144 THE AUTHOR OF " DARTMOOR/' 



By mightiest storms ; — of glen, and gorge, and cliff 



Terrific, beetling o'er the stone-strewed vale ; 



And giant masses, hy the midnight flash 



Struck from the mountains hissing brow and hurled 



Into the foaming torrent /" p 9. 



" But pause a moment here ! O ye have been 

 Volcano, Earthquake, Deluge, potent — thus. 

 With blast, and flame, and flood, to mar the face 

 . Of agonized Nature ! See the Moor 

 Upheaves its sward into the sunny air, 

 wild as when ocean flings his monstrous waves. 

 By tempests vexed, to heaven ! As deep as sink 

 His floods abysmal, yawn the cloven vales. 

 E'en to the bowels of the earth ! Around, 

 Immensely spread the wrecks of that dark age 

 When, with avenging rush and roar, the flood 

 Usurped the shrinking land. The mountain reeled 

 From its vast base, and the stupendous cliff] 

 Though ribbed with marble, fell.** p. 76- 



On Sunday, the 21st of October, 1638, a storm of 

 extreme violence occurred on Dartmoor; during 

 which, and while the Rev. George Lyde, the vicar, 

 was in the pulpit, the church of Widdicome was struck 

 by lightning, which killed 41 persons of the congrega- 

 tion, and wounded 62, besides inflicting other serious 

 damage. Canington has detailed the incident with 

 great power. 



« At first a herald flash 

 .Just chased the darkness, and the thunder spoke 

 Breaking the strange tranquillity. But soon 

 Pale horror reigned, — the mighty tempest burst 

 In wrath appalling ; — forth the lightning sprang, 

 And death came with it, and the living writhed 

 In that dread flame-sheet. 



Clasped by liquid fire — 

 Bereft of hope, they madly said the hour 

 Of final doom was nigh, and soul and sense 

 Wild reeled ; and shrieking, on the sculptured floor 

 Some helpless sank ; and others watched each flash 

 With haggard look and frenzied eye, and cowered 

 At every thunder-stroke." p. p. 57 58. 



The description of the inmates of the Prison of war, 

 at Prince town, on the Moor, is finely graphic. 



