Nor deem the Poet's hope misplaced, Sound o'er the lake with gentle shock VI. Lives there a man whose sole delights VII. A soul so pitiably forlorn, If such do on this earth abide, VIII. Alas! that such perverted zeal Should spread on Britain's favoured ground! Should e'er have felt or feared a wound From champions of the desperate law Which from their own blind hearts they draw; Who tempt their reason to deny God, whom their passions dare defy, IX. But turn we from these 'bold bad' men; ' Down to their dark opprobrious den,' Is all too rough for Thee to tread. Who means to charity no wrong; X. Heaven prosper it! may peace, and love, To kneel together, and adore their God! XIII. ON THE SAME OCCASION. Oh! gather whencesoe'er ye safely may Our churches, invariably perhaps, stand east and west, but why is by few persons exactly known; nor, that the degree of deviation from due east often noticeable in the ancient ones was determined, in each particular case, by the point in the horizon, at which the sun rose upon the day of the saint to whom the church was dedicated. These observances of our ancestors, and the causes of them, are the subject of the following stanzas. WHEN in the antique age of bow and spear Then, to her Patron Saint a previous rite He rose, and straight-as by divine command, Mindful of Him who in the Orient born There lived, and on the cross his life resigned, So taught their creed;-nor failed the eastern sky, 'Mid these more awful feelings, to infuse The sweet and natural hopes that shall not die, For us hath such prelusive vigil ceased; That obvious emblem giving to the eye 1823. XIV. THE HORN OF EGREMONT CASTLE. [A TRADITION transferred from the ancient mansion of Hutton John, the seat of the Hudlestons, to Egremont Castle.] ERE the Brothers through the gateway Save He who came as rightful Heir To Egremont's Domains and Castle fair. Heirs from times of earliest record Tried the Horn,-it owned his power; He was acknowledged: and the blast, With his lance Sir Eustace pointed, And to Hubert thus said he, "What I speak this Horn shall witness For thy better memory. Hear, then, and neglect me not! At this time, and on this spot, The words are uttered from my heart, As my last earnest prayer ere we depart. On good service we are going In which course if Christ our Saviour Do my sinful soul demand, Hither come thou back straightway, Hubert, if alive that day; Return, and sound the Horn, that we May have a living House still left in thee!" "Fear not," quickly answered Hubert; "As I am thy Father's son, What thou askest, noble Brother, With God's favour shall be done.” |