ITINERARY SONNETS (SCOTLAND, 1831). 235

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[On the roadside between Penrith and Appleby, there stands a pillar with the following inscription:

•This pillar was erected, in the year 1636, by Anne Countess Dowager of Pembroke, &e. for a memorial of her last parting with her pious mother, Margaret Countess Dowager of Cumberland, on the 24 of April, 1616; in memory whereof she hath left an annuity of 47. to be distributed to the poor of the parish of Brougham, every 24 day of April for ever, upon the stone table placed hard by. Laus Deo!]

WHILE the Poor gather round, till the end of time May this bright flower of Charity display

Its bloom, unfolding at the appointed day; Flower than the loveliest of the vernal prime Lovelier-transplanted from heaven's purest clime!

*Charity never faileth:' on that creed,

More than on written testament or deed,
The pious Lady built with hope sublime.
Alms on this stone to be dealt out for ever!
LAUS DEO. Many a Stranger passing by
Has with that parting mixed a filial sigh,
Blest its humane Memorial's fond endeavour;
And fastening on those lines an eye tear-glazed,
Has ended, though no Clerk, with God be praised!"

XXIV.

ROMAN ANTIQUITIES.

(PROM THE ROMAN STATION AT OLD PENRITH.)

Ilow profitless the relics that we cull,
Troubling the last holds of ambitious Rome,
Unless they chasten fancies that presume
Too high, or idle agitations lull!

Of the world's flatteries if the brain be full,
To have no seat for thought were better doom,
Like this old helmet, or the eyeless skull
Of him who gloried in its nodding plume.
Heaven out of view, our wishes what are they?
Our fond regrets tenacious in their grasp?
The Sage's theory ? the Poet's lay?-
Mere Fibulæ without a robe to clasp;
Obsolete lamps, whose light no time recals ;
Urns without ashes, tearless lacrymals!

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[Having been prevented by the lateness of the season, in 1831, frol. visiting Staffa and lona, the author made these the principal objects of a short tour in the summer of 1833, of which the following series of sonnets is a Memorial. The course pursued was down the Cumberland river Derwent, and to Whitehaven; thence (by the Isle of Man, where a few days were passed) up the Frith of Clyde to Greenock, then to Oban, Staffa, lona; and back towards England, by Loch Awe, Inverary, Loch Goil-head, Greenock, and through parts of Renfrewshire, Ayrshire, and Dumfriesshire to Carlisle, and thence up the river Eden, and homewards by Ullswater.]

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THIRD SERIES.

Composed or suggested during a Tour chiefly in Scotland, &c., 1821

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ADIEU, Rydalian Laurels! that have grown
And spread as if ye knew that days might come
When ye would shelter in a happy home,
On this fair Mount, a Poet of your own-
One whio ne'er ventured for a Delphic erown
To sue the God; but, haunting your green shade
All seasons through, is humbly pleased to braid
Ground-flowers, beneath your guardianship, self sown.
Farewell! no Minstrels now with harp new-strung
For summer wandering quit their household bowers;
Yet not for this wants Poesy a tongue
To cheer the Itinerant on whom she pours
Her spirit, while he crosses lonely moors,
Or musing sits forsaken halls among.

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WHY should the Enthusiast, journeying through this Isle,
Repine as if his hour were come too late?
Not unprotected in her mouldering state,
Antiquity salutes him with a smile,
Mid fruitful fields that ring with jocund toil,
And pleasure-grounds where Taste, refined Co-mate

Of Truth and Beauty, strives to imitate,

Far as she may, primeval Nature's style.

Fair land! by Time's parental love made free,

By social Order's watchful arms embraced;

With unexampled union meet in thee,

For eye and mind, the present and the past;
With golden prospect for futurity,
If what is rightly reverenced may last.