26 ANCIENT PIGEON-HOUSES [CHAP. i. 



Mr. Rogers has given us a companion picture to the 

 foregoing, expressed in a different form, but equally 

 interesting. His exquisite lines are founded on the 

 anecdote, from Thuanus, lib. iv. c. 5, that during the 

 siege of Harlem, when that city was reduced to the 

 last extremity, and on the point of opening its gates to 

 a base and barbarous enemy, a design was formed to 

 relieve it ; and the intelligence conveyed to the citizens 

 by a letter which was tied under the wing of a Pigeon. 

 The Poet naturally and feelingly asks, 



" Led by what chart, transports the timid dove 

 The wreaths of conquest, or the vows of love ? 

 Say, thro' the clouds what compass points her flight ? 

 Monarchs have gazed, and nations blessed the sight. 

 Pile rocks on rocks, bid woods and mountains rise, 

 Eclipse her native shades, her native skies 

 'T is vain ! through Ether's pathless wilds she goes, 

 And lights at last where all her cares repose. 



" Sweet bird ! thy truth shall Harlem's walls attest, 

 And unborn ages consecrate thy nest. 

 When, with the silent energy of grief, 

 With looks that asked, yet dared not hope relief, 

 Want with her babes round generous Valour clung, 

 To wring the slow surrender from his tongue, 

 'T was thine to animate her closing eye ; 

 Alas ! 't was thine perchance the first to die, 

 Crushed by her meagre hand, when welcomed from the sky." 

 The Pleasures of Memory, Part I. 



But it is now time to retrace our steps, and return to 

 the Pigeons of a remoter age. 



The accommodations provided for Pigeons in ancient 

 times could not have widely differed from those of the 

 present day. Many of those birds which are most tame- 

 able, and show the greatest inclination for human so- 



