Then home he went, and left the Hart, stone-dead, With breathless nostrils stretched above the spring. Soon did the Knight perform what he had said, And far and wide the fame thereof did ring. Ere thrice the Moon into her port had steered, And near the fountain, flowers of stature tall And thither, when the summer days were long, The Knight, Sir Walter, died in course of time, PART SECOND. THE moving accident is not my trade; 'Tis my delight, alone in summer shade, To pipe a simple song for thinking hearts. As I from Hawes to Richmond did repair, What this imported I could ill divine: The trees were gray, with neither arms nor head I looked upon the hill both far and near, I stood in various thoughts and fancies lost, When one, who was in shepherd's garb attired, Came up the hollow: him did I accost, And what this place might be I then inquired. The Shepherd stopped, and that same story told Which in my former rhyme I have rehearsed. "A jolly place," said he, " in times of old! But something ails it now: the spot is curst. aspen-wood, "You see these lifeless stumps of "The arbor does its own condition tell ; You see the stones, the fountain, and the stream; But as to the great Lodge! you might as well Hunt half a day for a forgotten dream. "There's neither dog nor heifer, horse nor sheep, "Some say that here a murder has been done, And blood cries out for blood: but, for my part, I've guessed, when I've been sitting in the sun, That it was all for that unhappy Hart. "What thoughts must through the creature's brain have past! Even from the topmost stone, upon the steep, O Master! it has been a cruel leap. For thirteen hours he ran a desperate race ; And in my simple mind we cannot tell What cause the Hart might have to love this place, And come and make his death-bed near the well. "Here on the grass perhaps asleep he sank, Lulled by the fountain in the summer tide; This water was perhaps the first he drank When he had wandered from his mother's side. "In April here beneath the flowering thorn "Now, here is neither grass nor pleasant shade: The sun on drearier hollow never shone ; So will it be, as I have often said, Till trees, and stones, and fountain, all are gone." Gray-headed Shepherd, thou hast spoken well; Small difference lies between thy creed and mine: This Beast not unobserved by Nature fell; His death was mourned by sympathy divine. "The Being, that is in the clouds and air, That is in the green leaves among the groves, Maintains a deep and reverential care For the unoffending creatures whom he loves. "The pleasure-house is dust: - behind, before, This is no common waste, no common gloom; But Nature, in due course of time, once more "She leaves these objects to a slow decay, "One lesson, Shepherd, let us two divide, 1800. XXV. SONG AT THE FEAST OF BROUGHAM CASTLE, UPON THE RESTORATION OF LORD CLIFFORD, THE SHEPHERD, TO THE ESTATES AND HONORS OF HIS ANCESTORS. HIGH in the breathless Hall the Minstrel sate, "From town to town, from tower to tower, The red rose is revived at last; |