"The scenery upon this river," says Mr. Southey in his Colloquies, “where it passes under the woody side of Latrigg, is of the finest and most rememberable kind: 'ambiguo lapsu refluitque fluitque, Occurrensque sibi venturas aspicit undas.'” 2 To the River Derwent. Page 191. This sonnet has already appeared in several editions of the author's poems; but he is tempted to reprint it in this place, as a natural introduction to the two that follow it. Attached to the church of Brigham was formerly a chantry, which held a moiety of the manor; and in the decayed parsonage some vestiges of monastic architecture are still to be seen. + Mary Queen of Scots landing at Workington. Page 196. "The fears and impatience of Mary were so great," says Robertson," that she got into a fisher-boat, and with about twenty attendants landed at Workington, in Cumberland; and thence she was conducted with many marks of respect to Carlisle." The apartment in which the Queen had slept at Workington Hall (where she was received by Sir Henry Curwen as became her rank and misfortunes) was long preserved, out of respect to her memory, as she had left it; and one cannot but regret that some necessary alterations in the mansion could not be effected without its destruction. Douglas Bay, Isle of Man. 5 66 Page 200. They are led by noble Hillary." The TOWER of REFUGE, an ornament to Douglas Bay, was erected chiefly through the humanity and zeal of Sir William Hillary; and he also was the founder of the life-boat establish ment, at that place; by which, under his superintendence, and often by his exertions at the imminent hazard of his own life, many seamen and passengers have been saved. 6 By a retired Mariner. Page 204. This unpretending sonnet is by a gentleman nearly connected with the author who hopes, as it falls so easily into its place, that both the writer and the reader will excuse its appearance here. Tynwald Hill. Page 206. 7 "Off with yon cloud, old Snafell!" The summit of this mountain is well chosen by Cowley, as the scene of the "Vision," in which the spectral angel discourses with him concerning the government of Oliver Cromwell. "I found myself," says he, "on the top of that famous hill in the Island Mona, which has the prospect of three great, and not long since most happy, kingdoms. As soon as ever I looked upon them, they called forth the sad representation of all the sins and all the miseries that had overwhelmed them these twenty years." It is not to be denied that the changes now in progress, and the passions, and the way in which they work, strikingly resemble those which led to the disasters the philosophic writer so feelingly bewails. God grant that the resemblance may not become still more striking as months and years advance! 8 On revisiting Dunolly Castle. Page 210. This ingenious piece of workmanship, as the author afterwards learned, had been executed for their own amusement by some labourers employed about the place. 9 Cave of Staffa. Page 213. The reader may be tempted to exclaim, "How came this and the two following sonnets to be written, after the dissatisfac tion expresed in the preceding one?" In fact, at the risk of incurring the reasonable displeasure of the master of the steamboat, the author returned to the cave, and explored it under circumstances more favourable to those imaginative impressions, which it is so wonderfully fitted to make upon the mind. 10 66 Sonnet 29. Page 215. Hope smiled when your nativity was cast, Upon the head of the columns which form the front of the cave, rests a body of decomposed basaltic matter, which was richly decorated with that large bright flower, the ox-eyed daisy. The author had noticed the same flower growing with profusion among the bold rocks on the western coast of the Isle of Man; making a brilliant contrast with their black and gloomy surfaces. 11 Iona. Page 217. The four last lines of this sonnet are adopted from a wellknown sonnet of Russel, as conveying the author's feeling better than any words of his own could do. The River Eden. Page 223. 12 Yet fetched from Paradise," &c. It is to be feared that there is more of the poet than the sound etymologist in this derivation of the name Eden. On the western coast of Cumberland is a rivulet which enters the sea at Moresby, known also in the neighbourhood by the name of Eden. May not the latter syllable come from the word Dean, a valley? Langdale, near Ambleside, is by the inhabitants called Langden. The former syllable occurs in the name Eamont, a principal feeder of the Eden; and the stream which flows, when the tide is out, over Cartmel Sands, is called the Ea. Nunnery. Page 226. 13 "Canal, and Viaduct, and Railway, tell!" At Corby, a few miles below Nunnery, the Eden is crossed by a magnificent viaduct; and another of these works is thrown over a deep glen or ravine at a very short distance from the main stream. 14 To the Earl of Lonsdale. Page 229. This sonnet was written immediately after certain trials, which took place at the Cumberland Assizes, when the Earl of Lonsdale, in consequence of repeated and long continued attacks upon his character, through the local press, had thought it right to prosecute the conductors and proprietors of three several journals. A verdict of libel was given in one case; and in the others, the prosecutions were withdrawn, upon the individuals retracting and disavowing the charges, expressing regret that they had been made, and promising to abstain from the like in future. LINES WRITTEN IN THE ALBUM OF THE COUNTESS OF Nov. 5. 1834. LADY! a Pen, perhaps, with thy regard, And feeling, suited to the place and time That gave them birth:- months passed, and still this hand, That had not been too timid to imprint Words which the virtues of thy Lord inspired, Whether he shine on them or not; and some, Where'er he moves along the unclouded sky, |