?52 MEMOIB5- OF j 



Gild the tail vanes amid th' aftonifh'd night, 

 And reddening heaven returns the fanguine light j 

 While, with vaft ftrides and briflling hair, aloof 

 Pale Danger glides along the falling roof; 

 And giant Terror, howling in amaze, 

 Moves his dark limbs acrofs the lurid blaze : 

 Nymphs, you firft taught the gelid waves to rife,, 

 Hurl'd in refplendent arches to the ikies j 

 In iron cells cqndens'd the airy fpring, 

 And imp'd the torrent with unfailing wing ; 

 On the fierce flame the fliower impetuous falls, 

 .And fudden darknefs fhrouds the fhatterd walls j 

 Steam., fmoke, and dufl, in blended volumes roll, 

 And Night and Silence repoffefs the pole. 



Dryden, in his Annus Mirabilis, has 

 defcribed the great fire in London. Some 

 very fine lines occur in that defcription, 

 but it is prolix and feeble in comparifbri 

 with the above. 



The melancholy circumftances of the 

 Woodmafon family, and that of Lady 

 Molefworth, each of whom fuffered dread- 

 fully by fire, are next pourtrayed with 

 much pathetic folemnity, and the Water- 



Nymphs 



