76 RECORDS OF THE WESTERN SHORE. 



standing the importance and labouriousness of his 

 calling, to dwell more extensively on the interesting 

 themes which he has at present but touched upon. 

 In making these observations it is but just towards 

 the writer to give an extract from his preface. " These 

 legends were related to me by the common people, in 

 the course of my solitary rambles in the West. They 

 were 'done into verse,' also, during these my walks 

 and rides ; and this I mention * lest an enemy should 

 say ' that I bonowed for this purpose any of the time 

 belonging to the duties of a severe profession." 



In 1827 Mr. Hawker rthen S. C. L. of Magdalen 

 Hall, Oxford) obtained Sir Roger Newdigate's prize 

 for his poem on Pompeii — we have not seen this com- 

 position, but should be led to infer that it must be far 

 — very far above the general merit of University Prize 

 Poems. The "Records of the Western Shore" is, we 

 believe, his last work ; and in it he has shown that he 

 has both music and poetry in his soul. The harmony 

 and rythmus of the first poem are exceedingly beauti- 

 ful, the lines in italics in the last stanza, we need hardly 

 say, emanate from a' heart of benevolence, sensibility 

 and affection. 



THE DEDICATION. 



TO CHARLOTTE. 



Songs of the former men ! the lowly rhyme 



Breathed in meek numbers by our Tamar-side, — 



Ye towers, which rise around me/ gray with time ! 

 Ye heaving waves, whereby my visions glide I 

 People this page with thoughts that may abide 

 . Beneath some living eye when I am gone ; 



When men shall turn the waving grass aside, 



Men of strange garb perchance and altered tone, 



And ask whose name is worn from out that ancient stone ! 



What is my wish ? not that an echoing crowd 

 Publish my praises on some distant strand ; — 



Not that the voices of those men be loud 



With whom a strange and nameless man I stand ; 

 Tis the fond vision that some Western hand 



