408 POEMS. 



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 furnish' d hall forgot, 



To feast in gardens, or th' unhandy grot ? 



Or novelty with some new charms surprizes, 



Or from our very shifts some joy arises. 



Hark, while below the village -bells 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 ; 

 When western climes, urg'd on by Pope and priest, 

 Pour'd forth their millions o'er the deluged east ; 

 Luxurious knights, ill suited to defy 

 To mortal fight Turcestan chivalry. 



Nor be the Parsonage by the muse forgot ; 

 The partial bard admires his native spot ; 

 Smit with its beauties, loved, as yet a child, 

 (Unconscious why) its scapes grotesque, and wild. 

 High on a mound th' exalted gardens stand, 

 Beneath, deep valleys scoop' d by nature's hand. 

 A Cobham here, exulting in his art, 

 Might blend the General's with the Gardener's part ; 



* The ruin of a priory, founded by Peter de Rupibus Bishop of Winchester. 



f The remains of a preceptory of the Knights Templars; at least it was a farm dependant 

 p6n some preceptory of that order. I find it was a preceptory, called the preceptory of Suding- 

 tnn ; now called Soutlrington. 



