V.

"Or on fome bellying rock that fhades the deep,
“They view the lurid figns that cross the sky,
"Where, in the weit, the brooding tempefts lie,
"And hear their first, faint, rustling pennons fweep.
"Or in the arched cave, where deep and dark

"The broad, unbroken billows heave and fwell,
"In horrid mufings rapt, they fit to mark

"The labouring moon; or lift the nightly yell
"Of that dread fpirit, whofe gigantic form
"The feer's entranced eye can well furvey,
"Through the dim air who guides the driving ftorm,
"And points the wretched bark its destin'd prey.
"Or him who hovers, on his flagging wing,

"O'er the dire whirlpool, that, in ocean's wafte,

"Draws inftant down whate'er devoted thing

"The failing breeze within its reach hath plac'd-
"The distant feaman hears, and flies with trembling haste.
VI.

"Or, if on land the fiend exerts his fway,

"Silent he broods o'er quickfand, bog, or fen,
"Far from the thelt'ring roof and haunts of men,
"When witched darknefs fhuts the eye of day,
"And throuds each ftar that wont to cheer the night;
"Or, if the drifted fnow perplex the way,
"With treach'rous gleam he lures the fated wight,
"And leads him found'ring on, and quite aftray."
What though far off, from fome dark dell efpied,
His glimm'ring mazes cheer th' excurfive fight,
Yet turn, ye wand'rers, turn your fteps afide,
Nor truft the guidance of that faithlefs light;
For watchful, lurking, 'mid th' unrustling reed,
At thofe mirk* hours the wily monfter lies,
And liftens oft to hear the paffing ftced,

And frequent round him rolls his fullen eyes,

If chance his favage wrath may fome weak wretch furprite;
VII.

Ah, lucklefs fwain, o'er all unblest indeed!

Whom late bewilder'd in the dank, dark fen,

Far from his flocks and smoking hamlet then!

To that fad fpot "his wayward fate fhall lead † :".
On him enrag'd, the fiend, in angry mood,
Shall never look with pity's kind concern,
But inftant, furicus, raise the whelming flood
O'er its drown'd bank, forbidding all return.
Or, if he meditate his wifh'd escape

To fome dim hill that feems uprising near,
To his faint eye the grim and grifly shape,

In all its terrors clad, fhall wild appear.

++ First written, mark.

‡‡ A leaf of the manuscript, containing the fifth fianza, and one half of the fxth, is here loft. The chafm is fupplied by Mr. Mackenzie.

*First written, fad.

† A blank in the manufcript, The line filled up by Dr. Carlyle.

I i 2

Mean

Meantime, the wat'ry furge fhall round him rise,
Pour'd fudden forth from ev'ry fwelling fource.
What now remains but tears and hopeless fighs?

His fear-shook limbs have loft their youthly force,
And down the waves he floats, a pale and breathless corfe.

VIII.

For him, in vain, his anxious wife shall wait,
Or wander forth to meet him on his way,
For him, in vain, at to fall of the day,

His babes fhall linger at th' unclofing ‡ gate.
Ah, ne'er fhall he return! Alone, if night

Her travell'd limbs in broken flumbers steep,
With dropping willows dreft, his mournful fprite
Shall vifit fad, perchance, her filent fleep :
Then he, perhaps, with moift and wat'ry hand,
Shall fondly feem to prefs her fhudd'ring cheek §,
And with his blue fwoln face before her ftand,
And, fhiv'ring cold, thefe piteous actions speak:
Purfue, dear wife, thy daily toils purfue

At dawn or dusk, induftrious as before;
Nor e'er of me one hapless thought renew,
While I lie welt'ring on the ozier'd fhore,

Drown'd by the Kaelpie's wrath, nor e'er fhall aid thee more!

IX.

Unbounded is thy range; with varied ftile

Thy Mule may, like thofe feath'ry tribes which spring
From their rude rocks, extend her fkirting wing

Round the moift marge of each cold Hebrid ifle,

To that hoar pile which still its ruin shows *:
In whose small vaults a pigmy-folk is found,
Whofe bones the delver with his fpade upthrows,

And culls them, wond'ring, from the hallow'd ground!
Or thither where beneath the fhow'ry weft

The mighty kings of three fair realms are laid t:
Once foes, perhaps, together now they reft.

No flaves revere them, and no wars invade:
Yet frequent now, at midnight's folemn hour,
The lifted mounds their yawning cells unfold,
And forth the monarchs ftalk with fov'reign pow'r
In pageant robes, and wreath'd with fheeny gold,
And on their twilight tombs aerial council hold,

Firft written, cottage.

First written, Shali feem to prefs her cold and shudd'ring check.
First written, proceed.

A name given in Scotland to a fuppofed fpirit of the waters.

On the largest of the Flannan Islands (ifles of the Hebrides) are the ruins of a chapel dedicated to St, Flannan. This is reckoned by the inhabitants of the Western Isles a place of uncommon fanctity. One of the Flannan Islands is termed the Ile of Pigmies; and 'Martin fays, there have been many fmall bones dug up here, resembling in miniature thofe of the human body.

The inland of Iona or Icolmkill. See Martin's Defcription of the Western Islands of Scotland. That author informs us, that forty-eight kings of Scotland, four kings of Ireland, and five of Norway, were interred in the church of St. Ouran in that island. There were two churches and two monafteries founded there by St. Columbus about A. D. 565. Bed, Hift. Eccl. 1. 3. Collins has taken all his information refpecting the Western Ifles from Martin; from whom he may likewife have derived his knowledge of the popular superstisions of the Highlanders, with which this Ode fhews so perfect an acquaintance.

X.

But O! o'er all, forget not KILDA's race t.

On whose bleak rocks, which brave the wafting tides,
Fair Nature's daughter, Virtue, yet abides.

Go, juft as they, their blameless manners trace!
Then to my ear tranfmit fome gentle fong

Of thofe whofe lives are yet fincere and plain,
Their bounded walks the rugged cliffs along,
And all their profpect but the wintry main.
With fparing temp'rance, at the needful time,
They drain the fainted fpring; or, hunger-preft,
Along th' Atlantic rock undreading climb,
And of its eggs defpoil the Solan's nest.
Thus bleft in primal innocence they live,
Suffic'd and happy with their frugal fare,
Which tasteful toil and hourly danger give.

Hard is their fhallow foil, and bleak, and bare,
Nor ever vernal bee was heard to murmur there!

XI.

Nor need'st thou blush, that fuch falfe themes engage
Thy gentle mind, of fairer ftores poffeft;

For not alone they touch the village breast,
But fill'd in elder time th' hiftoric page.

There SHAKESPEARE's felf, with ev'iy garland crown'd §,
In mufing hour, his wayward fifters found,

And with their terrors dreft the magic fcene.
From them he fung, when 'mid his bold defign,
Before the Scot afflicted and aghast,

The fhadowy kings of BANQUO's fated line
Through the dark cave in gleamy pageant past.
Proceed, nor quit the tales which, timply told,
Could once fo well my anfwering bofom pierce;
Proceed, in forceful founds and colours bold

The native legends of thy land rehearse;
To fuch adapt thy lyre and fuit thy powerful verfe.

XII.

In fcenes like thefe, which, daring to depart
From fober truth, are ftill to nature true,
And call forth fresh delight to Fancy's view,

Th' Heroic Mufe employ'd her TASSO's art!
How have I trembled, when at TANCRED's foke,
In gushing blood the gaping cypress pour'd;
When each live plant with mortal accents fpoke,

And the wild blaît upheav'd the vanish'd sword ||!
How have I fat, when pip'd the penfive wind,
To hear his harp by British FAIRFAX frung.
Prevailing poet, whofe undoubting mind

Believ'd the magic wonders which he fung!

The character of the inhabitants of St. Kilda, as here defcribed, agrees perfectly with the accounts given by Martin and by Macauley, of the people of that ifland. It is the mott wefterly of all the Hebrides, and is above 130 miles diftant from the main land of Scotland.

This ftanza is more incorrect in its structure than any of the foregoing. There is apparently a line wanting between this and the fubfequent one, In mufing bour, &o. The defcient line ought to have rhymed with feene.

Thefe four lines were originally written thus:

How have I trembled, when at Tancred's fide
Like him I ftalk'd, and all his pafiion felt;

When charm'd by Ifmen, through the foreft wide,
Bark'd in each plant a talking spirit dwelt !

Hence

Hence at each found imagination glows;

Hence his warm lay with fofteft sweetness flows;

Melting it flows, pure, numerous, ftrong and clear,
And fills th' impassion'd heart, and wins th' harmonious ear

XIII.

All hail, ye fcenes that o'er my foul prevail,
Ye fpacious + friths and lakes which far away
Are by fmooth ANNAN fill'd, or pait'ral TAY,
Or Don's romantic fprings, at diftance hail!
The time thall come when I, perhaps, may tread
Your lowly glens, o'erhung with fpreading broom,
Or o'er your stretching heaths by fancy led:

Then will I drefs once more the fided bow'r,
Where JONSON fat in DRUMMOND's focial

fade,

Or crop from Tiviot's dale cach "claffic flower,"

And mourn on Yarrow's banks "the widow'd maid §."
Meantime, ye pow'rs, that on the plains which bore
The cordial youth, on LOTHIAN'S plains attend,
Where'r he dwell, on hill, or lowly muir,

To him I lofe, your kind protection lend,

And, touch'd with love like mine, proferve my absent friend.

HISTORICAL and BIOGRAPHICAL ANECDOTES.

[From the Second Volume of Sir J. DALRYMPLE'S "Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland," lately published.]

EARL OF STAIR.

WHEN all his offices and honours were taken from him by Sir Robert Walpole, for voting in parliament agamit the excifc-fcheme, he retired to Scotland, and put his estate into the hands of trufces, to pay bills drawn by him in his magnificent embally at Paris, which Administration had reffed to accept, referving only a hundred pounds a-month for himflf. During this period, he was often feen holding the plough three cr four hours at a time. Yet on receiving Vifits of ceremony, he could put on the great man and the great ftyle of living;

for he was fond of adorning a fine person with graceful drefs; and two French horns and a French cook had refused to quit his fervice when he retired. When the meffenger brought the late King's letter for him to take the command of the army, he had only ten pounds in the house. He fent expreffes for the gentlemen of his own family, thewed the King's letter, and defired them to find money to carry him to London. They asked how much he wanted, and when they should bring it ; his anfwer was, "the more the better, "and the fooner the better." They brought him three thousand guineas. The circumstance came to the late King's ears,

Thefe lines were originally written thus :
Hence, fine to charm, his early numbers flow,

Though firong, yet fweet,

Though faithful, tweet; though ftrong, of fimple kind.

Hence, with each theme he bids the bofom glow,

While his warm lays an eafy pallage find,

Pour'd through each inmoft nerve, and lull th' harmonious ear.

+ A blank in the manufcript. The word fpacious fupplied by Dr. Carlyle.

Ben Jonion undertook a journey to Scotland a-foot in 1619, to visit the poet Drummond, at his feat at Hawthornden, near Edinburgh. Drummond has` preserved, in his work, fome very curious heads of their converfation.

A blank in the manufcript-focial fapplied by Dr. Carlyle.

Both thefe lines left imperfect; supplied by Dr. Carlyle. This laft ftanza bears more marks of haftineis of compofition than any of the reft. Befides the blanks which are fupplied by Dr. Carlyle, there is apparently an entire line wanting after the feventh line of the ftanza. The deficient line ought to have rhymed with broom.

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