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A farm fome twenty miles from town,
Small, tight, falubrious, and my own;
Two maids, that never saw the town,
A ferving man not quite a clown,

A boy to help to tread the mow,

And drive, while t' other holds the plough;
A chief, of temper form'd to please,
Fit to converfe, and keep the keys;
And better to preserve the peace,
Commiffion'd by the name of niece;
With understandings of a fize
To think their master very wife.
May heav'n (it's all I wish for) fend
One genial room to treat a friend,
Where decent cup-board, little plate,
Display benevolence, not state.
And may my humble dwelling stand
Upon fome chofen fpot of land:
A pond before full to the brim,
Where cows may cool, and geese may
Behind, a green like velvet neat,
Soft to the eye, and to the feet;
Where od❜rous plants in evening fair
Breathe all around ambrofial air ;
From Eurus, foe to kitchen ground,
Fenc'd by a flope with bushes crown'd,
Fit dwelling for the feather'd throng,
Who pay their quit-rents with a fong;
With op'ning views of hill and dale,
Which fenfe and fancy too regale,

fwim:

Where the half-cirque, which vifion bounds,
Like amphitheatre furrounds:

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And woods impervious to the breeze,
Thick phalanx of embodied trees,
From hills through plains in dusk array
Extended far, repel the day.

Here ftillness, height, and folemn fhade
Invite, and contemplation aid:

Here nymphs from hollow oaks relate
The dark decrees and will of fate,
And dreams beneath the spreading beech
Infpire, and docile fancy teach;
While foft as breezy breath of wind,
Impulfes ruftle through the mind:
Here Dryads, fcorning Phoebus' ray,
While Pan melodious pipes away,
In meafur'd motions frifk about,
'Till old Silenus puts them out.
There fee the clover, pea, and bean,
Vie in variety of green;

Fresh paftures fpeckled o'er with sheep,
Brown fields their fallow fabbaths keep,

Plump Ceres golden treffes wear,

And poppy top-knots deck her hair,

And filver-ftreams through meadows ftray,
And Naids on the margin play,

And leffer nymphs on fide of hills

From play-thing urns pour down the rills.
Thus fhelter'd, free from care and ftrife,

May I enjoy a calm through life;
See faction, fafe in low degree,
As men at land fee ftorms at fea,

And laugh at miferable elves,
Not kind, fo much as to themselves,

Curs'd

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Curs'd with fuch fouls of bafe alloy,

As can poffefs, but not enjoy;

Debarr'd the pleasure to impart

By av'rice, fphincter of the heart,

Who wealth, hard earn'd by guilty cares,
Bequeath untouch'd to thankless heirs.
May I, with look ungloom'd by guile,
And wearing Virtue's liv'ry fmile,
Prone the diftreffed to relieve,
And little trefpaffes forgive,

With income not in Fortune's pow'r,
And skill to make a busy hour,
With trips to town life to amufe,

To purchase books, and hear the news,
To fee old friends, brush off the clown,
And quicken tafte at coming down,
Unhurt by fickness' blafting rage,
And flowly mellowing into age,
When Fate extends its gathering gripe,
Fall off like fruit grown fully ripe,
Quit a worn being without pain,

In hope to bloffom foon again.

CHA P. VII.

GRON GAR H I L L.

ILENT nymph, with curious eye!

Who, the purple evʼning, lie On the mountain's lonely van, Beyond the noise of bufy man, Painting fair the form of things, While the yellow linnet fings;

GREEN.

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Or the tuneful nightingale

Charms the foreft with her tale;
Come with all thy various hues,

Come and aid thy fifter Mufe:
Now while Phoebus riding high
Gives luftre to the land and fky!
Grongar Hill invites my song,
Draw the landskip bright and strong;
Grongar, in whofe moffy cells
Sweetly mufing Quiet dwells;
Grongar, in whofe filent fhade,
For the modeft Mufes made,
So oft I have, the evening still,
At the fountain of a rill,

Sate upon a flow'ry bed,

With my

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While ftray'd my eyes o'er Towy's flood,

Over mead, and over wood,

From houfe to house, from hill to hill, 'Till contemplation had her fill.

About his chequer'd fides I wind And leave his brooks and meads behind, And groves and grottoes where I lay, And viftoes shooting beams of day: Wide and wider fpreads the vale ;" As circles on a smooth canal; The mountains round, unhappy fate! Sooner or later, of all height,

Withdraw their fummits from the skies,
And leffen as the others rise;

Still the prospect wider spreads,
Adds a thousand woods and meads,

Still it widens, widens ftill,

And finks the newly-rifen hill.

Now, I gain the mountain's brow;

What a landskip lies below!

No clouds, no vapours intervene, gay, the open fcene

But the

Does the face of nature show,

In all the hues of heaven's bow!
And, fwelling to embrace the light,
Spreads around beneath the fight.
Old caftles on the cliffs arife,
Proudly tow'ring in the skies!
Rushing from the woods, the fpires
Seem from hence afcending fires!
Half his beams Apollo sheds
On the yellow mountain-heads!
Gilds the fleeces of the flocks,
And glitters on the broken rocks!
Below me trees unnumber'd rise,
Beautiful in various dyes:
The gloomy pine, the poplar blue,
The yellow beech, the fable yew,
The flender fir, that taper grows,

The sturdy oak, with broad-spread boughs,
And beyond, the purple grove,

Haunt of Phillis, queen of love!
Gaudy as the op'ning dawn,

Lies a long and level lawn,

On which a dark hill, fteep and high,
Holds and charms the wand'ring eye;
Deep are his feet in Towy's flood,

His fides are cloth'd with waving wood,

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