XIV 
NEW LETTERS. 
Eacli to bis task : all (liferent ways ivtire ; 
Cull the dry stick ; call forth the seeds of fire ; 
Deep fix the nettle's props, a forky row ; 
Or give with fanning hat one 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 surprises ; 
( )r from our very shifts some joy arises. 
Hark, while below the village bells ring round, 
Eclio, sweet Kymph, returns the soften'd souud : 
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 Abbey lies : here wont to dAvell (a) 
The lazy monk within 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, (/3) 
Whose mountain-broAv commands the groves below ? 
In Jewry first this order found a name, 
When madding Croisades set the w^orld in flame ; 
When western climes, urg'd on by Pope and priest, 
Pour'd forth their millions o'er the delug'd 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 lov'd, as yet a child. 
Unconscious why, its 'scapes grotesque and wild : 
High on a mound th' exalted gardens stand ; 
Beneath, deep vallies scoop'd by Nature's hand ! 
(a.) The ruins of a Priory founded by Peter de Rupibns, Bishop of 
Winton. 
The remains of a supposed lodge belonging to the Knights Templars. 
