Stretch'd o'er the poor and church his iron rod,T
And ferv'd alike his vaffals and his God,
Whom ev'n the Saxon fpar'd, and bloody Dane,
The wanton victims of his fport remain.
But fee, the man who fpacious regions gave
A walle for beafts, himfelf denied a grave!
Stretch'd on the lawn his fecond hope furvey,
At once the chacer, and at once the prey:
Lo! Rufus, tugging at the deadly dart,
Bleeds in the foreft like a wounded hart.
Succeeding monarchs heard the fubjects cries,
Nor faw difpleas'd the peaceful cottage rife.
Then gath'ring flocks on unknown mountains fed;
O'er fandy wilds were yellow harvests spread;
The forefts wonder'd at th' unufual grain,
And fecret tranfport touch'd the confcious fwain.
Fair Liberty, Britannia's Goddefs, rears.
Her cheerful head, and leads the golden years.

Ye vig'rous fwains! while youth ferments your blood,

And purer fpirits fwell the fprightly flood,

Now range the hills, the gameful woods befet,
Wind the fhrill horn, or fpread the waving net.
When milder autumn fummer's heat fucceeds.
And in the new-fhorn field the partridge feeds,
Before his lord the ready fpaniel bounds,
Panting with hope, he tries the furrow'd grounds:
But when the tainted gales the game betray,
Couch'd clofe he lies, and meditates the prey:

Secure

Secure they trust th' unfaithful field befet,
Till hov'ring o'er 'em fweeps the fwelling net.
Thus (if fmall things we may with great compare)"
When Albion fends her eager fons to war,
Some thoughtless town, with cafe and plenty bleft,
Near, and more near, the clofing lines inveli ;
Sudden they feize th'amaz'd, defencelefs prize,
And high in air Britannia's standard flies.

See! from the brake the whirring pheasant springs,
And mounts exulting on triumphant wings:
Short is his joy; he feels the fiery wouud,
Flutters in blood, and panting beats the ground.
Ah! what avail his gloffy, varying dyes,.
His purple creft and carlet-crested eyes,
The vivid green his fhining plumes unfold,
His painted wings, and breaft that flames with gold!
Nor yet, when moist. Arcturus clouds the sky,
The woods and fields their pleafing toils deny,
To plains with well-breath'd beagles we repair,
And trace the mazes of the circling hare
(Beasts, urg'd by us, their fellow beafts pursue,
And learn of man each other to undo)::

With flaught'ring guns th' unwearied fowler roves;
When frofts have whiten'd all the naked groves;
Where daves in flocks the leaflefs trees o'erfhade,.
And lonely woodcocks haunt the wat'ry glade.
He lifts the tube, and levels with his eye;
Straight a fhort thunder breaks, the frozen fky:
A.3

Off

Oft, as in airy rings they kim the heath, ki so

The clam'rous lapwings feel the leaden death

Oft, as the mounting larks their notes prepare,

They fall, and leave their little lives in air. sig-zA In genial fpring, beneath the quiv'ring shade, d Where cooling vapours breathe along the mead, un The patient fifher fakes his filent ftand,001 519 Intent, his angle trembling in his hand

my FA With looks unmov'd he hopes the fealy breed, 911 And eyes the dancing cork and bending reed. band Our plenteous freams a various race fupply a The bright-eyed perch, with fins of Tyrian dye 3 757The filver eel, in fhining volumes roll'd ; zog A

700

The yellow carp, in feales bedropt with gold glo v.
Swift trouts, diverlified with crimson flains grobo 11
And pykes, the tyrants of the watery plains. Vor i
Now Cancer glows with Phoebus" fiery car;
The youth rufh eager to the fylvan war, maari pelangg
Swarm o'er the lawns, the foreft walks furround,
Rouse the fleet hart, and cheer the opening hound.
Th' impatient courfer pants in every vein,
And pawing feems to beat the diftant plain :
Hills, vales, and floods appear already crofs'd,
And ere he flarts a thousand steps are loft.
See the bold youth ffrain up the threat'ning steep,
Rufh thro' the thickets, down the valleys sweep,
Hang o'er their courfers heads with eager speed,
And earth rolls back beneath the flying feed.
1014

Let

Let old Arcadia boaft her ample plain,. X
Th' immortal huntress, and her virgin-train ;,
Nor envy, Windfor! fince thy fhades have feen
As bright a Goddess, and as chafte a Queen:
Whofe care, like her's, protects the fylvan reign;
The earth's fair light, and Emprefs of the main.

Here too, 'tis fung, of old Diana ftray'd,
And Cynthus' top forfook for Windfor-fhade; X
Here was the feen o'er airy waftes to rove,
Seek the clear spring, or haunt the pathlefs grove;
Here arm'd with filver bows, in early dawn,,
Her bufkin'd Virgins trac'd the dewy lawn.
Above the reft a rural nymph was fam'd,
Thy offspring, Thames! the fair Lodona nam'd
(Lodona's fate, in long oblivion caft,

J

The Mufe fhall fing, and what fhe fings fhall laf Scarce could the Goddess from her nymph be known, But by the crefcent, and the golden zone.

She feorn'd the praife of beauty, and the care

A belt her waift, a fillet binds her hair ; oft ok ahn a
A pointed quiver on her fhoulder, founds,

And with her dart the flying deer the wounds.
It chane'd, as eager of the chace, the maid
Beyond the foreft's verdant limits ftray'd,
Pan faw and lov'd; and burning with defire,
Purfued her flight; her flight increas'd his fire.
Not half fo fwift the trembling doves can fly,
When the fierce eagle cleaves the liquid sky to bas

Not

Not half fo fwiftly the fieree eagle moves,
When thro' the clouds he drives the trembling doves al
As from the God fhe flew with furious pace,

J

Or as the God more furious 'urg'd the chaće.
Now fainting, finking, pale the nymph appears
Nów clofe behind his founding fleps fhe hears;
And now his fhadow reach'd her as she run,
His fhadow lengthen'd by the fetting fun
And now his fhorter breath, with fultry air,
Pants on her neck, and fans her parting hair.."
In vain on father Thames fhe calls for aid,
Nor could Diana help her injur'd maid."

Faint, breathless, thus fhe pray'd, nor pray'd in vain-
"Ah Cynthia! ah-tho' banish'd from thy train,
"Let me, O let me, to the fhades repair.

"My native fhades-there weep, and murmur there."
She said, and melting as in tears fhe lay,
In a foft filver ftream diffolv'd away,
The filver ftream her virgin coldness keeps,
For ever murmurs, and for ever weeps ;.
Still bears the name the haplefs virgin bore,.
And bathes the foreft where the rang'd before,
In her chafte current oft the Goddefs laves,
And with celeftial tears augments the waves,
Oft in her glafs the mufing fhepherd fpies
The headlong mountains and the downward fkies,.
The wat'ry landskip of the pendant woods.
And abfent trees that tremble in the floods