Not proud Olympus yields a nobler fight,
Tho' Gods affembled grace his tow'ring height,
Than what more humble mountains offer here,
Where, in their bleffings, all thofe Gods appear.
See Pan with flocks, with fruits Pomona crown'd,
Here blushing Flora paints th' enamel'd ground,
Here Ceres' gifts in waving profpect ftand,
And nodding tempt the joyful reaper's hand,
Rich Industry fits fmiling on the plains,
And Peace and Plenty tell, a Stuart reigns.

Not thus the Land appear'd in ages past,
A dreary defert and a gloomy waste,
To favage beasts and * favage laws a prey,
And Kings more furious and fevere than they;
Who claim'd the skies, difpeopled air and floods,
The lonely Lords of empty wilds and woods.
Cities laid wafte, they storm'd the dens and caves,
(For wifer Brutes were backward to be flaves.)
What could be free, when lawless beafts obey'd,
And ev❜n the Elements a Tyrant fway'd?

*The foreft Laws.

In

In vain kind seasons fwell'd the teeming grain,
Soft fhow'rs diftill'd, and Suns grew warm in vain;
The fwain with tears to beafts his labour yields,
And famifh'd dies amidst his ripen'd fields.
No wonder favages or fubjects flains
Were equal crimes in a defpotic reign, d
Both doom'd alike for fportive Tyrants bled,
But fubjects starv'd while favages were fed.
Proud Nimrod first the bloody chace began, rii
A mighty hunter, and his prey was Man.
Our haughty Norman boasts that barb'rous name,
And makes his trembling flaves the royal game.
The fields are ravifh'd from th' induftrious fwains,
From Men their cities, and from Gods their fanes:
The levell'd towns with weeds lie cover'd o'er;
The hollow winds thro' naked Temples roar;
Round broken columns clafping Ivy twin'd
O'er heaps of ruin stalk'd the stately hind;
The fox obfcene to gaping tombs retires,

And wolves with howling fill the facred Quires.

..I

*

Alluding to the new foreft, and the tyrannies cxercis'd there by William the firft.

Aw'd by his Nobles, by his Commons curst,
Th' oppreffor rul'd tyrannic where he durft,
Stretch'd o'er the Poor, and Church, his iron rod,
And treats alike his Vaffals and his God..

er

Whom ev'n the Saxon fpar'd, and bloody Dane,
The wanton victims of his Sport remain. inh
But fee the man who fpacious regions gave
A Waste for beafts, himself deny'd a grave!
Stretch'd on the lawn his * fecond hope furvey,
At once the chafer 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' unusual grain,
And fecret tranfport touch'd the confcious Swain.
Fair Liberty, Britannia's Goddess, rears

Her chearful head, and leads the golden years.

* Richard, fecond fon of William the Conqueror.

Ye

Yevig'rous Swains! while youth ferments your blood, And purer spirits fwell the fprightly flood,

Now range the hills, the thickeft 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 Spaniel 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 they trust th' unfaithful field, beset,
Till hov'ring o'er 'em sweeps the fwelling net.
Thus (if fmall things we may with great compare)
When Albion fends her eager fons to war,
Pleas'd, in the Gen'ral's fight, the hoft lie down
Sudden, before fome unfufpecting town,

The captive Race, one instant makes our 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 wound,
Flutters in blood, and panting beats the ground.

Ah!

Ah! what avail his gloffy, varying dyes,
His purple crest, and scarlet-circled eyes,
The vivid green his fhining plumes unfold,
His painted wings, and breast 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, taught by us, their fellow beasts pursue,
And learn of man each other to undo.)

With flaught'ring guns th' unweary'd fowler roves,
When frosts have whiten'd all the naked groves;
Where doves in flocks the leaflefs trees o'erfhade,
And lonely woodcocks haunt the wat'ry glade.
He lifts the tube, and levels with his eye;
Strait a short thunder breaks the frozen sky.
Oft', as in airy rings they skim the heath,
The clam'rous Plovers feel the leaden death:
Oft', as the mounting Larks their notes prepare,
They fall, and leave their little lives in air.

In genial Spring, beneath the quiv'ring fhade, Where cooling vapours breathe along the mead,