More to enhance the loser's woe. ' Transformed, when won, to drossy mold, XXXII. More wouldst thou know-yon tower survey, 1 ["Soft and smooth are Fancy's flowery ways. In modest Truth no light nor beauty find; And who, my child, would trust the meteor-blaze And shivering nerves, shoot stings of more than mortal pain." Another hour must wear away, Ere the East kindle into day, And hark! to waste that weary hour, XXXIII. SONG. TO THE MOON." Hail to thy cold and clouded beam, Or how a tearless beam supply To light a world of war and wo! Fair Queen! I will not blame thee now, For, while a softer strain I tried, They hid my blush, and calm'd my fear. Then did I swear thy ray serene Was form'd to light some lonely dell, Or sleeping on their mossy cell, Or quivering on the lattice bright, Or glancing on their couch, to tell How swiftly wanes the summer night! XXXIV. He starts a step at this lone hour! ["The little poem that follows is, in our judgment, one of the best of Mr. Scott's attempts in this kind. He, certainly, is not in general successful as a song-writer; but, without any extraordinary effort, here are pleasing thoughts, polished expressions, and musical versification."-Monthly Review.] [MS. "Are tarnishing thy lovely dye! A sad excuse let Fancy try How should so kind a planet show To light a world of war and wo!"] Fresh from his dreadful conference. ROKEBY. CANTO SECOND. I. Far in the chambers of the west, And Arkingarth, lay dark afar; 1 [MS." Here's Risingham brings tidings sure, [MS.-"See that they give his warrant way."] "We cannot close the first Canto without bestowing the highest praise on it. The whole design of the picture is excellent; and the contrast presented to the gloomy and fearful opening by the calm and innocent conclusion, is masterly. Never were two characters more clearly and forcibly set in opposition than those of Bertram and Wilfrid. Oswald completes the group; and, for the moral purposes of the painter, is perhaps superior to the others. He is admirably designed That middle course to steer Monthly Review. ] While, as a livelier twilight falls, H. What prospects, from his watch-tower high, Far sweeping to the east, he sees Down his deep woods the course of Tees,' III. Nor Tees alone, in dawning bright, But many a tributary stream Each from its own dark dell shall gleam : The view from Barnard Castle commands the rich and magnificent valley of Tees. Immediately adjacent to the river, the banks are very thickly wooded; at a little distance they are more open and cultivated; but, being interspersed with hedge-rows, and with isolated trees of great size and age, they still retain the richness of woodland scenery. The river itself flows in a deep trench of solid rock, chiefly limestone and marble. The finest view of its romantic course is from a handsome modern-built bridge over the Tees, by the late Mr. Morritt of Rokeby. In Leland's time, the marble quarries seem to have been of some value. "Hard under the cliff by Egleston, is found on eche side of Tese very fair marble, wont to be taken up booth by marbelers of Barnardes Castelle and of Egleston, and partly to have been wrought by them, and partly sold onwrought to others."-Itinerary. Oxford, 1768, 8vo, p. 88. 2 3 [MS.-"Betwixt the gate and Baliol's tower."] [MS. "Those deep-hewn banks of living stone."] Salutes proud Raby's turrets gray."] The rural brook of Egliston, And Balder, named from Odin's son; And silver Lune, from Stanmore wild, Who wandering there, hath sought to change Thy scenes and story to combine! Thou bid'st him, who by Roslin strays, List to the deeds of other days; 'Mid Cartland's crags thou show'st the cave, IV. Bertram awaited not the sight Which sun-rise shows from Barnard's height, But from the towers, preventing day, With Wilfrid took his early way, While misty dawn, and moonbeam pale, Still mingled in the silent dale. I [See notes to the song of Fair Rosabelle, in the Lay of the Last Minstrel, vol. iv. p. 94.] [Cartland Crags, near Lanark, celebrated as among the favourite retreats of Sir William Wallace.] 3 The ruins of this abbey, or priory, (for Tanner calls it the former, and Leland the latter,) are beautifully situated upon the angle formed by a little dell called Thorsgill, at its junction with the Tees. A good part of the religious house is still in some degree habitable, but the church is in ruins. Egliston was dedicated to St. Mary and St. John the Baptist, and is supposed to have been founded by Ralph de Multon about the end of Henry the Second's reign. There were formerly the tombs of the families of Rokeby, Bowes, and Fitz-Hugh. |