4 POEMS. 



By fancy plann'd ; as once th' inventive maid 

 Met the hoar sage amid the secret shade : 

 Romantic spot ! from whence in prospect lies 

 Whate'er of landscape charms our feasting eyea^— 

 The pointed spire, the hall, the pasture plain, 

 The russet fallow, or the golden grain, 

 The breezy lake that sheds a gleaming light, 

 Till all the fading picture fail the sight. 



Each to his task ; all different ways retire : 

 Cull the dry stick ; call forth the seeds of fire ; 

 Deep fix the kettle's props, a forky row. 

 Or give with fanning hat the breeze to blow. 



"Whence is this taste, the fumish'd hall forgot^ 

 To feast in gardens, or th' unhandy grot ? 

 Or novelty with some new charms surprises, 

 Or from our very shifts some joy arises. 

 Hark, while below the village beUs ring round. 

 Echo, sweet nymph, returns the soften'd sound ; 

 But if gusts rise, the rushing forests roar, 

 Like the tide tumbling on the pebbly shore. 



Adown the vale, in lone, sequester'd nook, 

 "Where skirting woods imbrown the dimpling brook^ 

 The ruin'd convent lies : here wont to dwell 

 The lazy canon midst his cloister'd cell,* 

 While Papal darkness brooded o'er the land. 

 Ere Reformation made her glorious stand : 

 Still oft at eve belated shepherd swains 

 See the cowl'd spectre skim the folded plains. 



To the high Temple would my stranger go,t 

 The mountain-brow commands the woods below : 

 In Jewry first this order found a name. 

 When madding Croisades set the world in flame ; 

 WTien western climes, urged on by pope and pries! 

 Pour'd forth their millions o'er the deluged East : 



• The ruins of a Priory, founded by Peter de Rupibus, Bishop of 

 MTinch ester. 



+ The remains of a Preceptory of the Knights Templars ; at least it was a 

 /arm dependent upon some preceptory of that order. I find it was a preceptcry, 

 called the Preceptoi'y of Suddington ; now called Southington. 



