122 HISTORY OF KIRKBY-MOORSIDB. 



In open wand'rings, or the cooling shade } 

 Where rural objects are at once combin'd, 

 To please the fancy and compose the mind ; 

 Where in retirement, free from noise and strife, 

 We taste a portion of the charms of life ; 

 Sweet solitude ! enjoy'd in pleasing calm ; 

 Grateful repose; a soft consoling balm. 

 Yet if indulg'd too much, it may, we find, 

 Depress the spirits and o'er-cloud the mind ; 

 But mix'd with active scenes it tends through time, 

 To cheer by change, and prompt the thought sublime ; 

 To raise reflection, from the world apart, 

 Advance in wisdom, and improve the heart. 



Most pleasing vales ! where I've been wont to spend 

 Some fleeting moments with my social friend, 

 While the thick woods, which ornament each place 

 Echoe'd the warblings of the tuneful race ; 

 For nature there with liberal supply, 

 Has pleas'd the ear, and gratified the eye. 

 But higher objects stand to intervene, 

 To keep these spots to distant sight unseen, 

 Reserv'd for those who grateful visits pay, 

 In social rambles, or a musing stray. 

 I turn to take perhaps my last survey, 

 And, with reluctance, ere I go, to say ; 

 The time is come that 1 must bid adieu 

 To all the pleasures I have had in you: 

 Adieu ye Woods and Groves, ye pleasing streams; 

 Yet live in memory, and revive in dreams; 

 May thought recall, may visions oft renew, 

 And bring, repeated, every charm to view. 



Adieu my friends, and all ! for cares command 

 To distant charters in this sea-girt land : 



