518 POEMS. 



Or where the Hermit hangs the straw-clad cell, 5 



Emerging gently from the leafy dell ; 



By Fancy planned ; as once th' inventive maid 



Met the hoar sage amid the secret shade ; 



Romantic spot ! from whence in prospect lies 



Whatever of landscape charms our feasting eyes ; 



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 furnished hall forgot, 

 To feast in gardens, or the unhandy grot ? 

 Or novelty with some new charms surprises, 

 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, sequestered nook, 

 Where skirting woods imbrown the dimpling brook, 

 The ruined Convent lies ; here wont to dwell 

 The lazy canon midst his cloistered cell ; 2 

 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, 3 



1 A grotesque building, contrived by a young gentleman, who used 

 on occasion to appear in the character of a hermit. G. W. 



2 The ruins of a priory, founded by Peter de Rupibus, Bishop of 

 Winchester. G. W. 



3 The remains of a preceptory of the Knights Templars ; at least it 

 was a farm dependant upon some preceptory of that order. I find it 

 was a preceptory, called the Preceptory of Suclington; now called 

 Southington. G. W. 



