Fair Wyoming, the enthusiast's eye
Doth scan thy charms with ecstasy.
Yet though the tide of minstrel song
Hath flowed thine echoing haunts along,
And martyr-courage, bold and free,
Bequeathed its blood-stained wreath to thee,
A holier fame for thee is spread,
The birth-place of the sainted dead.
REMOVAL OF AN ANCIENT MANSION.
WHERE art thou, old friend?
This familiar haunt I pass'd,
Thou didst seem in vigorous cheer,
As like to stand as any here,
With roof-tree firm, and comely face
Well preserved in attic grace,
On columns fair thine arches resting,
Among thy trees the spring-birds nesting;
Hast thou vanished? Can it be,
I no more shall gaze on thee?
Casements, whence the taper's ray,
Glittered o'er the crowded way,
Where embalmed in fragrant dew
Peered the snowy lilac through,
Chimnies, whence the volumed smoke
Of thy warm heart freely spoke,
Fallen and gone! No vestige left,
Stone from stone asunder reft,
While a chasm, with rugged face,
Yawns and darkens in thy place.
Threshold! which I oft have prest,
More a habitant than guest,
For their blessed sakes who shed
Oil of gladness on my head,
Brows with hoary wisdom drest,
Saints, who now in glory rest,
Fain had I, though tear-drops fell,
Said to thee one kind farewell,
Fain with tender, grateful sigh,
Thanked thee for the days gone by.
Hearth-stone! where the ample fire
Quelled Old Winter's fiercest ire,
While its blaze reflected clear
On the friends who gathered near,
On the pictures quaint and old
Thou of quiet pleasures told;
Knitting bag and storied page,
Precepts grave from lips of age,
Made the lengthened evening fleet
Lightly, with improvement sweet.
Fallen dome! beloved so well,
Thou couldst many a legend tell,
Of the chiefs of ancient fame,
Who to share thy shelter came.
Rochambeau and La Fayette
Round thy plenteous board have met,
With Columbia's mightier son,
Great and glorious Washington.
Here, with kindred minds they planned
Rescue for an infant land,
While the British Lion's roar
Echoed round the leagured shore.
He, who now where cypress weeps,
On Mount Vernon's bosom sleeps,
Once in council grave and high
Shared thy hospitality,
When the sound of treason drear,
Arnold's treason, met his ear.
Heart that ne'er in danger quailed,
Lips that ne'er had faltered paled,
As the Judas' image stole
Shuddering, o'er his noble soul,
As he sped, like tempest's shock,
On to West Point's periled rock.
Beauty here, with budding pride,
Blossomed into youth and died;
Manhood towered with ruling mind,
Age in reverent arms declined,
Bridals bright, and burials dread,
From thy gates their trains have sped:
But thy lease of time is run,
Closed thy date, thy history done.
All are vanished, all have fled,
Save the memories of the dead,
These with added strength adhere
To the hearts that year by year
Feebler beat and fainter glow,
Till they rest in turf below,
Till their place on earth shall be
Blotted out, old dome, like thee.
Other fanes, 'neath favouring skies, (Blessings on them!) here may rise,
Other groups, by hope be led,
(Blessings on them!) here to tread,
Yet of thee, their children fair
Nothing wot, and nothing care;
So a form that soon must be
Numbered with the past like thee,
Rests with pilgrim-staff awhile,
On thy wreck, deserted pile,
And the dust that once was thine,
Garners for affection's shrine.
The mansion that gave a subject to the foregoing lines was erected in 1733, by the Rev. Daniel Wadsworth, the pastor of the first congregational church in Hartford, Connecticut. It was connected with both the ecclesiastical and civil history of early times; being, while the residence of his son, Col. Jeremiah Wadsworth, the scene of frequent consultations between the officers of the American and French armies, during the war that achieved our independence. Washington, who highly valued him as a friend, was a guest in his house when Arnold's treachery was consummated, and reached West Point, just after the flight of the traitor. The plan of the southern campaign is supposed to have been laid in one of its chambers. When La Fayette, in 1824, received the glad welcome of a country which his youthful heroism had aided to save, vivid recollections were restored by a visit to this abode. He was able, notwithstanding the long interval that had elapsed, accurately to describe its south front chamber, where so many important councils had been
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