630

The breath of orchard big with bending fruit,
Obedient to the breeze and beating ray,
From the deep-leaded bough a mellow fhower
Inceffant melts away. The juicy pear
Lies, in a foft profusion, scatter'd round.
A various tweetnefs fwells the gentle race,
By Nature's all-refining hand prepar'd,
Of temper'd fun and water, earth and air,
In ever-changing compofition mixt.
Such falling frequent thro' the chiller night,
The fragrant ftores, the wide projected heaps
Of apples, which the lutty-handed Year,
Innumerous, o'er the blushing orchard fakes.
A various fpirit, frefh, delicious, keen
Dwells in their gelid pores; and active,
points

635

640

The piercing cyder for the thirty tongue :
Thy native theme, and boon infpirer, too,
Phillips! Pomona's bard; the fecond thou
Who nobly durit, in rhyme-unfetter'd verfe, 645
With British freedom, fing the British fong;
How, from Silurian vats high fparkling wines.
Foam in tranfparent floods; fome ftrong, to
cheer.

The wint'ry revels of the labouring hind;
And tafteful fome, to cool the fummer-hours. 650
In this glad feafon, while his fweeteft beams
The funs fhed equal o'er the meeken'd day,
Oh lofe me in the green delightful walks
Of, Doddington! thy feat, ferene and plain,
Where simple Nature reigns, and every view,
Diffufive, fpreads the pure Dorfetian downs
In boundlefs profpect, yonder fhagg'd with
wood,

New plants to quicken and new groves to green.
Full of thy genius all, the Mufes' feat,
Where in the fecret bower and winding walk, 665
For virtuous Young and thee they twine the bay;
Here wand'ring oft', fir'd with the reftlef's thirft
Of thy applaufe, I folitary court

670

Th' infpiring breeze, and meditate the Book
Of Nature, ever open; aiming thence,
Warm from the heart, to learn the moral fong.
Here, as I fteal along the funny wall,

Where Autumn balks, with fruit empurpled deep,

My pleafing theme continual prompts my thought,

Prefents the downy peach, the thining plum, 675
The ruddy, fragrant nectarine, and dark,
Beneath his ample leaf, the luscious fig.
The vine, too, here her curling tendrils fhoots,
Hangs o'er her clusters glowing to the fouth,
And fcarcely wishes for a warmer fky.

Turn we a moment Fancy's rapid flight
To vigorous foils, and climes of fair extent,
Where, by the potent fun elated, high
The vineyard fwells refulgent on the day,

630

Spreads o'er the vale, or up the mountain cliniles,

Profufe, and drinks among the funny rocks,
From cliff to cliff increas'd, the heighten'd blaze ›
Low bend the weighty boughs; the clusters clear
Half thro' the foliage feen, or ardent flame,
Or thine tranfparent; while Perfection breathes
White o'er the turgent film the living dew.
As thus they brighten with exalted juice,
Touch'd into flavour by the mingling ray,
The rural youth and virgins o'er the field,
Each fond for each to cull the Autumnal
prime,

695

Exulting rove, and fpeak the vintage nigh.
Then comes the cruíning fwain, the country

floats

And foams unbounded with the mashy flood, That by degrees fermented and refin'd, Round the rais'd nations pours the cup of joy; 700 | The claret fmooth, red as the lip we prefs In fparkling fancy, while we drain the bowl; The mellow tafted Burgundy, and, quick As is the wit it gives, the gay Champaign,

Now, by the cool declining year condens'd,
Defcend the copious exhalations, check'd
As up the middle fky unfeen they stole,
And roll the doubling fogs around the hill.
No more the mountain, horrid, vast, sublime,
Who pours a sweep of rivers from his fides, 710
And high between contending kingdom rears
The rocky long divifion, fills the view
With great variety; but in a night

Of gathering vapour, from the baffled fenfe
Sinks dark and dreary; thence expanding far, 715
The huge dufk, gradual, fwallows up the plain:
Vanifh the woods; the dim-feen river seems
Sullen and flow, to roll the mifty wave.
Een in the height of noon oppreis'd, the fun
Sheds weak, and blunt, his wide refracted ray;
Whence glaring oft', with many a broaden❜d
orb

725

He frights the nations. Indistinct on earth,
Seen thro' the turbid air, beyond the life
Objects appear; and, wilder'd, o'er the wafte
The fhepherd ftalks gigantic; till at last,
Wreath'd dun around, in deeper circles still
Succeffive cloting, fits the general fog
Unbounded o er the world, and mingling thick,
A formlefs grey confusion covers all.
As when of old (fo fung the Hebrew bard) 73°
Light uncollected thro' the chaos urg'd
Its infant way, nor order yet had drawn
His lovely train from out the dubious gloom.

735

Thefe roving mitts, that confiant now begin
To fmoke along the hilly country, thefe,
With weighty rains and melted Alpine fnows,
The mountain-cifterns fill, thofe ample ftores
Of water, fcoop'd among the hollow rocks,
Whence gufh the ftreams, the ceafelefs fountains
play,

And their unfailing wealth the rivers draw. 740
Some fages fay, that where the numerous wave
For ever lafhes the refounding fhore,
Drill'd thro' the fandy ftratum, every way
The waters with the fandy ftratum rife,

866

87

Who can recount what tranfmigrations there
Are annual made? what nations come and go?
And how the living clouds on clouds arife?
Infinite wings till all the plume dark air,
And rude refounding fhore, are one wild cry.
Here the plain, harmlef's native his fmall flock,
And herd diminutive, of many hues,
Tends on the little ifland's verdant fwell,
The fhepherd's fea-girt reign; or to the rocks
Dire-clinging, gathers his ovarious food;
Or fweeps the fishy fhore; or treasures up
The plumage, rifing full, to form the bed
„Of Luxury'; and here a while the Mufe,
High hovering o'er the broad cerulean feene,
Sees Caledonia in romantic view:

Her airy mountains, from the waving main Invested with a keen diffufive sky,

875

880

Breathing the foul acute; her forefte huge,
Incult, robuft, and tall, by Nature's hand
Planted of old; her azure lakes between,
Pour'd out extenfive, and of wat❜ry wealth
Full winding deep, and green, her fertile vales;
With many a cool translucent brimming flood 886
Waih'd lovely from the Tweed, (pure parent
ftream,

Whofe paftoral banks first heard my Doric reed,

With, fylvan Jed! thy tributary brook,)

To where the north inflated tempeft foams
O'er Orca's or Betubium's highest peak:
Nurfe of a people, in Miffortune's school
Train'd up to hardy deeds; foon visited
By Learning, when before the Gothic rage
She took her weftern flight. A manly race,
Of unfubmitting fpirit, wife and brave,
Who ftill thro' bleeding ages ftruggled hard
(As well unhappy Wallace can atteft,
Great patriot-hero! ill-requited chief!)
To hold a generous undiminish'd state;

895

900

As from their own clear North, in radiant ftreams,

Eright over Europe bursts the Boreal Morn.

Oh! is there not fome patriot, in whofe power That beft, that godlike luxury is plac❜d, Of blessing thousands, thoufands yet unborn, 910 Thro' late pofterity? fome, large of foul, To cheer dejected Induftry? to give A double harvest to the pining fwain, And teach the labouring hind the fweets of toil?.

How by the fineft art the native robe

To weave, how, white as hyperborean fnow,
To form the lucid lawn; with venturous oar
How to dah wide the billow; nor look on,
Shamefully paffive, while Batavian Heets
Defraud us of the glittering finny fwarms
That heave our friths, and crowd upon
fhores;

How all-enlivening Trade to roufe, and wing
The profperous fail from every growing port,

915

920

our

For thofe whom Wisdom and whom Nature charin,

To fteal thremfelves from the degen'rate crowd,
And foar above this little fcene of things;
To tread low-thoughter Vice beneath their feet,
To foothe the throbbing Paffions into peace, 966
And woo lone Quiet in her filent walks.

Thus folitary, and in penfive guife,
Oft' let me wander o'er the ruffet mead,
And thro' the fadden'd grove, where fcarce is
heard

One dying ftrain to cheer the woodman's toil. 971
Haply fome widow'd fongfter pours his plaint,
Far, in faint warblings, thro' the tawny copfe;
While congregated thrushes, linets, larks,
And each wild throat, whofe artlefs ftrains fo late
Swell'd all the mufic of the fwarming shades, 976
Robb'd of their tuneful fouls, now shivering fit
On the dead tree, a full defpondent flock,
With not a brightnefs waving o'er their plumes,
And nought fave fcattering difcord in their note.
O let not, aim'd from fome inhuman eye,
The gun the mufic of the coming year
Deftroy; and harmless, unfufpecting harm,

981

1015

Beyond dim earth exalts the fwelling thought.
Ten thoufand thousand fleet ideas, fuch
As never mingled with the vulgar dream,
Crowd faft into the Mind's creative eye.
As faft the correspondent paffions rife,
As varied, and as high: devotion rais'd
To rapture and divine aftonishment;
The love of Nature unconf'd, and, chief
Of human race, the large ambitious with
To make them bleft the figh for fuffering
Worth

Loft in obfcurity; the noble fcorn

Of tyrant-pride; the fearless great refolve:
The wonder which the dying patriot draws,
Infpiring glory thro' remoteft time;

1020

Th' awakened throb for virtue and for fame; The fympathies of love and friendship dear, 1026 With all the focial offspring of the heart.

Oh bear me, then, to vaft embowering fhades,

To twilight groves and visionary vales,
To weeping grottos and prophetic glooms, 1030
Where angel-forms athwart the folemn dusk
Tremendous weep, r feem to fweep, along,
And voices more than human, thro' the void
Deep founding, feize thy enthufaftic ear!

Or is this gloom too much! Then lead, ye
Powers!

That o'er the garden and the rural feat
Prefide, which fhining thro' the cheerful land
In countless numbers bleft Britannia fees,
O lead me to the wide extended walks,
The fair majeftic paradife of Stowe !*

*The feat of the Lord Viscount Cobham.

1036

1040

1045

Not Perfan Cyrus, on Ionia's fhore,
E'er faw fuch fylvan feenes; fuch various art
By Genius fir'd, fuch ardent genius tam'd
By cool judicious Art, that in the frite
All beauteous Nature fears to be outdone.
And there, O Pitt! thy country's early boaft,
There let me fit beneath the felter'd flopes,
Or in that temple † where, in future times,
Thou well fait merit a diftinguish'd name;
And, with thy converfe bleft, catch the laft
fmiles

Of Autumn beaming o'er the yellow woods. While there with thee th' enchanted round I walk,

1056

The regulated wild, gay Fancy then
Will tread in thought the groves of Attic land,
Will, from thy standard tafte, refine her own,
Correct her pencil to the pureft truth
Of Nature, or the unimpaffion'd frades
Forfaking, raise it to the human mind.
Or if hereafter the, with jufter hand,
Shall drag the Tragic fcene, inftruct her, thou,
To mark the varied movements of the heart,
What every decent character requires,
And every paffion speaks : 0 thro' her strain
Breathe thy pathetic eloquence! that moulds
Th' attentive Senate, charms, perfuades, exalts;
Of honeft Zeal th' indignaut light'ning throws,
And thakes Corruption on her venal throne.
While thus we talk, and thro' Elyfan vales
Delighted rove, perhaps a figh escapes :
What pity, Cobham! thou thy verdant files 1070
Of order'd trees fhouldft here inglorious range,
Inftead of fquadrons flaming o'er the field,
And long embattled hofts! when the proud foe,
The faithlefs vain difturber of mankind,

In ulting Gaul, has rous'd the world to war; 1075
When keen, once more, within their bounds to

prefs