 WALks IN A FOREST. 
 
 I know his deeds. Ere long on yonder plain 
 Again ihall we behold him : though he drive 
 His chafers to miflead, and round thefe banks 
 Artful his circuit takes, there will he feek 
 The outlet of the wild. This day at noon 
 With ftaffand halter in his hand he ftray'd, 
 As watchful of the grazing tribes ; and feem'd 
 An herdfman bent his wandering colt to find, 
 And from the fcanty common lead him home 
 To more abundant pafture. Other thoughts 
 Lay lurking in his bread. From prying gaze 
 Within the hollow lining of his coat 
 Cover'd, the mufket by malignant art 
 For depredation form'd, in feparate lengths 
 Disjointed, as mufician parts his flute, 
 He bore. With never-erring fkill, the fruit 
 Mature of long experience, in the crowd 
 The well-fed buck he mark'd ; Angling at once 
 The victim, as each herb of flavour choice 
 With fapient nofe oft fhifting o'er the plain 
 He croppM, unconfcious of impending fate. 
 Perch'd on the fummit of the blafted oak 
 The raven eyed him (often had fhe traced 
 His purpofe), and in filence ominous 
 Waited her offal portion of the prey. 
 
SUMMER. MOONLIGHT* 57 
 
 Meanwhile, a Ihot delufive, in the wood 
 
 At diflance due by fly confederate fired, 
 
 Alarm'd the keeper's ear. Inftant he urged 
 
 From glade to glade the vain purfuit, and left 
 
 The endanger'd fpot unguarded. The fafe hour 
 
 The plunderer feized ; the tube with fpeed reftored 
 
 To native ihape he charged, levelled his aim, 
 
 And drew the trigger. Clang'd the fleel, and flafli'd 
 
 Definition. Swift he dragg'd the bleeding fpoii, 
 
 And plung'd the quivering limbs and branched crefl 
 
 Deep in the brake, and fled. Bold he return'd, 
 
 When twilight lent to guilt her dubious veil, 
 
 At eve, prepar'd his booty to convey 
 
 To diflant mart, where pamper'd luxury 
 
 With indifcriminate rage her dainties buys, 
 
 Regardlefs whence they come, or how procured. 
 
 But long, as when impatient nefllings peep, 
 
 Wide gaping, o'er their walls of mofs, and chide 
 
 Clamorous their dam whom fearch of food delays ; 
 
 Long with inquiring flomach fhalt thou wait, 
 
 difappointed Alderman ! and flrive 
 
 To flill the cravings of the mighty void 
 
 With meaner prey, while fympathetic dread 
 
 Suggefls the terrors thy purveyor feels ! 
 
 For, roufed by fudden tramplings, ere the load 
 
 Is pack'd, acrofs his fteed the deer he throws, 
 
WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 
 And mounts in hade. For now their nightly round 
 The keepers hold ; and foon the ranging dogs 
 Sagacious note the deed, and touch the place 
 Of Slaughter. With loud roar they tell the tale ; 
 And over hill and lawn fcenting the blood, 
 By jolting agitation liquefied, 
 k At intervals ftill dropping from the wound, 
 Through all his bends the frighted robber chafe. 
 Mark where they come : eager behind them fweep 
 Their mafters. From our fight lo all are loft, 
 Purfuers and purfued. Crofs we this knoll, 
 And meet them as they circle round the fkirts 
 Of that impenetrable wood. There flies 
 The caitiff! Nearer, nearer ftill, the foes 
 Hang ardent on his fteps. And now his form 
 Shouting they recognize, and fiercer drive 
 Their fteeds. For long fufpicious had they guefs'd 
 His fecret wiles ; and oft at dead of night 
 His cottage had they fought, and, arm'd with forcfc 
 Of legal claim and juft authority, 
 Entrance demanded, and with patient toil 
 Explored each dark recefs, anxious to meet 
 Proofs of his rapine : but his wary fraud 
 Had baffled all their projects. Now his reign 
 Is clofed. Hard preft he drops the deer : the bait 
 His foes retards not ; on himfelf they pour 
 
SUMlvrfUt.— MOONLIGHT- 59 
 
 Their utmoft fpeed. Mark, his o'erlaboured horfe 
 Falls headlong ; from its back unhurt he fprings, 
 And plies his nimble feet, and hopes efcape- 
 In vain : the forefi: (hakes him from its woods 
 Indignant, and bids roufe its {lumbering hofts 
 To view their fires avenged. The keeper's grafp 
 Ends his vain ftruggles ; while the baying hounds 
 Leap round him, and, with rage and triumph flufh'd, 
 Scarce from his quivering limbs their fangs refrain. 
 
 Ye fons of luxury, direr foe to man 
 Than fword or peftilential vapour, blufh 
 And tremble as this tale of truth ye read, 
 Blufli for your fhame, and tremble for your guilt ! 
 Be it enough that earth's remoter! bounds, 
 That polar mores and equinoctial waves 
 Pay tribute to your board : be it enough 
 That at your beck in fti fling dungeon pent, 
 Like Guinea's injured fons, o'er feas unknown 
 Wafted with pain the famifh'd turtle weeps 
 Its miferable voyage ; at your beck 
 Stretch'd out for butchery feels its (helly mail 
 Rent from the flefti, of agonizing life 
 Tenacious, while each mangled fragment heaves, 
 And crawling fibres quiver on the floor. 
 Spare yet the innocence of forefts, fpare 
 The untutor'd peafant > lure him not to flight 
 
60 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 The majefly of law. — Have ye then fped, 
 Search'd out his weaknefs, and with fraudful gold 
 Sapp'd his integrity ? Lo, train'd by crime 
 To crime, ere long he aims at nobler fpoil ; 
 Plunders the fold, drives off the unguarded fleed, 
 Arrefts the traveller, writhes the midnight lock, 
 With murderous hand the couch of fleep invades ; 
 Till, wearied by the deeds ye firft infpired, 
 Avenging juftice fweeps him from the earth. 
 
WALK THE FOURTH. 
 
JfRGUMENT. 
 
 Addrefs to Autumn — An Autumnal Morning — Fieldfares— Ad- 
 drefs to them — Appearance of a Foreft in Autumn fuperior to 
 its Effecl either in Spring or in Summer — Landfcape-Painters 
 invited to ftudy Chafttnefs and Harmony of Colouring, and 
 Breadth and Proportion of Light and Shade, in Forefts — Illuf- 
 tration of the latter Subject from the Eruption of a Volcano — 
 Autumnal Harmony of Nature further exemplified — The 
 Woodcock -Deer waiting for falling Acorns — The Golden- 
 crefted Wren — Cottagers collecting Fuel — An old Oak blown 
 down — Contraft of wooded Hills near at hand, in Sunfhine, 
 with a flat Diftance in deep Shadow — The Heron — A dii'tant 
 Shower — Dovedale — Tutbury Caftle — Mary Queen of Scots — 
 John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaller— The Minftrel — The Love 
 of Forefts natural to Man — Mode in which furviving Friends 
 have praifed departed Genius — Praife of Forefts — Author of 
 the Tafk— -Autumn originally unknown— Eternal Spring mall 
 refurne her Reign. 
 
WALK THE FOURTH, 
 
 AUTUMN. 
 
 Autumn, I hail thy fteps ! On yonder knoll 
 
 Thou ftandeft ; not as in Trlnacrian fields, 
 
 Thy crown a wheaten wreath, thy robe embofs'd 
 
 With golden fickles, jocund thou furvey'ft 
 
 The reaper train ; not as on Gallic hills, 
 
 Thy brow with vine-leaves mantled, thy attire 
 
 Purple with clufters, and its verge with fruit 
 
 From the pale olive broider'd, thou art wont 
 
 To meet the peafant at his early toil ; 
 
 But clad as beft becomes a fylvan lord. 
 
 An oaken chaplet, with refplendent hues 
 
 By thy own pencil warm'd, and gemm'd with knots 
 
 Of woodland berries, twines thy auburn hair. 
 
 Broad pictured on thy many-colour'd veft, 
 
 Shade beyond fhade, a mimic foreft glows, 
 
 With birds innumerous throng'd. Part foar aloft, 
 
64 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 Plowing in fteady line their tracklefs way, 
 Mix'd with the clouds, as fcenting from afar 
 The vernal gale : their comrades ope their wings 
 In acl: to follow. Part with languid air 
 And folded plumes, as from a toilfome flight 
 Yet unrecruited, from the topmoft boughs 
 Explore the glades unknown ; or, by the call 
 Of hunger long unfatisfied aroufed, 
 Pluck the rich harveft of the fruitful wood. 
 On yonder knoll thou paufeft ! O'er the groves 
 As flowly waves thy hand, a deeper tinge 
 Of ftains ethereal, brightening every green, 
 Follows its courfe. But when thy lifted arm 
 Swift as in anger moves, the fhuddering woods, 
 Smit with electric horror, prone to earth 
 Their withering glories pour : the rifing blaft 
 Groans as it whirls the fylvan deluge wide, 
 And hills .and plains in leafy billows roll. 
 
 Long on thy progrefs, Autumn, fhall my feet 
 Attend obedient ! O'er the unclouded Iky, 
 The foreft world of made, the gleamy vales, 
 And funny lawns, and ftreams in hazy light 
 Glittering, when thy peculiar itillnefs reigns, 
 As nature kept a fabbath ; when the leaf 
 Shed from the aerial fpray fcarce quivering drops 
 Through thelull'd. atmofphere, be mine to hail 
 
AUTUMN. 65 
 
 Thy noon's unruffled calm. And when thy winds 
 Prefageful, ere the brooding ftorms advance, 
 Sweep through the upper air ; be mine at eve 
 To climb yon fteep, and wandering in its groves, 
 Groves yet umbrageous, lift en while the galei 
 Unfelt by me, founds in their fhadowy tops, 
 As through a diftant region borne, and feems 
 To tell the converfe of another world. 
 And when thy tempefts darken earth and heaven, 
 And lafh the {training wood ; when eddying wild, 
 Denfe as the fnow-flakes which the unwearied North. 
 Shakes on the buried cliffs of Labrador, 
 The flood of leaves defcends ; then be it mine 
 Beneath the fafeguard of a clofe retreat 
 To mark thy vengeful arm, and hear thy fhout 
 Impatient on the bands of Winter call 
 To hafte and feize the defolated year. 
 
 Mild is thy brow this morn. A gentle froft 
 Spangles with icy dew the grafs. The rime 
 Floats thin diffufed in air ; not as condenfed 
 By wintry vapour Its impervious fog 
 Blots out the neighbouring covert, every twig 
 Thickening with feathery filver, and the locks 
 Of peafant wilder'd in the dazzling gloom ; 
 But twinkling in the fun its lucid veil 
 Softens each harder outline, and apace 
 
66 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 Before the afcending radiance melts away. 
 "Where in the hollow footfteps of the herd 
 The fhower's cool reliques ftagnate, cryftal fhoots 
 Start .from the fides ; and interfering oft, 
 And link'd in union, while the bibulous earth 
 Still from beneath the liquid prop withdraws, 
 Hang their white network gliftening o'er the void. 
 Lo ! on yon branch, whofe naked fpray o'ertops 
 The oak's ftill cluftering ihade, the fieldfares fit 
 Torpid and motionlefs, yet peering round 
 Sufpicious of deceit. At our approach 
 They mount, and, loudly chattering from on high, 
 Bid the wild woods of human guile beware. 
 
 Ye ftrangers *, banihVd from your native glades, 
 Where tyrant Frofl with Famine leagued proclaims, 
 " Who lingers, dies ;" with many a ri(k ye win 
 The privilege to breathe our fofter air, 
 And glean our fylvan berries. O'er the breadth 
 Of ocean from relentlefs fkies, from waftes 
 By winter petrified, from forefts whelm' d 
 Beneath their glittering load, ye come to afk 
 
 - 
 
 : * Fieldfares migrate hither in autumn from the northern parts 
 of Europe, being forced thence by the excefiive rigour of the 
 feafon in thofe regions. See Pennant's Britifh Zoology, vol. i. 
 p. 304, 
 
AUTUMN, 67 
 
 A tranfient hofpitality. Nor force 
 Nor fraud ye meditate : yet, roufed at once 
 By the firft murmur of your diftant wings, 
 The kite, the buzzard, and each hooked beak 
 And griping talon thirtieth for your blood. 
 The fchoolboy, from his irkfome toil fet free, 
 Proud of the gun now firft poffefs'd, on you 
 The firft rude effort of deftruclion tries. 
 He marks your ftation, deals beneath the fhade, 
 Scarce dares with long-fufpended ftep to prefs 
 The ground, left leaves fhould ruftle ; trembles, pants, 
 With hope, and fear ; his difconcerted aim 
 Renews ; with faltering hand the trigger draws, 
 And at the fudden thunder ftarts difmay'd. 
 Even the dull ruftic as he plods along 
 By hedgerow fide, or in the foreft roves, 
 Obferves you, as ye pick your fcanty food, 
 And whirls the dangerous pebble. What can guard, 
 Ye unoffending helplefs vifitants, 
 From fnares and death your perfecuted tribes ? 
 He, who upholds the archangels : He, who marks 
 With omniprefent eye the fmalleft form 
 That lives, with arm omnipotent fuftains : 
 He, who infpired your flight from fnow-clad waftes 
 To happier mores unknown ; and from the depths 
 Of fin and mifery for defponding man 
 
 f 2 
 
6$ WALKS IN A FOREST. • 
 
 Has paved a path in mercy, and with voice 
 
 Of love divine bids the repentant foul 
 
 Rife heir of heaven, nor dread the gulph of death. 
 
 How richly varied is the fcene ! In vain 
 Spring with her emerald verdure, and the tints 
 Of bloom from every tree and fhrub and herb 
 Breathing its odour ; Summer's hand in vain, 
 Thickening with greens mature the wood, wil 
 
 wreaths 
 Of pendent woodbine linking bufh to bufh, 
 And fpreading o'er the bank her blofTom'd furze 
 Ardent with gold, would emulate the charms 
 Of waning Autumn. What though one brief night 
 Of premature feverity, one blaft 
 Whirling the fleety hail, would ftrip the boughs, 
 As peftilence the crowded city thins ? 
 What though already on yon windy brow 
 The lime and afh with unrefifting fear 
 Their ftation have deferted ? Unfubdued 
 The mighty foreft riles, and difplays 
 His radiant files. Seize we the prefent hour, 
 And trace the fleeting glories ere they fade. 
 Mark the nice harmony which blends the whole 
 In one congenial mals, brilliant, yet chafte, 
 With every dye that ftains the withering leaf 
 Glowing, yet not difcordant. Hither come, 
 
AUTUMN. 69 
 
 Ye fons of imitative art *, who hang 
 
 The fictions of your pencils on our walls, 
 
 And call them landfcapes : where incongruous hues 
 
 Seem their conftrain'd vicinity to mourn ; 
 
 Where gaudy green with gaudy yellow vies, 
 
 And blues and reds with adverfe afpect glare. 
 
 Here deign to learn from nature. Hither come, 
 
 Ye fons of imitative art, who fpot 
 
 With unconnected and unnumber'd lights 
 
 Your motley canvas ; where the eye in vain 
 
 Longs for a refting-place, and vainly ftrives 
 
 To trace the dim defign, mid dazzling fpecks 
 
 And univerfal glitter undefcried. 
 
 Here deign to learn from nature : here, though late, 
 
 Learn the peculiar majefty which crowns 
 
 The foreft, when the flowly palling clouds 
 
 Triple f preponderance of fhadow fpread, 
 
 * It is fcarcely necefiary to fay that the following lines refer only 
 to the works of fome particular painters, and are by no means 
 intended to convey indifcrimlnate cenfure. 
 
 f The painters moft fkilled in the management of light gene- 
 rally allow not above one quarter of the picture for the lights, 
 including in this portion both the principal and fecondary lights ; 
 another quarter is as dark as poflible \ the remaining half in middle 
 tint. Sir Jofhua Reynolds's Notes on Mr. Mafon's Tranflation of 
 Dufrefnoy's Art of Painting, p. 98, 
 
 f 3 
 
*]Q WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 And feparate * die broad collected lights 
 With correfponding gloom : whether, beneath 
 Thefe oaks, that o'er the darken'd foreground hang, 
 The illumined valley mines, the pafturing deer ; 
 Or yon recefs admits the fronting ray 
 Between its dufky barriers ; or a gleam, 
 Stretch'd o'er the tufted furface of the woods, 
 Deepens the blacknefs of contiguous fhade. 
 
 Thus with the rays of noon when Etna blends 
 Her vollied flame, nor with contrafting depth 
 Of fmoke and fulphurous fleam the glare furrounds, 
 Scarce feen, fcarce fear'd, the fickly blaze expires. 
 Wouldft thou furvey her terrors ? Wait the hour, 
 When from her caves projected Stygian clouds 
 
 * In the grouping of lights there fhould be a fuperiority of one 
 over the reft ; they fhould be feparated, and varied in their fhapes j 
 and there mould not be lefs than three lights. The fecondary 
 lights ought, for the fake of harmony and union, to be of nearly 
 equal hrightnefs, though not of equal magnitude, with the prin- 
 cipal. Sir J. Reynolds's Notes on Dufrefnoy, p. 96. Yet neither 
 any one of thefe fecondary lights, nor all of them together, muft 
 come into any degree of competition with the principal mafs of 
 light. Sir J. Reynolds's Seven Difcourfes, p. 306. The higheft 
 finishing is labour in vain, unlefs at the fame time there be pre- 
 ferved a breadth of light and ftiadow— the flighted fketch, where 
 this breadth is preferved, will have effect. Notes on Dufrefnoy, 
 p. 99. 
 
AUTUMN- /"I 
 
 Inceffant rife, and air, earth, fea involve 
 In more than midnight gloom. Then mark the burft 
 Of fplendor from the glowing crater ftart 
 To heaven ; behold the electric flafh oblique * 
 Break through the darknefs ; view the exploded rocks f 
 Trail their long light ; prone down the mountain's fide 
 Watch the red deluge o'er the works of man, 
 Hamlet and city, mead and cultured plain, 
 With indifcriminate deftruction rolPd, 
 
 * Sir William Hamilton, in his Obfervations on Mount Etna, 
 Vefuvius, and other Volcanos, mentions this phenomenon as a 
 conftant attendant on great eruptions. w Small afhes fell all day 
 '* at Naples. They iffued from the crater of the Volcano, and 
 " formed a vaft column as black as the mountain itfelf, fo that 
 " the (hadow of it was marked out on the furface of the fca. 
 " Continued flames of forked or zigzag lightning (hot from this 
 " black column." Ed. 2d, p. 37. See alfo p. 38, 39, and the 
 note, and p. 46. 85. " I find in all the accounts of great erup- 
 " tions mention made of this fort of lightning, which is diftin- 
 " guifhed hereby the name of Ferilli." lb. p. 164. 
 
 f " I have feen (tones of an enormous fize (hot up to a great 
 << height from Vefuvius. In 1767 a folid ftone, meafuring twelve 
 " feet in height and forty-five in circumference, was thrown a 
 " quarter of a mile from the crater." Sir William Hamilton's 
 Obfervations, p. 49, note. He adds that " the eruption of 1767 
 " was very mild in comparison with fome others." 
 
 F. 4 
 
J2 WALKS IN A FORESTS 
 
 Plunge headlong into ocean. Ocean's waves, 
 Loud hiffing, from the invading fires recoil * : 
 Catania's bulwarks rock ; with tottering crefl 
 Thy towers, pale Syracufe, the conflict hear ; 
 And Rhegium fhudders at the refluent tide. 
 Nature, in all her works harmonious, blends 
 
 * The Earl of Winchelfea, in his account of the eruption of 
 Mount Etna in 1669, quoted by Sir William Hamilton, (Obferva- 
 tions, p # 60,) defciibes the itream of lava flowing upon the moun- 
 tain as fifteen miles in length, and feven in breadth. " It may be 
 " termed," he proceeds, " an inundation of fire, cinders, and 
 " burning ftones, burning with that rage as to advance into the 
 " fea fix hundred yards, and that to a mile in breadth j which I 
 H faw. And that which did augment my admiration was to fee 
 iS in the fea this matter like ragged rocks burning in four fathom 
 tf water, two fathoms higher than the tea itfelf 5 fome parts liquid, 
 " and throwing off the ftones about it 5 which, like a cruft of a 
 " vaft bignefs, and red hot, fell into the fea every moment in 
 " fome place or other, caufing a great and horrible noife, fmoke, 
 *■ and hilling in the fea.'* 
 
 During the eruption of Mount Vefuvius in June and July 1794, 
 the lava ran from the fide of the mountain in a torrent half a miJe 
 wide, and from twelve to forty feet high, through the middle of 
 the town of Torre del Greco : deftroying the houfes and vineyards 
 in its progrefs, and forming a new promontory twenty-four feet 
 high, and extending fix hundred and twenty- fix feet into the fea. 
 See Sir W. Hamilton's account of this eruption delivered to the 
 Royal Society, 
 
 
AUTUMN. 73 
 
 Extremes with foft gradation, and with tints 
 Kindred throughout her changeful robe adorns. 
 Bounds yon unbroken wood the level plain ? 
 Light groups detach'd and folitary trees 
 Unite them. Weave yon buflies o'er the hill 
 Uninterrupted thickets ? Furzy brakes 
 Afpire to meet them. Spreads the furzy brake ? 
 With varying breadth the intruding greenfward winds, 
 And the rude mafs with velvet maze divides. 
 And lo, even now, when with autumnal gold 
 She decks the lofty branch, on every twig 
 Of humbler growth the many-colour' d fruit 
 Mindful £he hangs. With fcarlet crown the briar 
 Glitters: the thorn its ruddy clufters bend: 
 Scarce can the floe fuftain its purple load, 
 Not yet from tafte auftere, puckering the lip 
 And difappointed tongue, by froft reclaim'd ; 
 While from the prickly fhoots pale bryony, 
 Twined round the oft encircled Item, fufpends 
 Its lucid berries : rich in glofly balls, 
 Privet's dark fpikes with trembling luftre gleam. 
 What though yon holly's cold unalter'd green, 
 That oak embofoming, with contrail harfh 
 Had met the fplendid foil that glows above ? 
 Cinctured with reddening zones, the fertile fpray, 
 
74 WALKS IN, A FOREST. 
 
 Like Indian maiden girt with coral beads *, 
 Blends with the fylvan monarch's gorgeous robe 
 Tints that his gorgeous robe will not difdain. 
 Nor lefs the ground its hues accordant joins, 
 With faded leaves beftrewn, and floating wings 
 Of ruffet fern o'erfhadow'd, whence upftarts 
 The woodcock : ihe who in Norwegian dell, 
 Or birchen glade Lapponian, near the fwamp 
 Suck'd from the fpongy foil the prey,, to cheer 
 Her tawny young ; till Winter's icy car, 
 On Summer's ftep clofe f preffing, from his realm. 
 Warn'd her, and earth her probing beak repell'd. 
 
 As when the gunner, in his ftubbly way 
 Paufing his arms afrefli to prime* fufpends 
 The lifted flafk, and turns his ready ear,. 
 If to her brood the long-loft partridge call y 
 Or as, when midnight ftills the Atlantic wave,- 
 The pilot, if a found that feems to tell 
 Of difent breakers float upon the breeze, 
 Stands motionlefs in deep attention loft : 
 Beneath yon oak why liftening paufe the deer ? 
 
 * " The villas with which London ftands begirt, 
 
 " Like a fwarth Indian with his belt of beads." Cowper. 
 
 f Spring and Autumn, are hardly known to the Laplanders. 
 Scheffer's Hiftory of Lapland, p. 61. 
 
AUTUMN. 75 
 
 They wait the falling acorn. Hark ! it leaps 
 From the bare bank. Obedient to the found 
 At once they turn, and feize it ; then refume 
 Their patient (land, and wifh the rifmg gale. 
 Aloft in mazy courfe the golden wren * 
 Sports on the boughs ; fine who her flender form 
 Vaunting, and radiant creft, half dares to vie 
 With thofe gay wanderers f , whofe effulgent wings 
 With infect hum ftill flutter o'er the pride 
 Of Indian gardens, while the hollo w tongue 
 Explores the flower, and drains the honied juice. 
 
 Now chiller evenings and the near approach 
 Of winter from the anxious cottage draw 
 Yon group in fearch of fuel. Youthful hands 
 Gather the fcatter'd flicks ; or wield the pole 
 
 * The golden -crefted wren is the leaft of Britifh birds. It may 
 readily be diftinguifhed, not only by its fize, but by the beautiful 
 fcarlet mark on the head, bounded on each fide by a yellow line* 
 It frequents woods, and is found principally on oak trees. Though 
 fo fmall a bird, it endures our winters. Pennant's Britifh Zoology, 
 vol. i. p. 379, 380. 
 
 •f* M Humming-birds fubfift on the nectar or fweet juice of 
 flowers — they never fettle on a flower during the action of ex- 
 tracting the juice ; but flutter continually like bees, moving their 
 wings very quick, and making a humming noife, whence their 
 name." Latham's Synopfis of Birds, p. 770. On the ftrudture 
 of the tongue of the humming-bird, fee ibid. p. 745. 
 
76 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 Arm'd with light fickle, and the mouldering bough 
 
 Pluck down with tiptoe efforts oft renew'd : 
 
 While the dead flump that fturdy peafant hews ; 
 
 Or, looking watchful round left prying eyes 
 
 Obferve him, from the oak by tempefts torn 
 
 Rends off the fhiver'd ruin with its load 
 
 Of leafy fpray. Backward he throws his weight, 
 
 And tugs with iron grafp : in vain the branch 
 
 Recoils with ftart elaftic, and in vain 
 
 Still by tough fplinters to the trunk adheres. 
 
 And lo, yon boy in wanton mifchief tears 
 
 The ivy twifted in contortions rude 
 
 Round the tall maple, and the ftera divides 
 
 With ftroke malicious. Soon the verdant mafs, 
 
 Robb'd of its wonted nutriment, fhall fade. 
 
 Yet fhall the lifelefs tendrils flill maintain 
 
 Their grafp ; and, deaf to Spring's reviving call, 
 
 To May's bright greens a dufky foil oppofe. 
 
 Stranger, who gazeft on its tangled bower, 
 Where oft the owl, impatient of the blaze 
 Pour'd from meridian ardours, dozed in gloom 
 Impenetrable, then with frighted wing 
 Long time heard labouring in the deep recefs 
 Broke forth, when clamorous children faunter'd by ; 
 Mourn'ft thou its ruin'd honours ? Hither turn, 
 And mark where, never more to vernal funs 
 
AUTUMN. 77 
 
 And fhowers refponfive, proftrate on the earth 
 
 A nobler ruin lies, yon oak, the boaft 
 
 Of unrecorded centuries. With hound 
 
 And horn when Tudor through thefe coverts urged 
 
 His game, the monarch oft in mid purfuit 
 
 StoppM fhort ; and to his nobles wondering round 
 
 Pointed this mighty trunk, with royal praife 
 
 Dwelt on its growth majeftic, and forgot, 
 
 Enraptured with its fhade, the flying deer. 
 
 Ages roll'd on ; and ftill its awful creft 
 
 In ihadowy ftate above the foreft rofe : 
 
 And ftill the traveller with admiring gaze 
 
 Hail'd from afar the fovereign of the wood. 
 
 But Time, the foe who never knew defpair, 
 
 Who crufh'd proud Troy, who cleft thy bulwarks, 
 
 Rome, 
 And fees with fcorn the pilgrim fearch in vain 
 The fpot where Babel flood, his ftorms array'd, 
 Summoned his mildews from the venom'd Eaft, 
 Breathed his green damps, the giant fabric fhook, 
 CurtaiPd its boughs, its leafy honours thinn'd, 
 And mined its inmoft heart. Yet long it met 
 The war, fore bruifed but dauntlefs ; and its arms, 
 Shiver'd and bleach'd, as in defiance rear'd, 
 Frowning with femblance of primeval ftrength. 
 
78 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 Till, as a ftate by flow corruption fapp'd, 
 Whence one by one the cankering peft withdraws 
 Each buttrefs of its grandeur, at the root 
 Decay'd it totter'd. The autumnal blafl 
 Snapp'd the few flender firings that fix'd the fhell, 
 Sad remnant of the ponderous trunk. The crafh 
 Earth heard, and fhuddcr'd ; mindful of the hour 
 Foredoom'd ere time began, when all her pomp, 
 The boaft of nature and the pride of art, 
 Shall fink for ever ; when herfelf fhall hear 
 The knell that calls her to her fiery grave, 
 Drink the lad glimmerings of the expiring fun, 
 Clofe her laft round, and fill her place no more. 
 How forcible the contrail i Light and gloom, 
 Beauty and grandeur with contending powers 
 Heighten the landfcape ! On the tufted heads 
 Of thefe fteep woods, that hurry down the flope 
 With headlong plunge eager to meet the vale, 
 A flood of radiance refts, with brighter hues 
 Bids Autumn glow, and tells each break that marks 
 The indented furface : while, as mighty fleets 
 From Indian fliore deep- laden ftretch their wings 
 Athwart the fliadowy main, yon low-hung clouds 
 O'er hamlets faint, and dim-difcover'd meads, 
 And village towers above the encircling trees 
 

AUTUMN. 79 
 
 Peering obfcure, in pomp of darknefs float, 
 And lurid purple chills the expanfe beneath. 
 There, where in curves now loft, now traced again, 
 A wandering luftre, as from rippling ftreams 
 Reflected, plays ambiguous, oft the heron, 
 Pofted in Dove's rich meads, with patient guile 
 And pale gray plumes with watery blue fuffufed 
 Stands like a fhadow : then with out-ftretch'd neck, 
 While near with fidelong gait the fowler creeps, 
 Rifes,, and,, fleering to the diftant fen, 
 Shrieks from on high, and flaps her folemn wing. 
 Hence northward to yon ridgy heights the eye 
 Glances at large. Lo their magnetic tops 
 Have feized the paffing cloud : the torrent rain 
 Smokes on their deluged fides. The fhower drives on ; 
 Hill after hill fucceflive difappears 
 Before the encroaching vapour. Loft awhile, 
 They mingle with the fey : now far behind 
 Gradual emerge, obfcurely through the rear 
 Of the fpent ftorm difcerri'd ; now glimmer faint 
 With watery beams ; now through the frefhcn'd air 
 Swell on the fight, and laugh in cloudlefs day. 
 There, mid disjointed cliffs and tranquil (hades, 
 Low in his native dale, with ftream as pure 
 As melts from Alpine fnows Dove laves his rocks 
 
80 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 Wild as by magic planted, yet with grace * 
 Of fymmetry arranged ; now foaming darts 
 Along the ftony channel, tufted hies 
 Now circles, now with glafly furface calm 
 Reflects the impending glories of his hills. 
 There Contemplation at the fall of eve, 
 By gurgling waters luil'd, with downcaft gaze 
 Pores on each infect form, that fkims the deep, 
 Each graffy blade, that vibrates in the ftream : 
 Then the green flopes, the craggy barrier views, 
 And fylvan gloom fequefter'd : then to heaven 
 Lifts an adoring glance, and thinks on Thee, 
 Maker of all that lives, of all that, void 
 Of life, with beauty charms, with grandeur awes, 
 I>ims with admiring gratitude the eye, 
 With holy rapture fwells the kindling heart. 
 Or turn we fouthward, where on yonder cliff 
 Dove, o'er thy ampler wave projecting fliine 
 
 * " From the defcription given of Dovedale, even by men of 
 " tafte, we had conceived it to be a fcene rather of curiofity than 
 €t of beauty. We fuppofed the rocks were formed into the moft 
 *' fantaftic fhapes ; and expe&ed to fee a gigantic difplay of all 
 <c the conic fections. But we were agreeably deceived. The 
 ** whole compofition is chafte, and piclurefquely beautiful, in a 
 U high degree." Mr. Gilpin's Obfervations on the Mountains and 
 Lakes of Cumberland, &c. vol. ii. p. 228. 
 
AUTUMN. 8l 
 
 Thofe ivy-mantled towers * ; towers once with fighs 
 
 Sadden'd of captive Mary, jocund once 
 
 With minftrelfy, when Lancafter convened 
 
 The throng of barons in his fellive hall. 
 
 Stretch' d in her cell with pallid cheek the Queen, 
 
 And tears faft dropping from her beamlefs eyes, 
 
 Wore the long months of grief. With anguifh faint 
 
 If ever the frefli gale fhe fought to breathe ; 
 
 The fullen portal thundering as it clofed, 
 
 The huge portcullis rufhing from above, 
 
 The frowning battlement and guarded wall, 
 
 Prefcribed her limits. Through the ftony chink, 
 
 Wont on the near approaching foe to pour 
 
 The arrowy dorm, on thefe wild banks fhe gazed : 
 
 While Fancy, minifter of woe, with hand 
 
 Officious to her view prefented ftili 
 
 Gay troops of foreft deer unprifon'd airs 
 
 Inhaling, and as frolic fport infpired, 
 
 Bounding unfetter'd. To new dungeon toft 
 
 From dungeon, her unpitying rival's ear 
 
 With fruitlefs prayer fhe plied. The cold excufe, 
 
 The taunt, the ftudied filence of neglect, 
 
 * Tutbury Caftle, once the prifon of Mary Queen of Scots ; 
 and in earlier times the refidence of John of Gaunt. 
 
82 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 Silence than cold evafion and than taunt 
 More keen, ftie bore : yet dreams of brighter hours 
 Still cherinVd ; and dill hoped, and hoped in vain, 
 To burft the chains which envious hate had twined ; 
 Till Freedom on the fable fcaffold's height 
 Stood hand in hand with all-fubduing Death, 
 To end her bondage . Other fcenes the bard 
 Crown'd with high harpings ; when unnumber'd 
 
 lights 
 Illumed the fretted roof, che pendent arms 
 That deck'd the wall ; and glowing through the rows 
 Of adverfe windows, where the cryftal plain 
 Art's richeft tracery fpread, proclaim'd afar 
 The princely feaft of Lancafter. He rofe : 
 Mirth ceafed her tumult ; every found was hufli'd ; 
 All from their feats bent forward. Age and youth, 
 Warriors, and gorgeous dames enraptured heard 
 The tale of antient years, the tale of arms 
 In glorious caufe triumphant : then allured 
 To fadder themes, with mifty eyeballs learn'd 
 Of youths before an aged parent's face 
 In their nrft onfet flain ; or from the fword 
 Of hoftile inroad, while on foamy deeds 
 They bore the plighted objefts of their love, 
 Headlong from midnight precipices hurl'd, 
 Or plunged in tracklefs bogs, abforb'd, and loft. 
 
AUTUMN. S3 
 
 Oft as his lord, to grace the feftal day, 
 When knighthood's champions on the lifted fie 
 Should couch in emulous career the lance, 
 Bade him the fong prepare ; thefe fylvan depths, 
 Thefe glades at early dawn he pierced, and hung 
 Even on yon oak his lyre : then mufing ftray'd ; 
 Then vocal tried the meditated lay, 
 And fwept the firings ; while echo fwell'd the chords 
 Of harmony divine, and flocking deer, 
 Thoughtlefs of food, in liftening wonder gazed, 
 
 Man loves the foreft. To the general flame 
 My breaft is not a ftranger. I could rove 
 At morn, at noon, at eve, by lunar ray, 
 In each returning feafon, through your fhades, 
 Ye reverend woods ! could vifit every dell, 
 Each hill, each breezy lawn, each wandering brook, 
 And bid the world admire ; and when at laft 
 The fong were clofed, each magic fpot again 
 Could feek, and tell again of all its charms. 
 But let me check the partial ftrain, nor fwell 
 With indifcriminate and trivial praife 
 The long defcription ; left attending youth 
 And virgin innocence outwearied loathe 
 The injudicious rapture, and contemn 
 What elfe had touch'd the heart. When Genius dies 
 {I fpeak what Albion knows), furviving friends, 
 
 G 2 
 
#4 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 Eager his bright perfections to difplay 
 
 To the laft atom, echo through the land 
 
 All that he ever did, or ever faid, 
 
 Or ever thought ; recount the coats he wore, 
 
 Who made his wig, who ferved him with rappee ; 
 
 Whether 'twas March, or April, when he told 
 
 The ftory of the pig that crofs'd the lane, 
 
 And tripp'd the ill-fated huckfter in the mire ; 
 
 Whether he cream'd his teacup firft, or when 
 
 'Twas fill'd and fugar'd ; whether trout or pike, 
 
 Veal or boiFd chicken, pleafed his palate mod. 
 
 Then for his writings — fearch each defk and drawer, 
 
 Sweep his portfolio, publiih every fcrap 
 
 And demi-fcrap he penn'd ; beg, borrow, fteal 
 
 Each line he fcribbled, letter, note, or card, 
 
 To order flioes, to countermand a hat, 
 
 To bid his fervant bottle off the ale, 
 
 To make inquiries of a neighbour's cold, 
 
 Or afk his company to fupper. Thus, 
 
 Fools ! with fuch vile and crumbling trafh they build 
 
 The pedeftal, on which at length they rear 
 
 Their huge Coloffus, that beneath his weight 
 
 'Tis crunVd and ground ; and leaves him dropt aflant, 
 
 Scarce raifed above the height of common men. 
 
 I would not praife you thus, ye fore ft wilds ! 
 
 With warm yet fober tints* with pencil true 
 
 
autumn; $5 
 
 To juft difcrimination, yet averfe 
 
 To load the o'erlabour'd canvas, I would paint 
 
 Your choicer fcenes. O could I wake the lyre 
 
 Like him *, who, lingering on the banks of Oufe, 
 
 To nature faithful, and to nature's King, 
 
 Purfues the nobleft of poetic aims, 
 
 That only aim which gives the poet's lay 
 
 A title to the meed of genuine praife ; 
 
 Who, blending f in his fong with honed art 
 
 The faithful monitor's and poet's care, 
 
 Seeks to delight that he may mend mankind, 
 
 And while he captivates exalt the foul I 
 
 He fweeps the lyre : one hand excites the firings, 
 
 Whence ftarts each glowing image that prefents 
 
 Perfect as life the charms that deck the face 
 
 Of earth ; the other, with fymphonious touch, 
 
 Roufes the hallow'd chords that fwell the heart, 
 
 And lift it to its God. O were my notes, 
 
 Ye woodlands, with his facred fervour warm'd, 
 
 Sweet as his mufic ; to the (lave whom pride 
 
 Tortures, whom avarice goads, or thirft of power 
 
 Long days and fleeplefs nights hath fcorch'd ; to her 
 
 Whom dragg'd in triumph at his chariot wheels 
 
 * Cowper. 
 
 f See Cowper's Poems, edit. 4th, vol, i. p. 179, near the top, 
 
 G 3 
 
$6 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 Imperious Diflipation whirls through life, 
 
 And hurries from the nurfery to the grave 
 
 Without one interval of thought, or time 
 
 To afk, " Who placed me here ; why was I form'd ; 
 
 " What fhall I be hereafter ?" I would fpeak 
 
 The calm that Hills your wilds, their gueil o'erfpreads 
 
 Diffuflve, creeps along the confcious frame, 
 
 Bids paufe each artery, Hays each active limb, 
 
 Each rebel paffion chains, and through the foul 
 
 Breathes holy peace and univerfal love. 
 
 For fmce the globe firft rolPd, in every land 
 
 Your fliades, ye forefts, the deluded heart 
 
 To heavenly meditation ftill have call'd ; 
 
 And every fong, that glorified your God, 
 
 Have heard with eager gladnefs. Ye with joy, 
 
 Frefh from his Maker's hand when man arofe, 
 
 Saw him in wondering homage kneel ; ye bade 
 
 Your yet unpraclifed echoes fwell the found 
 
 High as the Eternal's throne, when grateful praife 
 
 Firft broke the filence of the new-born world. 
 
 Ye, when with bloody arm infuriate Rome, 
 
 Pagan or Papal, from the haunts of men 
 
 Chafed the firm band whom truth forbade to yield, 
 
 Crouch to her priefts, and worfhip at her nod : 
 
 Ye fcreen'd their flight,, with hofpitable gloom 
 
 Sheker'd their anguifh/and with mingling boughs, 
 
 
 
AUTUMN. 87 
 
 Vocal to prayer, a fylvan fane fupplied. 
 
 O yet, even yet, your facred influence breathe, 
 
 Oft as 1 tread your leaf-ftrewn paths ; to reft 
 
 Lull each tumultuous wifh j with reverent awe 
 
 My heart infpire ; and, as your ftately growth 
 
 Purfues its heaven-directed aim, exalt 
 
 My thoughts from earth, and point them to the fkies ! 
 
 Man loves the foreft. Since in Eden's groves 
 His fire, yet innocent, enraptured view'd 
 " Infuperable height of loftieit fhade ■*, 
 u Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm, 
 " A fylvan fcene," man has the foreft loved. 
 Thofe groves no autumn knew : eternal fpring 
 With all the bleflings of the varied year 
 In rich profufion crown'd them. But when Death 
 Seized on his prey, fall'n man, Deftruclion ftretch'd 
 Acrofs the woods her fceptre. With the axe 
 She fells them : with the temped by the roots 
 Headlong uptears them : with the fcythe of Time 
 She lays them low : and yearly o'er their boughs 
 Flings as in fcorn a many-colour'd robe ; 
 Then ftrips the tranfient pomp, and feoffs the wilds 
 Naked and chill'd in emblematic death. 
 
 * Milton'* s Paradife Loft, book iv. line 13S — 14c 
 G 4 
 
88 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 Yet fhal] unfading Spring her fway refume 
 
 In that new promifed earth, promifed by voice 
 
 Of power unbounded and unfailing truth ; 
 
 Where by no fin to defolation doom'd, 
 
 For fin fhall not be there, no florms annoy'd, 
 
 No violence ravaged, no decay impair'd, 
 
 Thy works, great God, for fuch thy will, fhall ftand 
 
 Firm through the ages of eternity ! 
 
WALK THE FIFTH. 
 
ARGUMENT. 
 
 Prognoftics cf Snow— Man ignorantiy repines at its Fall— A 
 Traveller — apprehends a Storm, and previoufly arms himfelf 
 to encounter it — is caught by it on the middle of a Foreft 
 -—The Storm at length ceafes — Addrefs to thofe who are 
 firuggling with Difficulties in Life— Patient Hope exemplified. 
 
WALK THE FIFTH. 
 
 WINTER.-— SNOW. 
 
 A t length the fnows defcend. Her axis thrice 
 The earth has circled, fmce the northern blaft 
 Grew keener, veering eaftward ; and while froft 
 With richer blue the arch ethereal dyed, 
 Incumbent on the gray horizon's verge 
 A fettled gloom has hung. This morn, when firii 
 Above the fummit of yon oak the fun 
 With tardy gleam arofe, a fleecy fhower 
 Tinging with thin-fpread white the frozen brook, 
 The bareworn track, and clofe-depaftured plain, 
 Accompanied his courfe. Ere long he chafed 
 The congregated vapour : yet, while noon 
 Maintain'd her empire, from fome formlefs cloud, 
 Whofe filmy veil by rapid eyes unfeen 
 Dimm'd,and fcarce dimm\l,the azure vault of heaven, 
 
92 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 Defcending oft the folitary flake 
 
 Foretold the fecret purpofe of the Ikies. 
 
 Now mid-day warmth declines : denfe haze obfcures 
 
 The turbid atmofphere : the clouds advance, 
 
 Not as the vehicles of rain, difpofed 
 
 In feparate mafles, and of varying hue ; 
 
 Not as the manfions of rebounding hail, 
 
 Lurid and dark ; nor thofe where thunder dwells, 
 
 Of wildeft forms, fcowling with purple dyes, 
 
 And 'gainft the nether ftreams of air propelPd 
 
 By their own currents ; but of afpeft dun, 
 
 Of texture uniform, and blending quick 
 
 In one unbroken furface, onward move 
 
 In firm array, and load the rifmg gale. 
 
 Athwart the expanfe of air behold them ftretch 
 
 Their dufky mantle. Louder, louder ftill, 
 
 Now paufing, now with hollow fwell prolong'd, 
 
 The wind exalts his voice ; and fweeping wild 
 
 Claps o'er the founding earth his fnowy wings, 
 
 And drives through heaven the horizontal ftorm.. 
 
 On the fail whitening world impatient man 
 Gazes repining ; and already views 
 The plough with forked handles through the drift 
 Projecting in the unfinifh'd furrow ruft ; 
 The oxen doom'd to floth ; the rapid wafte 
 Of hayftack leflening duly morn and eve 
 

WINTER. — SNOW, 93 
 
 Nor thinks that Heaven, oft kindeft when with figns 
 Of wrath it lowers, fends forth the loaded blaft 
 With merciful commiffion ; bids the fnows 
 Brood genial o'er the glebe, from blighting froft 
 Shield infant harveft, and the ftiffen'd joints 
 Of beafl and wearied hind prepare by reft, 
 Salubrious though conftrain'd, for future toil. 
 
 While thus the echoing tempeft beats abroad, 
 Beneath the impervious covert of this wood 
 Of antient hollies, whofe umbrageous growth 
 The gulls of Autumn have in vain aflaiPd, 
 Range we fecure, and view the diftant fcene. 
 
 Mark on that road, whofe unobftru&ed courfe 
 With long white line the unburied furze divides, 
 on folitary horfeman urge his way. 
 
 not unmindful of the brooding ftorm, 
 -e yet by flrong neceffity compelled 
 if preffing occupation he exchanged 
 Le blazing hearth, the firm-compaaed roof, 
 For naked forefts and uncertain Ikies, 
 With fapient caution arm'd himfelf to meet 
 The Winter's utmoft rage. In filken folds 
 Twice round his neck the handkerchief he twined. 
 His legs he cafed in boots of mighty fize, 
 And ftrength experienced oft ; warm'd through and 
 through 
 
94 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 In chimney-corner ; and with glofiy face 
 
 Prepared defcending torrents to repel, 
 
 As roll the round drops from the filvery leaf 
 
 Of rain-befprinkled colewort, or the plumes 
 
 Of feagull fporting in the broken wave. 
 
 Then o'er his limbs the ftout great-coat he drew, 
 
 With collar raifed aloft, and threefold cape 
 
 Sweep below fweep in wide concentric curves 
 
 Low down his back dependent ; on his bread 
 
 The folds he crofs'd, and in its deftin'd hole 
 
 Each {training button fix'd : erect he flood, 
 
 Like huge portmanteau on its end uprear'd. 
 
 Fearlefs he fallied forth ; nor yet difdain'd 
 
 The heartening draught from tankard capp'd with 
 
 foam, 
 By hoft officious to the horfeblock borne 
 With fteady hand, and eloquently praifed ; 
 While lingering on the ftep his eye he turn'd 
 To every wind, and mark'd the embattled clouds 
 Ranging their fquadrons in the fullen Eaft. 
 How fares he now ? Caught on the middle wade, 
 Where no deep wood its hofpitable gloom 
 Offers ; no friendly thicket bids him cower 
 Beneath its tangled roof ; no lonely tree 
 Warns him to feek its leeward fide, and cleave, 
 Erect and into narroweft fpace compreft, 
 
WINTER. SNOW. 95 
 
 To the bare trunk, if haply it may ward 
 The driving temped : with bewilder'd hafte 
 Onward he comes. " Hither direct thy fpeed ; 
 " This flickering grove — " He hears not ! Mark his 
 
 head 
 Oblique, prefentcd to the ftorm ; his hand, 
 Envelop'd deep beneath the inverted cuff, 
 Strives to confine, with many a fruitlefs grafp, 
 His ever-flapping hat ; the cold drench'd glove 
 Clings round the imprifon'd fingers. O'er his knees 
 His coat's broad fkirt, fcanty now proved too late, 
 He pulls and pulls impatient, muttering wrath 
 At pilfering tailors. Baffled and perplex'd, 
 With joints benumb'd and aching, fcarce he holds 
 The rein, fcarce guides the fteed with breathlefs toil 
 O'erpower'd, and flirinking fidew T ays from the blaft. 
 Behold that fteed, with icy mane, and head 
 Deprefs'd, and quivering ears now forward bent, 
 Now backward fwiftly thrown, and offering ftill 
 Their convex penthoufe to the fliifting gale ; 
 Behold that fteed, on indurated balls 
 Of fnow upraifed, like fchoolboy rear'd on ftilts, 
 Labour unbalanced : the fallacious prop, 
 Now this, now that, breaks fliort: with fudden jerk 
 He finks, half falling ; and recovering quick, 
 On legs of length unequal reels along. 
 
96 WALKS INT A FOREST. 
 
 Scarce on his feat can clinging knees fuflain 
 
 The trembling rider : while the fnow upheaves 
 
 In drifts athwart his courfe projected broad ; 
 
 Or o'er the uncover'd gravel rattling fweeps, 
 
 Caught up in fudden eddies, and aloft, 
 
 Like fmoke, in fuffocating volumes whirl'd. 
 
 The road he quits unwary, wandering wide 
 
 O'er the bleak wafte, mid brufhwood wrapt in fnow, 
 
 Down rough declivities and fractured banks, 
 
 Through miry plaflies, cavities unfeen, 
 
 And bogs of treacherous furface ; till afar 
 
 From all that meets his recollection borne, 
 
 Difmay'd by hazards fcarce efcaped, and dread 
 
 Of heavier perils imminent, he ftands 
 
 Difmounted, and aghaft. Now Evening draws 
 
 Her gathering fliades around ; the tempeft fierce 
 
 Drives fiercer. Chill'd within him fmks his heart* 
 
 Home crowds upon his bofom. The wild blafl 
 
 Appall'd he hears, thinks on his wife and babes, 
 
 And doubts if ever he mall fee them more. 
 
 But comfort is at hand 5 the ikies have fpent 
 
 In that laft guft their fury. From the weft 
 
 The fetting fun with horizontal gleam 
 
 Cleaves the denfe clouds; and through the golden 
 
 breach 
 Strikes the fcathed oak, whofe branches peel'd and bare 
 
WINTER. SNOW, Q7 
 
 'Gainft the retiring darknefs of the ftorm 
 With fiery luftre glow. The traveller views 
 The well-known landmark, lifts to heaven his eyes 
 Swimming with gratitude, the friendly track 
 Regains, and fpeeds exulting on his way. 
 
 O ye, whom, ftruggling on life's craggy road 
 With obftacles and dangers, fecret foes 
 Supplant, falfe friends betray, difaftrous rage 
 Of elements, of war, of civil broil 
 Brings down to Poverty's cold floor, while grief 
 Preys on the heart, and dims the finking eye ; 
 Faint not ! There is who rules the ftorm, whofe hand 
 Feeds the young ravens, nor permits blind chance 
 To clofe one fparrow's flagging wing in death. 
 Truft in the Rock of Ages. Now, even now 
 He fpeaks, and all is calm. Or if to prove 
 Your inmoft foul the hurricane ftill fpread 
 Its licenfed ravages, He whifpers hope, 
 Earneft of comfort ; and through blacked night 
 Bids keen-eyed Faith on heaven's pure funfhine gaze. 
 And learn the glories of her future home. 
 
 So when the fon of patience heard the wreck 
 Of all his fortunes, camels, oxen, flocks, 
 Sons, daughters, all in one fhort hour o'erwhetmM; 
 And ere each meffenger his tale of grief 
 Had clofed, beheld another ftill fucceed 
 
gS WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 " ' ■ ' ' i ii i i i — — — ^— — — »— 
 
 With wilder eyeballs, cheeks more deadly pale, 
 More trembling lips, portending heavier woes : 
 When every limb thy cankering tooth, Difeafe, 
 Gnaw'd to the bone : when fcoffing friends arraign'd 
 His uprightnefs : when fhe who fhould have pour'd 
 Balm on his wounds, his confort, mock'd his pangs 
 With venom'd taunt " Still doft thou boaft thy 
 
 « faith ? 
 " Renounce the ungrateful Power thou ferv'ft in vain ; 
 
 " Defy his malice, ihelter'd in the grave " 
 
 His head to earth the fufferer bow'd, with hands 
 Preft on his bofom ; yet his eyes upraifed 
 In hope to heaven. " Father of all," he cried, 
 " Thy will be done ! All was thy gift ; thine own 
 " Thou haft refumed. Bleft be thy hand that gave ; 
 " And — peace, my heart ! — bleft when it takes away ! 
 " Yet thefe poor limbs, of fwarming worms the fpoil, 
 " New life fhall clothe, and rear them from the dull. 
 " Thou liveft, my Redeemer ! At the hour 
 " In thy decrees ordain'd, careering clouds 
 " Shall fpeak thine advent : earth beneath thy tread 
 6i Shall fhrink ; this voice fliall hymn thy love, thefe 
 
 " knees 
 u Adore thy power, thefe eyes behold their God I" 
 
WALK THE SIXTH, 
 
 H 2 
 
ARGUMENT. 
 
 Addrefs to Winter— A Thaw defcribed— Froft returns— Hanni- 
 bal afcending the Alps— A Foreft Brook traced— The EffVcls 
 of Froft upon it — The Norwegian Traveller — The Wild -Duck 
 —The Snipe— Cloud on a Mountain — Story of a Foreft Youth 
 —Naked Woods— Winter Appearance of the Oak — A(h— 
 Birch— Yew — Ivy — Holly— The Foxglove— Browfing of Deer 
 —Cottage-Children aflembling to gather the Branches — EfTe&s 
 of Winter — The never-ceafing Speed of Time compared with 
 the unrelenting Fury of War— A Foreft Pool frozen — Difap- 
 pointment of the Cattle— Captain Monk wintering on the 
 Shore of Hudfon's Bay — Leffons inculcated by the feveral 
 Seafons — The Confequences of neglecting the Voice of Nature 
 and of Revelation— The Deluge— Addrefs to the Supreme 
 Being. 
 
WALK THE SIXTH. 
 
 WINTER — FROST, 
 
 Winter, whom ficknefs dreads, whom grief abhors, 
 While yet nor ficknefs on my head nor grief, 
 Save with a gentle ftroke, her fceptre lays, 
 All-hail, by me nor dreaded nor abhorr'd ! 
 Whether on thy approach the Southern breeze 
 Dims with blue damps the pallid face of day ; 
 Or at thy word the cloud-difpelling North, 
 Opening the depths of ether, depths unpierced 
 By Summer's eagle gaze, the brow of night 
 Binds with new gems, and arms with keener fire ; 
 Whether on whirlwind pinions through the roar 
 Of torrent rains, or arrowy fleet, or hail 
 With cryftal bullets fliattering blade and branch, 
 Thy car fweeps onward ; or with noifelefs wings, 
 While not a breath thy flagging ftandard moves, 
 Cleaves the flill flood of prone-defcending fnows. 
 Whether, on earth* impreft, thy deadening foot 
 
 H 3 
 
i02 WALKS IN A FOREST 
 
 The land to iron chills, the floods to ftone ; 
 
 Or vapoury warmth efcapes thy changeful lips, 
 
 In univerfal thaw till Nature melts, 
 
 While Danube turbid from diflblving hills 
 
 Appals the Auftrian, and from Wyddfa's brow* 
 
 The pale Snowdonian oft at dead of night 
 
 Hears the difparted fragment thunder down, 
 
 And views at peep of day its yawning courfe 
 
 Plow'd in long ruin through the Hoping wood ; 
 
 Still has thy varied afpect charms for me. 
 
 Still haft thou charms for thofe whofe mental eye 
 
 Views thee from Him, who rules the unnumber'dworlds 7 
 
 Sent forth the minifter of good to man : 
 
 Views thee with bleak viciffitude endear 
 
 Suns of mature r glow, ferener fkies : 
 
 Views from thy piercing blaft o'erlabour'd earth 
 
 Inhale new vigour, and in tranfient fleep 
 
 Prepare the glories of the coming year ! 
 
 The fleecy mantle that of late conceal'd 
 The lawns, and burying deep the furzy brake 
 Difplay'd, upheaved in undulating mounds, 
 A rude refemblance of the forms below, 
 Is vanifti'd. From the fouth diffolving gales 
 
 * " Wyddfa, the higheft peak of Snowdon." See Pennant's 
 TourinNorthWale*, voLii. 4to. i78i»p. »6a. Art. Snowdcnia. 
 
WINTER. FROST. 10$ 
 
 Blew : the fnows felt their influence. In the woods, 
 
 Humid and comfortlefs, from dawn to eve 
 
 Were heard inceffant drippings, pattering loud 
 
 When the air moved the branches. The foft mafs 
 
 Beneath of every drop the impreGion took, 
 
 Pierced into hollows numerous as the cells 
 
 That hide the golden treafures of the bee. 
 
 Oft, from its lodgement on the forked bough 
 
 Sliding, a fnowy heap with leaden found 
 
 Sunk buried in the unrefifting floor. 
 
 Soon through the leffening weight the elaftic gorfe 
 
 Its murky fhoots, by contraft darker, puuVd. 
 
 Soon on the level plain green fpots emerged, 
 
 Where raifed the bufy ant or delving mole 
 
 Her fubterranean dwelling : floppy pools 
 
 In the furrounding pulp lay ftagnant. Streams 
 
 From each low bank ran trickling ; while above, 
 
 The new-born currents, pouring from the hills, 
 
 O'er the fmooth flope in brown diflufion ilray'd. 
 
 Or deep in echoing gullies roar'd unfeen. 
 
 The brook, that late within its hollow bed 
 
 In glaffy fetters mourn'd, the brittle chains 
 
 Shiver'd, and hail'd the tributary Hoods : 
 
 And oft by congregated piles of ice 
 
 Obftru&ed, raged aloud, and ftrew'd the vale 
 
 With fragments. Of the univerial white 
 
 h 4 
 
104 WALKS IN A FOREST, 
 
 No fpeck was left, fave where in lonely dell, 
 Fronting the north, amid the general rout 
 Unawed its ftation yet the drift maintain'd, 
 And feem'd to wait for fuccour from the fkies. 
 Thus when her ftandard civilifmg Art 
 Plants on fome barbarous fhore, to mountains bleak 
 And craggy faftneffes his warrior fons 
 The angry Genius of the wade withdraws : 
 There bids them, from the influence abhorr'd 
 Of Science free, their fanguinary rites, 
 Their manners rude, and favage laws uphold ; 
 Till fate once more fhall pour them from their caves, 
 Impatient o'er their long-loft plains again 
 To fpread the veil of ignorance and night. 
 Earth of its load was lighten'd, and abforb'd 
 The moifture ; funny gleams and breezy air 
 The furface dried. Now Froft again afcends 
 His throne ; and kindling with unclouded beams 
 The cope of Heaven, and fixing firm the ground, 
 Crifp to the tread, from hot and crowded rooms 
 Calls us his bracing atmofphere to breathe, 
 And welcome his invigorating power. 
 
 Touch'd by his cheering energy, the heart 
 Beats livelier ; the cheek reddens ; through the frame. 
 While yet one loitering friend we fummon oft 
 With loud impatience, every vein expands 
 With buoyant eagernefs : we feem to tread 
 
WINTER.-— FROST. JO5 
 
 In air, the lawn even now while Fancy fcours, 
 
 Darts o'er the valley, penetrates the woods 
 
 That fhag yon flope, and on the naked brow 
 
 Pants, and with joy the frefher breeze inhales. 
 
 Thus when his hoft o'er Alps oppofed in vain 
 
 The Carthaginian led, the laft afcent 
 
 Labouring o'er icebuilt rocks as now they trod, 
 
 Gafping for breath the way-worn myriads paufed. 
 
 His bulk the wearied elephant reclined, 
 
 Uncurl 'd his trunk, and drank the eternal fnows. 
 
 Impatient of a moment loft, the Chief 
 
 Prefs'd forward to the fummit ; flung an eye 
 
 Of tranfport o'er the wide-fpread realms beneath ; 
 
 Then turn'd, and frown'd, and call'd his lingering van ; 
 
 Then gazed again on Italy : while Hope 
 
 Bade him with glance prophetic mark the ftream, 
 
 Of Trebia choked with dead ; bade him in thought 
 
 View Thrafymene's red waves o'er legions roll'd, 
 
 Sweep Cannae's field, and make the towers of Rome. 
 
 Bend we our fteps befide this foreft brook, 
 And trace its windings. In yon flat morafs, 
 Where fpiry ruflies in divergent files 
 Rife fledged with rime, where many a ftunted bufli, 
 Alder or fallow, cropt by nibbling deer, 
 Betrays the dampnefs of the foil beneath, 
 Fram fecret fprings it murmurs. Iffuing thence, 
 
Io6 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 Awhile in naked channel o'er the plain 
 It wanders ; now in fhort and fudden turns 
 Twilling round narrow points, as though it fled 
 Back to its fource ; now in extended curves 
 Sweeping ; now gliflening in long reaches ; now 
 With fretted furface and complaining found 
 Hurrying in bright cafcades. Then fwift it dives 
 Into this fylvan glen. Behold it whirl 
 In fullen eddies round that alder's root ; 
 And far within the brink, where half congeal'd 
 Lingers the foam, the trout's dark hold prepare : 
 Whence, as from couchant ambufh on the fawn 
 Loitering befide the jungle * fprings the pard, 
 While brightening with fuccefs his fpotted fides 
 Gliften ; the fpeckled plunderer of the deep, 
 When June awakes her infect tribes, (hall dart 
 Fierce on the prey, while with unpractifed wing 
 It fports and flutters on the dimpled ftream. 
 Here, the flat turf with eafy flexure meets 
 The wave ; abrupt the adverfe fide defcends 
 In contrail bold, whence the afpiring afh, 
 Or time-worn maple darts, or fmewy oak 
 Deep-fixed with many a wreathed root o'erhangs 
 
 * The vaft thickets in the Eaft Indies, in which leopards and 
 other wild beafh lurk, are known by the appellation of Jungles. 
 
WINTER. FROST. IO7 
 
 The cavern'd margin. View the marly cliff, 
 Its bafe by oozing fprings with froftwork glazed, 
 Various beyond the forms which fancy weaves : 
 Lo cryftal columns glitter ; and difpofed 
 Tier above tier, pellucid cornices, 
 With plumy darts and fparkling gems embofs'd, 
 Tell to what height the current lately raifed 
 Its ampler fwell, and with diminifh'd flood 
 Sunk gradual. Thus when Rome o'er Britifh plains 
 The tide of conqueft roll'd, her barrier wall, 
 To Glotta now thy fnores, Bodotria, join'd *, 
 Now to thy fand-banks, Solway, and the waves 
 Of coaly Tyne withdrew, as rapine fped, 
 Or valour's patriot arm her range curtaiPd, 
 And chafed her baffled eagle from the prey. 
 Here, where the ftream o'er pebbly fhallows frets 
 With murmuring fpeed, a narrow range of ice 
 Grows to the edge, or round the uncover'd (lone 
 Concretes ; or fringed with points projecting far, 
 Circles the gravelly ifland by the force 
 Of floods upraifed. There, where the deeper reach 
 Spreads fmooth, from fide to fide a glairy floor 
 Stretches, nor hides the twinkling rill beneath : 
 
 * The Friths of Clyde and Forth. 
 
108 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 Or by the ftream defer ted rears in air 
 Delufive bridges, to the heedlefs foot 
 Of deer, or ftranger hafting o'er the wild, 
 Dangerous, and loudly crafting in their fall. 
 
 So when o'er Norway's rocks the mountaineer, 
 Forming on high the dizzy pathway, meets 
 Some rifted chafm, in whofe unfathom'd depth 
 The cataract foams, fcarce heard above, and whirls 
 Its clouds of rifing vapour ; o'er the void 
 The withered birch by ftorms uptorn he throws. 
 Ere long within the bark * the treacherous wood 
 Moulders; and leaves the rind, a fpecious ftell, 
 Bridging the gulf. Beneath the traveller's weight 
 The fpecious fliell breaks fhort. He ftrieks unheard, 
 Falls undeplored, by pointed crags below 
 Awaited, and by torrents to the fea 
 Swept headlong. Mid her babes his widow fits 
 Penfive, and eyes the fnow-clad hill in vain. 
 
 Lo ! from its haunt, by crowding alders veil'd, 
 
 * The bark of the birch has the property of being more durable 
 than the wood which it envelops. When M. Maupertuis, in his 
 expedition to meafure a degree of latitude, traverfed the birchen 
 forefts of Lapland, in which numbers of trees lay uprooted by the 
 winds ; he found, on examining thofe which had been long blown 
 down, that the fubftance of the wood was entirely gone, and that 
 the apparently folid trunk confifted only of a fhell of bark. 
 
WINTER. — FROST. IO9 
 
 Where mantling in the ftill unfrozen flood 
 Aquatic weeds breathe warmth, at our approach 
 Alarrn'd on founding wing the wild duck foars, 
 And plies to diftant folitudes her courfe. 
 The fnipe flies fcreaming from the marfhy verge, 
 And towers in airy circles o'er the wood, 
 Still heard at intervals ; and oft returns, 
 And ftoops, as bent to alight ; then wheels aloft 
 With fudden fear, and fcreams, and ftoops again, 
 Her favourite glade reluctant to forfake. 
 So on thy fteeps, Helvellyn, when the air 
 Stagnates in noontide calm, a cloud reclines. 
 Eddying amid thy rocks ere long a breeze 
 Difturbs its reft. Unwilling from its couch 
 The vapour moves : now, by the guft upborne, 
 Soars buoyant ; now, whene'er the pafiing gale 
 Remits, with glad precipitance fubfides, 
 And hangs and lingers on the attractive brow. 
 
 Once by yon poplars, through whofe twinkling (hade 
 With fruitiefs glance the oft-reflecled beam 
 Struggled, nor reached the dufky flood beneath, 
 An ancient mill arofe. The reftlefs wheel 
 Scatter'd the fparkling wave amid the gloom, 
 And broke the noonday filence of the wood. 
 7 Twas there a youth with care fraternal footh'J 
 A much-lov'd filler, while a parent loft, 
 
IIO WALKS IN A FOREST- 
 
 An aged mother whom his toil had fed, 
 
 Their mingling tears deplored. One fummer eve, 
 
 As from fhort abfence he return'd, her fhrieks, 
 
 Shrieks as though racking pangs o'er life prevailed, 
 
 He heard. The whirling millftone, as fhe moved 
 
 Unwitting of the danger, feized her arm, 
 
 And cruhVd each mufcle. The remorfelefs gripe 
 
 He loofed. Art lent its healing aid in vain. 
 
 Nine days in anguifh o'er her couch he hung ; 
 
 The tenth he clofed her eyes. The murderous ftone, 
 
 The floor ftill fpotted with a fitter's blood, 
 
 The confcious poplars, and the fatal ftream, 
 
 He could no more behold. His native land 
 
 He left for ever ; ftemm'd the weftern main ; 
 
 And, fix'd in depths of folitude to hide 
 
 His grief, on Pennfylvania's utmoft bound, 
 
 "Where to man's heaven-appointed rule her fons 
 
 Bend the untamed wildernefs, prepared 
 
 To rear his dwelling. The ftupendous fcene, 
 
 Unlike the humbler wild that gave him birth, 
 
 Amazed he view'd, the interminable watte, 
 
 The woods of giant growth, the piny fwamp 
 
 Darkening the humid air : and oft would note 
 
 Curious the wings unknown that crofs'd the glade, 
 
 And mark the fcaly ferpent as he flunk 
 
 Through ru filing leaves, or darting onward fhook 
 
WINTER* FROST. Ill 
 
 The warning rattle * ; or befide the root 
 Of fome time-honour'd trunk in fpiral folds 
 Coil'd motionlefs, his fafcinating eye 
 Fix'd on the confcious victim perch'd above. 
 Chain'd by the potent glance, the helplefs prey 
 With piteous cries and wildly ruffled plumes 
 Flutter'd from bough to bough, defcending ftill, 
 Nor fhunn'd the jaws of death that gaped below. 
 Meanwhile of rugged logs f his cot he framed, 
 
 * That the Rattlefnake frequents the latitude of Pennfylvania, 
 appears from Carver's Travels through the interior Parts of North 
 America, 2d ed. p. 43 j and from Long's Voyages and Travels of 
 an Indian Interpreter, p. 149. It is indeed found as far northward 
 as lat. 49. See Long's Voyages, p. 159. The power which this 
 animal porTeiTes of charming his prey by fixing his eye upon it, is 
 afierted by various witnefTes ; and its effect is thus defcribed by 
 Catefby : " The animals, particularly birds and fquirrels, which 
 " principally are it? prey, no fooner fpy the make, than they (kip 
 " from fpray to fpray, hovering and approaching gradually nearer 
 " to their enemy, regardlefs of any other danger 5 but with dif- 
 " traded geftures and outcries defcend, though fiom the top of 
 66 the loftieft trees, to the mouth of the fnake, v/ho openeth his 
 " jaws, takes thern in, and in an inftant fwallows them." Hiftory 
 of Carolina, vol. ii. p. 41. 
 
 f In the third volume of the Memoirs of the Literary and 
 Philofophical Society of Manchelter, a very curious and interesting 
 account of the mode of eftabliming fettlements in the remote parts 
 of Pennfylvania is given by Dr. Rum of Philadelphia. Speaking 
 of a fettler in the woods, Dr. Rum fays, p. 184: " His firftobjtft 
 
112 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 And ftopp'd each chink with mofs, leftfearching rains 
 
 Or fnows by winter's gufty breath impell'd 
 
 Should drench his nightly couch : then from the foil 
 
 Cleared the rough brufhwood, and round every ftem 
 
 Of ampler girth the fatal circle drew. 
 
 Blighted and wan the vernal foliage mourn'd 
 
 Its intercepted nutriment, and ftrew'd 
 
 
 4 C is to build a fmall cabin of rough logs for himfelf and his family. 
 €€ A coarfer building, adjoining to this cabin, affords melter to a 
 €c cow and a pair of poor horfes. The labour of creeling thefe 
 " buildings is fucceeded by that of killing the trees on a few acres 
 " of ground near his cabin. This is done by cutting a circle round 
 " the trees two or three feet from the ground. The ground around 
 " thefe trees is then ploughed, and Indian corn planted in it.'* 
 
 Mr. Smyth, in a Tour in the United States of America, 8vo. 
 London 17S4, fpeaks as follows: " The general mode of clearing 
 " the land in this country, where timber is of no value and labour 
 ** is of great, is by cutting a circle round the tree through the 
 u bark quite to the wood before the fap rifes, which kills it. And 
 " they cultivate the ground below immediately, leaving the trees 
 €t to rot ftanding, which happens within a very few years 5 and 
 u they never bear leaves more. A large field in this fituation 
 €t makes a moft fingular, ftriking, and tremendous appearance. 
 '* It would feem indeed dangerous to walk in it, as the trees are 
 t€ of a prodigious height and magnitude : vaft limbs and branches 
 ** of enormous fize impending in awful ruins from a great height, 
 " fometimes breaking off, and frequently whole trees falling to the 
 €C ground with a horrible crafh, the found of which is increased 
 " and protracted by the reverberation of the furreunding echoes." 
 Vol. i. p. 94, 95. 
 
WINTER. FROST. 
 
 II 3 
 
 The ground, as when the gale of autumn whirls 
 
 The leafy fhower : the folitary trunks 
 
 Frown* d on the rifmg harveft. Time ere long 
 
 Loofen'd the roots, and tempefts on the plain 
 
 The thundering downfall hurl'd : the midnight cfafli 
 
 Startled the foreft. Each fucceeding fpring 
 
 Beheld the wafte retire. The paftured field, 
 
 The emerald meadow, and the waving gleam 
 
 Of corn by breezes moved, and all the charms 
 
 Of hard-earn'd home, bade peace the exile's brow 
 
 Dilate, and brighten the yet-heaving tide 
 
 Of antient forrow ; in the void of air 
 
 As the red moon new rifen o'er Ocean hangs, 
 
 Streams a long line of radiance on the flood, 
 
 And golden billows welter to the fliore. 
 
 One vernal eve, as wrapt in lonely thought 
 He traced his confines, from the bordering wafte 
 An aged man came forth : his tottering fteps 
 With looks of filial love a maiden watch'd, 
 And propp'd him with her arm ; and when he figh'd, 
 Sigh'd deeper, yet in hade the found reftrain'd, 
 Left he ihould mark it. From the voice of woe 
 I The exile never turn'd : the fire he join'd, 
 And aik'd his grief. — Long in a diftant wild 
 He dwelt in peace. With malice unprovoked 
 And third of plunder fired, an Indian band. 
 
114- WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 i 
 
 What time no pitying moonbeam fpoke their guile, 
 Stole on his fleep. At once with favage yell 
 The war-whoop echoed from the wood; the torch 
 Flung frequent feized the roof; the fhiver'd door 
 Sunk from the ftroke ; his fon the onfet braved 
 With fruitlefs arms ; the fhriek of death was heard, 
 And life's laft drops the gaining tomahawk drain'd. 
 Fierce on the fpoil the murderers ruftVd : unfeen 
 The fire and daughter fled, forlorn to roam, 
 Think on the flain, and beg their daily food. — 
 Thy throbbings, Memory, in the exile's breaft 
 The fad recital waked. With faltering lip 
 He footh'd the wanderers, to his manfion led, 
 And cried, " Behold your home ! And may the Power 
 "Who feeming evil ftill to good transforms, 
 " Who pitying faw, when forrow at your peace 
 " Her keened arrows aim'd, as once at mine, 
 " Bind up the wound V 9 Nor many a moon had fired 
 And quench'd her varying crefcent, ere that home 
 Could pleafe no more, unlefs the ftranger maid 
 Call'd it of right her own. For fhe was fair 
 As pictured Innocence ; and mental grace 
 And humble Piety's ethereal flame 
 Glow'd in each feature. Soon the enraptured youth 
 The impaffion'd fecret told. With downcaft eye 
 And burning cheek {he liften'd to his tale ; 
 

I 
 
 V 
 
WINTER.— FROST. 115 
 
 Own'd the quick pulfe that trembled at her heart, 
 And named it gratitude, but felt it love. 
 Weeping for joy the fire their union hail'd ; 
 With hands to heaven upraifed his children bleft : 
 And fmiling years proclaim'd the bleflmg heard. 
 
 Climb we this brow ; the groves, whofe naked fcenes 
 Still have their charms, invite us. In array 
 Compact they (land, a various hofl: ; as when 
 The Emprefs of the north her fubject tribes 
 Combined for war, the much enduring Rufs 
 Slow-paced, the Kalmuck glorying in his fpeed, 
 The dwarfifli Laplander, Livonian huge, 
 Siberia's fhaggy race, Circaffia's fons 
 For beauty famed, and Samoeide comprefs'd 
 In Nature's rudefi mould. Imperial oak ! 
 Hail on thy central lawn, while rang'd around 
 In pomp irregular to diftance due 
 The fubjecl: woods retire. Of ftrength fupreme 
 Thy every feature tells. Thy rugged roots 
 Now feize with eagle grafp the earth, now heave 
 The incumbent foil. Thy huge and furrow'd trunk, 
 With many a rough protuberance embofs'd, 
 The lapfe attefts of numerous ages, fled 
 With all their generations. Deeply fcorch'd, 
 Pierced, and fnapp'd lhort, thy top records a blafl: 
 Wing'd with tempefluous lightning, and with rage 
 
 1 2 
 
Il6 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 Of Alpine ftorm, for lefs had ne'er atchieved 
 The mighty boaft, impell'd. Projected wide 
 O'er the bare plain with horizontal ftretch, 
 Thy arms enormous, girt with wither'd leaves, 
 And tufted ftill with miftletoe, no more 
 By Druid hands and golden fickle cropt, 
 Rear their abrupt contortions ; and uphold 
 With firm fupport the thickly- woven fpray. 
 Defect: of ftrength eompenfating with grace, 
 Behold the fhapely afh from yonder group 
 Advance : the ftem, with mofly broidure dark, 
 Its flowing line prolongs ; in airy fweep 
 Curve above curve the carelefs branches wave, 
 In beauty's facile bend then upward turn, 
 Studded with fable gems, gems loth to yield 
 The leaves they fhroud to April's fickle gale* 
 Behold the birch in mimic forrow droop, 
 With filver mantle torn, and wait the call 
 Of Spring in many a lucid rill to pour 
 Ne&arean tears. Behold the fable yew 
 In ever- during armour frown, and vaunt 
 Its boughs elaftic, once of Albion deem'd, 
 What thou art now, imperial oak, the pride 
 And bulwark, when her fons, at Freedom's nod, 
 On Kent's white cliffs and Cumbrian hills array'd, 
 Drew the long bow, and pointed (hafts repell'd 
 
WINTER. — FROST. II7 
 
 Invading Gaul, and Caledonia's rage. 
 Nor lefs its wintry honours unimpaired 
 The ivy boafts : not as when freakt by art 
 With motley tints it decorates the wall 
 Or painted fummer-houfe, or trim alcove : 
 But o'er its native thicket wanders wide, 
 Dark-robed ; and round the thorn's imprifon'd trunk 
 Twifting in hairy volumes, fpreads its veil, 
 And loads the boughs with verdure not their own. 
 But foremoft of the troop whofe hardy files 
 Clofe ranged, thy wrath, defpoiling Autumn, fcorn, 
 The holly glows ; in fummer's gaudy bower 
 Dull and unnoticed ; now, when winter's voice 
 Roars through the wood, with native coral bright, 
 And armed leaves ; as virtues in thy glare, 
 Profperity, long torpid and unfeen, 
 When Fortune rolls her adverfe waves, break forth, 
 Refulgent. Now a folitary cone 
 On pale gray trunk it raifes : now combines 
 Its crowded tops and intermingling Hems 
 In focial groups : now ftretches o'er the hills 
 In woods continuous, with noclurnal gloom 
 Still dufky, fave where through fome narrow cleft 
 The prying ray fteals entrance ; or a fliower 
 Of fplendid atoms twinkles in the fun, 
 While the keen thrufli the berried twig invades, 
 
 ■ 3 
 
1 18 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 Or from the rimy boughs the ringdove breaks. 
 Clofe crowding to the roots the foxglove fhuns 
 The peafant's weighty tread ; and rears its (terns, 
 Summer's brown reliques, late with pendent, bells 
 Reddening the wild, now wither'd and forlorn, 
 Fringed with dry fragments ruftling in the breeze. 
 Thus o'er the warrior's urn while Victory bends 
 In monumental woe, his mighty lance 
 Sordid with duft, and blunt with cankering age, 
 High on the wall mid tatter'd enfigns hangs, 
 And mouldering trophies of its paft renown. 
 
 Why gleams the axe ? Why falls the verdant branch ? 
 Falls it with emblematic green to deck 
 The fane, or in the cheerful window twined 
 The village grace ; while man adoring learns 
 The wonders of his Saviour's birth, or hails 
 With feftal gratitude the newborn year ? 
 Hark ! louder ftill the invaded woodlands groan ; 
 And ampler defolation ftrews the ground. 
 Call'd by the well-known echoes, that announce 
 To every herd throughout the adjacent lawns 
 Scatter'd the hour of food, when fylvan fpoils 
 The fhrivel'd herbage of the plain fupply, 
 Lo the deer hafte ; as when at farmyard gate 
 The noontide bell, fwung long, and tinkling far, 
 The peafant bands expeding due repaft 
 

 WINTER. FROST. II9 
 
 Summons from many a field. The prickly leaves 
 Fearlefs they crop ; then feize the {lender (hoots ; 
 Then from the firmer branches flrip the rind, 
 Not doom'd the fchoolboy's vifcous rods to arm, 
 And fnare the antient tenants of the made. 
 Hither, ye children of the cot, repair ; 
 The herds have browfed their fill ; the fpoil is yours. 
 In thought even now I hear your bufy tongues : 
 I fee your ruddy cheeks ftill deeper dy'd 
 By the keen air : I fee your purple hands 
 Drag the forfaken boughs : I fee you bend 
 All playful o'er the evening hearth, and rub 
 The fmarting eyeball, as ye watch the fmoke 
 Eurft forth in puffs ; or touch the (learning rind 
 With timorous finger oft and ofc withdrawn ; 
 While foamy fap through every crevice boils, 
 And hiffes in the half-extinguim'd fire. 
 
 Whether, (till green, with leafy guard the boughs 
 Encircled rife, or bleak with horrent fpray 
 Shiver in naked ranks, alike o'er all 
 Winter his petrifying fceptre waves ; 
 Hurls from her throne the Vegetative Power; 
 Chains in its harden 'd rind the trunk ; with cry 
 Terrific makes the branches ; in the bud 
 Seals up the leaflet ; and in every vein 
 Curdles the ftagnant fap. Yet at thy name, 
 
 14 
 
120 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 ■*—■—■ — — — — ,i , ■ » 
 
 King of the tempefts, though through all her realms 
 
 Creation fhudders, and her feebler tribes 
 
 Torpid and whelm'd in deathlike fleep furveys ; 
 
 Time's active ftrength nor flags nor {lumbers : Time, 
 
 Numb'd by no froft, retarded by no ftorm, 
 
 Still fpeeds his never- varied courfe, ftill fvvells 
 
 With days and months and years his journey'd (lore. 
 
 Nor fhall his hafte be flacken'd, till he gains 
 
 The peak of that vaft mountain, up whofe fteeps 
 
 Straining for ages he has toiFd ; and treads 
 
 Unconfcious on the brink of the abyfs, 
 
 Thy gulph, Eternity, foredoom'd his grave, 
 
 Takes one ftep more, and is for ever loft. 
 
 Thus when its facred reft the Sabbath breathes, 
 
 Labour's tired hand, the unyoked ox, the earth 
 
 Safe from the fhare, repofes ; in the port 
 
 Thy din, clofe anchoring Commerce, ftuns no more ; 
 
 Mute is the empty mart ; unheard the rage 
 
 Of pleaders ; Juftice, with relenting brow, 
 
 Sheathes on the hallowed morn her fword ; a paufe, 
 
 A folemn paufe, all nature feems to feel, 
 
 Save in the frowning camp. War knows no reft ; 
 
 War owns no fabbath ; War, with impious toil 
 
 Unfpent, with blood unfated, to the fiends 
 
 Of vengeance ftill rebellows, ftill purfues 
 
 His work of death; nor paufes, nor relents, 
 
 For laws divine, or fight of human woe* 
 
WINTER. FROST. 121 
 
 Sunk in the vale, whofe concave depth receives 
 The waters draining from thefe fhelvy banks 
 When the fliower beats, yon pool with pallid gleam 
 Betrays its icy covering. From the glade 
 Iffuing in penfive &\e> and moving flow, 
 The cattle, all unwitting of the change, 
 To quench their cuftomary third advance. 
 With wondering flare and fruitlefs fearch they trace 
 The foiid margin : now bend low the head 
 In act to drink ; now with faflidious nofe 
 SnufEng the marble floor, and breathing loud, 
 From the cold touch withdraw. Awhile they fland 
 In difappointment mute ; with ponderous feet 
 Then bruife the furface : to each ftroke the woods 
 Reply ; forth gufhes the imprifon'd wave 
 
 So when thy keel, adventurous Monk*, had plow'd 
 The Arctic flreight ; when on the beach, convulfed 
 
 * Captain Monk was difpatched in the year 1619 by Chrif- 
 tian IV. king of Denmark, to attempt the difcovcry of a north- 
 eaft pafiage to China. He wintered on the more of Hudfcn's 
 Bay; and relates that the cold was fo intenfe, that neither beer, 
 wine, nor brandy could refift it; but were frozen up, and the 
 veffels which contained them were fplit into pieces: and that, 
 before they could ufe the liquors, they were obliged to hew them 
 with hatchets, and diflblve them by fire. The ciaflical reader will 
 recollect Virgil's defcriptior of a Scythian winter : 
 
 — -caeduntque fecuribus humida vina. 
 
122 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 With fhock of floating ifles and driving cliffs 
 Rear'd in pellucid adamant, thy crew 
 Liftening the cram their wintry dwelling raifed ; 
 Nor juice of grape by fouthern funs matured, 
 Nor fierce Geneva with internal fire 
 Ardent the petrifying blaft withftood. 
 The expanding veffel roar'd. Protruded pale 
 From the ftaved ends the pillar'd ice amazed 
 The thirfty mariners. The glaffy draught 
 Eager they hew with axes, crufh with bars, 
 Shiver with hammers, and o'er piny boughs 
 Heap'd high the fragments in the caldron pile. 
 Quick moves the hand, the labouring bellows pant ; 
 The cheer'd flame glows beneath the brazen cave ; 
 On its hot fides the round drops hifs ; the flood 
 Slow-rifing fimmers ; o'er the finking mafs 
 Throng'd in clofe circle gleaming faces hang, 
 And half devour it with impatient eyes. 
 
 Through Winter's fylvan realms in devious courfe 
 Thus rove our fteps. We linger, pleafed to note 
 His mein peculiar. Deem we then the face 
 Of changeful feafons varied but to charm 
 The gazing eye, and foothe the vacant mind I 
 Say, is not Nature's ample tome difplay'd, 
 Even to the carelefs wanderer in the field, 
 With loftier purpofe ? Wifdom's dictates pure, 
 
WINTER. FROST. 123 
 
 Themes of momentous import, character'd 
 By more than human finger, every page 
 Difclofes. He, who form'd this beauteous globe 
 So fair, amid her brighteft fcenes hath hung 
 Fit emblems of a perifhable world ; 
 And graved on tablets he that runs may read 
 Your fickle date, ye fublunary joys. 
 The buds doth Spring unfold, and, thick as dew 
 Spangling the grafs, the purple bloom difFufe ? 
 Comes a chill blight, and bids the fanguine youth 
 Read in its ravages a lore that tells 
 Of fruftrate plans, and hope indulged in vain. 
 Do Summer funs the mead with herbage load, 
 And tinge the ripening year ? With fudden rage 
 The thunderftorm defcends : the river fwells 
 Impatient, leaps the mound ; and, while the waves 
 Devour the promifed harveft, calls on Thee, 
 O Man, to tremble for thy daily bread. 
 The faded leaves doth Autumn fcatter wide ; 
 ■ Or Winter rend the defolated boughs, 
 And lay the fathers of the foreft low ? 
 Child of the duft, attend ! To thee they cry, 
 Each from his whirlwind, " Earth is not thy home." 
 They bid thee feek, nor hopelefs deem the toil, 
 While ftrength Divine thy confcious weaknefs aids, 
 A more enduring dwelling-place ; the joys 
 
124 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 Unutterable, which nor eye hath feen, 
 
 Nor ear hath heard, nor heart of man * conceived ; 
 
 Joys which in worlds to holy peace confign'd, 
 
 Empyreal realms, Omnipotence prepares 
 
 For thofe who love their God : joys then to ope 
 
 Their (lores, when from the Judge's face, as dew 
 
 Shrinks from the fun, this earth, thefe heavens, are 
 
 fledf; 
 And all the palm-crown'd fons of holinefs, 
 With garments wauVd in their Redeemer's blood J, 
 Shout their hofannas round his throne ; and, join'd 
 With angels, and to angels equal made, 
 Bathe in the fount of ever-during blifs. 
 
 Do Seafons teach in vain ? Doth Nature's voice 
 Sound in dull ears ? Has Truth, difclofed from heaven, 
 With fruitlefs beams on Nature's volume pour'd 
 New radiance ; and her facred fhafts beheld 
 Bound unimpreflive from the callous heart ? 
 Tremble, infenfate triflers ! Tremble, mourn, 
 O race obdurate ! Ye that flight the love, 
 That mock the vengeance of eternal Power : 
 Love, on whofe wonders raptured Angels gaze ; 
 Vengeance, in flames to ihuddering Fiends reveal'd I 
 What yet remains ? The hour, that ends the joys 
 
 * i Cor. H. 9. f Rev, xx. 1 1. J Rev. vii, 14. 
 
 
WIKTER. FR03T. 125 
 
 And wakes the throbs of guilt ; the hour, that cries, 
 Y Trial is pad, and Judgement reigns ;" the hour, 
 That bids accufing Memory barb her darts ; 
 That brings the fruitlefs figh, the confcious pang, 
 Of ruin felf-induced, and mercy loft 
 For ever, the blank horrors of defpair ! 
 
 So, warn'd of God, from cities long grown deaf 
 To facred exhortation to the depth 
 Of mountain woods his fons the Patriarch led. 
 There with long-drawn and wide-extended line 
 He flretch'd the mighty keel and curved the ribs 
 Of that capacious veffel, doom'd to fave 
 The wrecks of nature. Oft would gathering crowds 
 With ftupid gaze the growing fabric watch, 
 Or point the taunting finger. He meanwhile, 
 Year after year, untired the tafk purfued ; 
 Till wonder ceafed to mark his toil, nor fcorn 
 Deign'd to deride him more. One morn, the heavens 
 Grew dark with wings ; earth with unnumber'd fteps 
 Sounded ; bird, beaft, in long proceffion fought 
 Their deftined refuge. With his kindred train 
 The builder next afcended. From the gloom 
 Of congregating clouds put forth, a Hand * 
 
 * " They went in unto Noah into the ark — and the Lord /hut 
 f* him in." Gen. vii. 15, 16. 
 
126 WALKS IN A FOREST. 
 
 The entrance clofed. Then darknefs cover'd all, 
 Deathlike, unfunn'd, as though primeval night 
 Refumed her empire. Torrents from the fkies 
 Plunged prone in folid downfall. Earth her depths 
 Burft. Thronging on the fummits of the hills, 
 As feamen crowded on the mainmaft's top 
 While at each billow deeper finks the fhip 
 And deeper, nations their defpairing eyes 
 Roll'd round ; from every furge in lefTening orb 
 Shrunk; their wild arms uplifted; ftretch'd their necks 
 Above the rifmg waves, and fhriek'd their Jaft. 
 Father of earth and heaven, Almighty Lord, 
 Whofe fpan confines infinity *, whofe eye 
 Surveys eternal ages at a glance ; 
 How long, in crowding millions round thy throne 
 On balanced wings while fpirits pure thy nod 
 Await, in blifs moil bleffed when Thou deign'ft 
 To fpeak thy mandate, and their fervice ufe ; 
 How long fhall man with cold reluctant heart 
 Ponder the truths thy word, thy works, declare ? 
 Yet here, even here, in this apoftate vale 
 Still Thou haft many fervants. But afar 
 From thy abode the vain, the felfifh throng 
 
 ■wild uproar 
 
 Stood ruled, ftood vaft Infinitude confined. Milton, 
 
. 
 
 WINTER. FROST. 127 
 
 On Folly's glittering ftream fecurely floats, 
 
 Or toils through ftorms for honour, power, or gold. 
 
 Thou art not in their thoughts, nor in their ways. 
 
 This to his pleafure turns, this to his farm, 
 
 That to his merchandife. The globe rolls round ; 
 
 And ftill another and another Spring 
 
 Beholds the chafers urge the blind purfuit, 
 
 Nearer, yet nearer, to the gloom that hangs 
 
 In mifty volumes on the horizon's verge, 
 
 And hides the gulf wide-yawning for its prey. 
 
 Meanwhile they feaft, they dance ; the jocund harp 
 
 Rings at their board ; the viol, tabret, horn, 
 
 And lute fymphonious to the choral lay, 
 
 Pour the full tide of harmony ; but Thee 
 
 They flight, nor mark the wonders of thy hand ! 
 
 Yet name they not their God ? — Whatname they more? 
 
 Thy holy name the town, the country hears 
 
 In ceafelefs repetition ; day and night, 
 
 Bufmefs and leifure, indigence and wealth, 
 
 , All hours, all places hear thy holy name. 
 
 < Strange to the heart, why dwells it on the tongue ? 
 To round a period with fonorous clofe ; 
 To court the fool's applaufe by daring Thee ; 
 
 ; To tell the paffing impulfe of furprife : 
 To vent the fumes of difappointed hope ; 
 To filence doubt, that fcans the uncertain tale ; 
 
12$ 
 
 /' 
 
 WALKS IN 
 
 A FOREST. 
 
 
 To fwell the evening roar 
 When wine unchains the ] 
 To arm the curfe that for 
 
 of impious mirth, 
 proud blafphemer's 
 a word, a look, 
 
 j°y; 
 
 To realms of endlefs woe a brother hurls, 
 Stamp'd with thy image, nurtured by thy love* 
 Father of all, yet fpare ! Thine arm extend 
 Tn mercy, not in judgement : loofe the bonds 
 Thou only canft unlock, bonds firm as links 
 Of adamant, that gird the flaves of guilt. 
 Pierce the deaf ear, the fightlefs eyeball cleanfe, 
 The dull mind quicken, melt the obdurate heart, 
 Teach the awaken'd foul with kindling joy 
 In all that air and earth and fea difplay, 
 Through each returning feafon, to behold 
 Thee, the great Author : mid the changing fcenes 
 And varying cares of life bid her on Thee 
 Fix her fupreme regard, thy will explore, 
 Revere thy counfels, thy behefts obey ! 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Printed by A, Strahan, Printers Street, London. 
 
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