518 
POEMS. 
Or where the Hermit hangs the straw-clad cell,^ 
Emerging gently from the leafy dell ; 
By Fancy planned ; as once th^ inventive maid 
Met the hoar sage amid the secret shade ; 
Eomantic 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 softened 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 /"^ 
While papal darkness brooded o^er the land. 
Ere Reformation made her glorious stand : 
Still oft at eve belated shepherd-swains 
See the cowFd spectre skim the folded plains. 
To the high Temple would my stranger go,^ 
^ A grotesque building, contrived by a young gentleman, who used 
on occasion to appear in the character of a hermit. — Gr. W. 
2 The ruins of a priory, founded by Peter de Rupibus, Bishop of 
Winchester. — G. W. 
^ 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 Sudington; now caUed 
Southington. — G. W. 
