Exulting fwift, to huge AUGUSTA fend,
Now to the Sifter-Hills that fkirt her plain, 1410
To lofty Harrow now, and now to where
Majestic Windfor lifts his princely brow.
In lovely contrast to this glorious view
Calmly magnificent, then will we turn
To where the filver THAMES firft rural grows. 1415
There let the feasted eye unwearied stray:
Luxurious, there, rove thro' the pendant woods
That nodding hang o'er HARRINGTON's retreat;
And, ftooping thence to Ham's embowering walks,
Beneath whose shades, in spotlefs peace retir'd, 1420
With HER the pleasing partner of his heart,
The worthy QUEENSB'RY yet laments his GAY,
And polish'd CORNBURY wooes the willing Muse,
Slow let us trace the matchlefs VALE OF THAMES;
Fair-winding up to where the Mufes haunt
1425
In Twit'nam's bowers, and for their POPE implore
The healing God +; to royal Hampton's pile,
To Clermont's terrafs'd height, and Eher's groves,
Where in the fweeteft folitude, embrac'd
By the foft windings of the filent Mole,
From courts and fenates PELHAM finds repose.
Inchanting vale! beyond whate'er the Mufe
Has of Achaia or Hefperia fung!
O vale of bliss! O foftly-fwelling hills!
On which the Power of Cultivation lies,
And joys to fee the wonders of his toil.
*Highgate and Hamstead.
In his laft fickness.
HEAVENS! what a goodly profpect spreads around,
Of hills, and dales, and woods, and lawns, and fpires,
And glittering towns, and gilded ftreams, till all
The stretching landskip into smoke decays! 1440
Happy BRITANNIA! where the QUEEN OF ARTS,
Infpiring vigour, LIBERTY abroad
Walks, unconfin'd, even to thy fartheft cotts,
And scatters plenty with unfparing hand.
RICH is thy foil, and merciful thy clime; 1445 Thy ftreams unfailing in the Summer's drought; Unmatch'd thy guardian-oaks; thy valleys float With golden waves: and on thy mountains flocks Bleat numberlefs; while, roving round their fides, Bellow the blackening herds in lufty droves. Beneath, thy meadows glow, and rife unquell'd Against the mower's fcythe. On every hand Thy villas fhine. Thy country teems with wealth; And property affures it to the swain,
Pleas'd, and unwearied, in his guarded toil. 1455
FULL are thy cities with the fons of art; And trade and joy, in every bufy street, Mingling are heard: even Drudgery himself, As at the car he sweats, or dufty hews
The palace-ftone, looks gay. Thy crouded ports,
Where rifing mafts an endless profpect yield,
With labour burn, and echo to the shouts
Of hurried failor, as he hearty waves
His laft adieu, and loofening every sheet,
Refigns the spreading veffel to the wind.
BOLD, firm, and graceful, are thy generous youth, By hardship finew'd, and by danger fir'd, Scattering the nations where they go; and firft Or on the listed plain, or ftormy feas. Mild are thy glories too, as o'er the plans Of thriving peace thy thoughtful fires prefide; In genius, and substantial learning, high; For every virtue, every worth, renown'd; Sincere, plain-hearted, hofpitable, kind;
Yet like the muftering thunder when provok'd, 1475
The dread of tyrants, and the fole refource
Of thofe that under grim oppreffion groan.
THY SONS OF GLORY many! ALFRED thine,
In whom the splendor of heroic war,
And more heroic peace, when govern'd well, 1480
Combine; whofe hallowed name the virtues faint,
And his own Mufes love; the best of Kings!
With him thy EDWARDS and thy HENRYS shine,
Names dear to Fame; the first who deep imprefs'd
On haughty Gaul the terror of thy arms, 1485
That awes her genius ftill. In Statemen thou,
And Patriots, fertile. Thine a steady MORE,
Who, with a generous tho' mistaken zeal,
Withstood a brutal tyrant's useful rage,
Like CATO firm, like ARISTIDES juft,
F 3
Like rigid CINCINNATUS nobly poor,
A dauntlefs foul erect, who fmil'd on death.
Frugal, and wife, a WALSINGHAM is thine;
A DRAKE, who made thee mistress of the deep,
And bore thy name in thunder round the world. 1495
Then flam'd thy fpirit high: but who can speak
The numerous worthies of the MAIDEN REIGN?
In RALEIGH mark their every glory mix'd;
RALEIGH, the fcourge of Spain! whose breast with all
The fage, the patriot, and the hero burn'd. 1500
Nor funk his vigour, when a coward-reign
The warrior fettered, and at laft refign'd,
To glut the vengeance of a vanquish'd foe..
Then, active fill and unrefrain'd, his mind
Explor'd the vaft extent of ages past,
And with his prifon-hours enrich'd the world;
Yet found no times, in all the long research,
So glorious, or fo bafe, as thofe he prov'd,
In which he conquer'd, and in which he bled.
Nor can the Muse the gallant SIDNEY pass,
The plume of war! with early laurels crown'd,
The Lover's myrtle, and the Poet's bay.
A HAMDEN too is thine, illustrious land,
Wife, ftrenuous, firm, of unfubmitting foul,
Who ftem'd the torrent of a downward age
To flavery prone, and bade thee rise again,
In all thy native pomp of freedom bold.
Bright, at his call, thy Age of Men effulg'd,
Of Men on whom late time a kindling eye
Shall turn, and tyrants tremble while they read. 1520
Bring every sweetest flower, and let me ftrew
The grave where RUSSEL lies; whofe temper'd blood,
With calmeft chearfulness for thee resign'd,
Stain'd the fad annals of a giddy reign;
Aiming at lawless power, tho' meanly funk
In loose inglorious luxury. With him
His friend, the * BRITISH CASSIUS, fearless bled;
Of high determin'd fpirit, roughly brave,
By ancient learning to th' enlightened love
Of ancient freedom warm'd. Fair thy renown
In awful Sages and in noble Bards;
Soon as the light of dawning Science spread
Her orient ray, and wak'd the Mufes' fong.
Thine is a BACON ; hapless in his choice,
Unfit to ftand the civil ftorm of state,
And thro' the smooth barbarity of courts,
With firm but pliant virtue, forward still
Το urge his courfe him for the ftudious fhade
Kind Nature form'd, deep, comprehenfive, clear,
Exact, and elegant; in one rich foul,
PLATO, the STAGYRITE, and TULLY join'd.
The great
deliverer he! who from the gloom!
Of cloifter'd monks, and jargon-teaching schools,
Led forth the true Philofophy, there long r
Held in the magic chain of words and forms, 1545
And definitions void: he led her forth,
Daughter of HEAVEN! that flow-ascending still,
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