His various esculents, from glowing beds
Give the fair promise of delicious feasts.

There from his forming hand new scenes arise,
The fair creation of his fancy's eye.
Lo! bosom'd in the solemn shady grove,
Whose reverend branches wave on yonder hill,
He views the moss-grown temple's ruin'd tower,
Cover'd with creeping ivy's cluster'd leaves;
The mansion seeming of some rural god,
Whom Nature's choristers, in untaught hymns
Of wild yet sweetest harmony, adore.
From the bold brow of that aspiring steep,
Where hang the nibbling flocks, and view below
Their downward shadows in the glassy wave,
What pleasing landscapes spread before his eye!
Of scatter'd villages, and winding streams,
And meadows green, and woods, and distant spires,
Seeming, above the blue horizon's bound,
To prop the canopy of Heaven. Now lost
Amidst a glooming wilderness of shrubs,
The golden orange, arbute ever green,
The early-blooming almond, feathery pine,
Fair opulus, to Spring, to Autumn dear,
And the sweet shades of varying verdure, caught
From soft acacia's geut'y-waving branch,
Heedless he wanders: while the grateful scents
Of sweet-briar, roses, honeysuckles wild,
Regale the smell; and to th' enchanted eye
Mezereon's purple, laurustinus' white,

And pale laburnum's pendent flowers display
Their different beauties. O'er the smooth shorngrass
His lin ering footsteps leisurely proceed,
In meditation deep:-When, hark! the sound
Of distant water steals upon his car;
And sudden opens to his pausing eye
The rapid rough cascade, from the rude rock
Down dashing in a stream of lucid foam:
Then glides away, meandring o'er the lawn,
A liquid surface; shining seen afar,
At intervals, beneath the shadowy trees;
Till lost and buried in the distant grove.
Wrapt into sacred musing, he reclines
Beneath the covert of embowering shades;
And, paiuting to his mind the bustling scenes
Of pride and bold ambition, pities kings.

Genius of gardens; Nature's fairest child!
Thou, who, inspir'd by the directing mind
Of Heaven, didst plan the scenes of Paradise;
Thou at whose bidding rose th' Hesperian bowers
Of ancient fame, the fair Aonian mount,
Castalian springs, and all th' enchanting groves
Of Tempe's vale: Oh where hast thou been bid?
For ages where have stray'd thy steps unknown?
Welcome at length, thrice welcome to the shore
Of Britain's beauteous isle; where verdant plains,
Where hills and dales, and woods and waters join
To aid thy pencil, favour thy designs,
And give thy varying landscapes every charm.
Drive then Batavia's monsters from our shades;
Nor let unhallow'd shears profane the form,
Which Heaven's own hand, with symmetry divine,
Hath given to all the vegetable tribes.
Banish the regular deformity

Of plans by line and compass, rules abhorr'd
In Nature's free plantations; and restore
Its pleasing wildness to the garden walk;

The Gelder rose.

8 The taste for straight lines, regular platforms, and clipt trees, was imported from Holland at the Revolution.

The calm serene recess of thoughtful man,
In meditation's silent sacred hour.

And lo! the progress of thy steps appears
In fair improvements scatter'd round the land.
Earliest in Chiswick's beauteous model seen:
There thy first favourite, in the happy shade
To Nature introduc'd, the goddess woo'd,
And in sweet rapture there enjoy'd her charms.
In Richmond's venerable woods and wilds,
The calm retreat, where wearied majesty,
Unbending from his cares for Britain's peace,
Steals a few moments to indulge his own.
On Oatland's brow, where grandeur sits enthron'd,
Smiling on beauty. In the lovely vale
Of Esher, where the mole glides lingering, loath
To leave such scenes of sweet simplicity.
In Woburn's9 ornamented fields, where gay
Variety, where mingled lights and shades, [break,
Where lawns and groves, and opening prospects
With sweet surprise, upon the wandering eye.
On Hagley's hills, irregular and wild,
Where thro' romantic scenes of hanging woods,
And vallies green, and rocks, and hollow dales,
While echo talks, and nymphs and dryads play,
Thou rov'st enamour'd; leading by the hand
Its master, who, inspir'd with all thy art,
Adds beauties to what Nature plann'd so fair.

Gracious [Heaven!

Hail, sweet retirement! wisdom's peaceful seat! Where lifted from the crowd, and calmly plac'd Beyond the deaning roar of human strife, Th' Athenian 10 sage his happy followers taught, That pleasure sprang from virtue. How worthy thy divine beneficence, This fair establish'd truth! ye blissful bowers, Ye vocal groves whose echoes caught his lore, O might I hear, thro' time's long tract convey'd, The moral lessons taught beneath your shades! And lo, transported to the sacred scenes, Such the divine enchantment of the Muse, I see the sage; I hear, I hear his voice. "The end of life is happiness; the means That end to gain, fair virtue gives alone. From the vain phantoms of delusive fear, Or strong desire's intemp'rance, spring the woes Which human life embitter. Oh, my sons, [fear From errour's darkening clouds, from groundless Enfeebling all her powers, with early skill, Clear the bewilder'd mind. Let fortitude Establish in your breasts her steadfast throne; So shall the stings of evil fix no wound: Nor dread of poverty, nor pain, nor grief, Nor life's disasters, nor the fear of death, Shake the just purpose of your steady souls. The golden curb of temp'rance next prepare, To rein th' impetuous sallies of desire. He who the kindling sparks of anger checks, Shall ne'er with fruitless tears in vain lament Its flame's destructive rage. Who from the vale Ambition's dangerous pinacle surveys; Safe from the blast which shakes the towering pile, Enjoys secure repose, nor dreads the storm When public clamours rise. Who cautious turas From lewd temptation smiling in the eye Of wantonness, hath burst the golden bands Of future anguish; hath redeem'd his frame From early feebleness, and dire disease.

9 Mr. Southcote's.

1 Epicurus; who on account of teaching in his garden, was called the Garden Philosopher; and his disciples, the Philosophers of the Garden.

The steed's light provender obeys the scythe.
Labour and mirth united, glow beneath
The mid-day Sun; the laughing hinds rejoice;
Their master's heart is open'd, and his eye
Looks with indulgence on the gleaning poor.
At length, adorn'd with boughs and garlands gay,
Nods the last load along the shouting field.
Now to the God of harvest in a song
The grateful farmer pays accepted thanks,
With joy unfeign'd: while to his ravish'd ear
The atulations of assisting swains

Are music. His exulting soul expands:
He presses every aiding hand; he bids
The plenteous feast, beneath some spreading tree
Load the large board; and circulates the bowl,
The copious bowl, unmeasur'd, unrestrain'd,
A free libation to th' immortal gods,
Who crown with plenty the prolific soil.

Hail, favour'd island! happy region, hail!
Whose temperate skies, mild air, and genial dews,
Enrich the fertile glebe; blessing thy sons
With various products, to the life of man
Indulgent. Thine Pomona's choicest gift,
The tasteful apple, rich with racy juice,
Theme of thy envy'd song, Silurian bard;
Affording to the swains, in sparkling cups,
Delicious bev'rage. Thine on Cantium's hills,
The flow'ry hop, whose tendrils climbing round
The tall aspiring pole, bear their light heads
Aloft, in pendent clusters; which in malt's
Fermenting tuns infus'd, to mellow age
Preserves the potent draught. Thine too the plant,
To whose tough stringy stalks thy num'rous fleets
Owe their strong cordage: with her sister stem,
Her fairer sister, whence Minerva's tribe,
T'enfold in softness beauty's lovely limbs,
Present their woven texture; and from whence,
A second birth, grows the papyrean leaf3,
A tablet firm, on which the painter-bard
Delineates thought, and to the wondering eye
Embodies vocal air, and groups the sound.
With various blessings teems thy fruitful
womb.

Lo! from the dept many a yawning mine
Thy fossil treasures rise. The blazing hearths,
From deep sulphureous pits, consumeless stores
Of fuel boast. Thy oil-imbibing earth4,
The fuller's mill assisting, safe defies
All foreign rivals in the clothier's art.
The builder's stone thy numerous quarries hide;
With lime, its close concomitant. The hills,
The barren hills of Derby's wildest peak,
In lead abound; soft, fusile, malleable;
Whose ample sheets thy venerable domes,
From rough inclement storms of wind and rain,
In safety clothe. Devonia's ancient mines,
Whose treasures tempted first Phoenicia's sons
To court thy commerce, still exhaustless, yield
The valued ore, from whence, Britannia, thou

2 Minerva is said to have invented the art of weaving.

3 The leaf of the Egyptian plant, papyrus, was anciently used for writing upon; from whence is derived the present name of our material called paper.

Thine honour'd names deriv'st, Nor want'st tho
Of that all-useful metal, the support [store
Of ev'ry art mechanic. Hence arise
In Dean's large forest numerous glowing kilns,
The rough rude ore caleining; whence convey'd
To the fierce furnace, its intenser beat
Melts the hard mass; which flows, an iron stream,
On sandy beds below: and stiffening there,
A ponderous lump, but to the hammer tam'd,
Takes from the forge, in bars, its final form.

But the glad Muse, from subterranean caves
Emerging, views with wonder and delight,
What numerous products still remain unsung.
With fish abound thy streams; thy sheltering
woods

To fowl give friendly covert; and thy plains
The cloven-footed race, in various herds,
Range undisturb'd. Fair Flora's sweetest buds
Blow on thy beauteous bosom; and her fruits
Pomona pours in plenty on thy lap.

Thou to the dyer's tinging cauldron giv'st
The yellow-staining weed, luteola6;
The glastum brown 7, with which thy naked sons
In ancient time their hardy limbs distain'd;
Nor the rich rubia 8 does thine hand withhold.
Grateful and salutary spring the plants
Which crown thy numerous gardens, and invite
To health and temperance, in the simple meal,
Unstain'd with murder, undefil'd with blood,
Unpoison'd with rich sauces, to provoke
Th' unwilling appetite to gluttony.
For this, the bulbous esculents their roots
With sweetness fill; for this, with cooling juice
The green herb spreads its leaves; and opening
buds,

And flowers, and seeds, with various flavours tempt
Th' ensanguin'd palate from its savage feast.

Nor hath the god of physic and of day
Forgot to shed kind influence on thy plants
Medicinal. Lo! from his beaming rays
Their various energies to every herb
Imparted flow. He the salubrious leaf
Of cordial sage, the purple-flowering head
Of fragrant lavender, enlivening mint,
Valerian's fetid smell, endows benign
With their cephalic virtues. He the root
Of broad angelica, and tufted flower
Of creeping chamomile, impregnates deep

5 The learned antiquary, Bochart, is of opinion that the Phoenicians, coming to buy tin in the island of Albion, gave it the name of Barat-Anac, that is, the laud or country of tin: which being softened by the Greeks into Britannia, was adopted by the Romans. This etymology seems to be confirmed by the Grecians calling the isles of Scilly, Cassiterides, which signifies in Greek, the same as Barat-Anac in Phoenician. Rapin.

6 Weld, commonly called dyer's weed. 7 Woad.

thousand pounds a year.

With powers carminative, In every brake
Wormwood and centaury, their bitter juice,
To aid digestion's sickly powers, refine.
The smooth althæa 9 its balsamic wave
Indulgent pours. Eryngo's strengthening root
Surrounds thy sea-girt isle, restorative,
Fair queen of love, to thy enfeebled sons.
Hypericum 10, beneath each shelt'ring bush,
Its healing virtue modestly conceals.
Thy friendly soil to liquorice imparts

Its dulcet moisture, whence the labouring lungs
Of panting asthma find a sure relief.
The scarlet poppy, on thy painted fields,
Bows his somniferous head, inviting soon
To peaceful slumber the disorder'd mind.
Lo, from thy baum's exhilarating leaf,
The moping fiend, black Melancholy, flies;
And burning Febris, with its lenient flood
Cools her hot entrails; or embathes her limbs
In sudorific streams, that cleansing flow [boast
From saffron's friendly spring. Thou too can'st
The blessed thistle, whose rejective power
Relieves the loaded viscera; and to thee
The rose, the violet, their emollient leaves
On every bush, on every bank, display.

These are thy products, fair Britannia, these
The copious blessings, which thy envied sons,
Divided and distinguish'd from the world,
Secure and free, beneath just laws, enjoy.
Nor dread the ravage of destructive war;
Nor black contagion's pestilential breath; [towns,
Nor rending Earth's convulsions,-fields, flocks,
Swallow'd abrupt, in ruin's frightful jaws;
Nor worse, far worse than all, the iron hand
Of lawless power, stretch'd o'er precarious wealth,
Lands, liberty, and life, the wanton prey
Of its enormous unresisting gripe.

But further now in vegetation's paths, Thro' cultur'd fields, and woods, and waving crops, The wearied Muse forbears to wind her walk. To flocks and herds her future strains aspire, And let the listening hinds instructed hear The closing precepts of her labour'd song.

Lo! on the side of yonder slanting hill, Beneath a spreading oak's broad foliage, sits The shepherd swain, and patient by his side His watchful dog; while round the nibbling flocks Spread their wide fleeces o'er the verdant slope, A landscape pleasing to the painter's eye. Mark his maternal care. The tender race, Of heat impatient, as of pinching cold Afraid, he shelters from the rising Sun, Beneath the mountain's western side; and when The evening beam shoots eastward, turning seeks Th' alternate umbrage. Now to the sweetest food Of fallow fields he leads, and nightly folds, T'enrich th' exhausted soil: defending safe From murd'rous thieves, and from the prowling fox, Their helpless innocence. His skilful eye Studious explores the latent ills which prey Upon the bleating nation. The foul mange Infectious, their impatient foot, by oft Repeated scratchings, will betray. This calls For his immediate aid, the spreading taint To stop. Tobacco, in the briny wave Infus'd, affords a wash of sovereign use

To heal the dire disease. The wriggling tail
Sure indication gives, that, bred beneath,
Devouring vermin lurk: these, or with dust
Or deaden'd lime besprinkled thick, fall off
In smother'd crowds. Diseases numerous
Assault the harmless race; but chief the fiend
Which taints with rotteness their inward frame,
And sweeps them from the plain in putrid heaps,
A nuisance to the smell. This, this demands
His watchful care. If he perceives the fleece
In patches lost; if the dejected eye
Looks pale and languid; if the rosy gums
Change to a yellow foulness; and the breath,
Panting and short, emits a sickly stench;
Warn'd by the fatal symptoms, he removes
To rising grounds and dry, the tainted flock;
The best expedient to restore that health
Which the full pasture, or the low damp moor
Endanger'd. But if bare and barren hills,
Or dry and sandy plains, too far remov'd,
Deny their aid, he speedily prepares
Rue's bitter juice, with brine and brimstone mixt,
A powerful remedy; which from an horn
Injected, stops the dangerous malady.

Refulgent summer now his hot domain
Hath carried to the tropic, and begins
His backward journey. Now beneath the Sun
Mellowing their fleeces for th' impending shears,
The woolly people in full clothing sweat:
When the smooth current of a limpid brook
The shepherd seeks, and plunging in its waves
The frighted innocents, their whitening robes
In the clear stream grow pure. Emerging hence,
On litter'd straw the bleating flocks recline;
Till glowing heat shall dry, and breathing dews
Perspiring soft, again thro' all the fleece
Diffuse their oily fatness. Then the swain
Prepares th' elastic shears, and gently down
The patient creature lays; divesting soon
Its lighten'd limbs of their encumbering load.

O more than mines of gold, than diamonds far More precious, more important is the fleece! This, this the solid base on which the sons Of commerce build, exalted to the sky, The structure of their grandeur, wealth, and power! Hence in the earliest childhood of her state, Ere yet her merchants spread the British sail, To Earth descending in a radiant cloud, Britannia seiz'd th' invaluable spoil. To ocean's verge exulting swift she flew; There, on the bosom of the bounding wave, Rais'd on her pearly car, fair Commerce rode Sublime, the goddess of the watry world, On every coast, in every clime ador'd. High waving in her hand the woolly prize, Britannia hail'd and beckon'd to her shore The power benign. Invited by the fleece, From whence her penetrating eyes foresaw What mighty honours to her name should rise, She beam'd a gracious smile. Th' obedient winds, Rein'd by her hand, conducted to the beach Her sumptuous car. But more convenient place The Muse shall find, to sing the friendly league, Which here commnene'd, to times remotest age, Shall bear the glory of the British sail.

Cautious and fearful some in early spring Recruit their flocks; as then the wintry storms Their tender frame hath prov'd. But he whose aim Ambitious should aspire to mend the breed, In fruitful autumn stocks the bleating field