But yet thy duty has been done,
By day and night the same;

Still thou hast watched and met the storm,
Whichever way it came.

No chilling blast in wrath has swept
Along the distant heaven,

But thou hast watch upon it kept,

And instant warning given;

And when midsummer's sultry beams

Oppress all living things,

Thou dost announce each breeze that comes
With health upon its wings.

How oft I've seen, at early dawn,
Or twilight's' quiet hour,
The swallows, in their joyous glee,
Come darting round thy tower,
As if, with thee, to hail the sun,
And catch his earliest light,
And offer ye the morn's salute,
Or bid ye both-good night.

And when around thee, or above,
No breath of air has stirred,

Thou seem'dst to watch the circling flight
Of each free, happy bird;

Till, after twittering round thy head,

In many a mazy track,

The whole delighted company

Have settled on thy back.

Then, if perchance amid their mirth,
A gentle breeze has sprung,
And prompt to mark its first approach,
Thy eager form has swung,

I've thought I almost heard thee say,
As far aloft they flew,

"Now all away!-here ends our play,
For I have work to do!"

1 Twilight-from the Anglo Saxon tweonliht, doubtful light.

Men slander thee, my honest friend,
And call thee, in their pride,
An emblem of their fickleness,
Thou ever-faithful guide!
Each weak, unstable human mind
A "weathercock" they call;
And thus, unthinkingly, mankind
Abuse thee, one and all.

They have no right to make thy name
A by-word for their deeds:

They change their friends, their principles,
Their fashions, and their creeds;

While thou hast ne'er, like them, been known,
Thus causelessly to range,

But when thou changest sides, canst give

Good reason for the change.

Thou, like some lofty soul, whose course
The thoughtless oft condemn,
Art touched by many airs from heaven
Which never breathe on them;
And moved by many impulses

Which they can never know,

Who, round their earth-bound circles, plod
The dusty paths below.

Through one more dark and cheerless night

Thou well has kept thy trust,

And now in glory o'er thy head

The morning light has burst:

And unto earth's true watcher,1 thus,

When his dark hours have passed,

Will come "the day-spring2 from on high,"

To cheer his path, at last.

Earth's true watcher-one who faithfully watches on earth-an allusion probably to the precept of our Saviour, "Watch ye therefore, for ye know not when the master of the house cometh :" Mark xiii, 35.

2 Day-spring-the springing or rising of day-the dawn-figuratively employed here to denote the dawn of a heavenly day, which, after the dark hours of his life, will burst on the view of the faithful watcher, i.e. the true Christian.

Bright symbol of fidelity,

Still may I think of thee;

And may the lesson thou dost teach,
Be never lost on me :

But still in sunshine or in storm,

Whatever task is mine,

May I be faithful to my trust,

As thou hast been to thine.

A. G. Greene.

CHEVY CHACE.1

GOD prosper long our noble king,
Our lives and safeties all;

A woful hunting once there did
In Chevy Chace2 befal:

This fine old ballad, which is in fact a modernised edition of a more ancient one, received its present form, it is thought, about the beginning of James the First's reign. The name of the author of the ancient song is Richard Sheale, that of the moderniser is unknown.

"The fine heroic song of Chevy Chace," writes Bishop Percy, "has ever been admired by competent judges. Those genuine strokes of natural and artless passion, which have endeared it to the most simple readers, have recommended it to the most refined; and it has equally been the amusement of our childhood, and the favourite of our riper years."

Sir Philip Sidney, in his "Defence of Poesy," writes thus respecting the ancient ballad :-"I never heard the old song of Percy and Douglas that I found not my heart moved more than with a trumpet; and yet it is sung (i. e. even when it is sung) but by some blind crowder, (fiddler,) with no rougher voice than rude style."

Addison, too, has eulogised the beauties of this poem-the modern version-in two numbers (70 and 74) of the " 'Spectator."

As it may interest some readers to see a specimen of the ancient ballad, the following lines, which form the first stanza, are subjoined :

The Perse awt off Northambarlande,
And a vowe to God mayd he,

That he wolde hunte in the mountayns
Off Chyviat within dayes iii.,
En the magger of doughte Bogles,
And all that ever with him be.

2 Chevy Chace-or Cheviot Chace, a preserve for game on the Cheviot hills in Northumberland, then within the Scottish boundary.

To drive the deer with hound and horn,
Earl Percy took his way;

The child may rue that is unborn,
The hunting of that day.1

The stout Earl of Northumberland
A vow to God did make,
His pleasure in the Scottish woods
Three summer days to take;

The chiefest harts in Chevy Chace
To kill and bear away.

These tidings to Earl Douglas came,
In Scotland, where he lay;

Who sent Earl Percy present word 2
He would prevent his sport:
The English earl, not fearing that,
Did to the woods resort,

With fifteen hundred bowmen bold,
All chosen men of might,
Who knew full well, in time of need,
To aim their shafts aright.

The gallant greyhounds swiftly ran
To chase the fallow deer;
On Monday they began to hunt,
When daylight did appear;

And long before high noon, they had
A hundred fat bucks slain;
Then, having dined, the drovers went
To rouse the deer again.

The bowmen mustered on the hills,

Well able to endure ;3

And all their rear, with special care,

That day was guarded sure.

Addison invites us to admire this couplet, for the simple manner in which the remote consequences are suggested.

2 Sent present word-sent word at once, or immediately.

3 Endure to go on with their sport and yet be ready for the foe they expected.

The hounds ran swiftly through the woods,
The nimble deer to take,

And with their cries the hills and dales
An echo shrill did make.

Lord Percy to the quarry1 went,

To view the slaughtered deer;
Quoth he, "Earl Douglas promised
This day to meet me here:

"But if I thought he would not come,
No longer would I stay."-
With that, a brave young gentleman
Thus to the Earl did say:

"Lo! yonder doth Earl Douglas come,
His men in armour bright:
Full twenty hundred Scottish spears
All marching in our sight;

“All men of pleasant Tividale,2

Fast by the river Tweed."

"Then cease your sports," Earl Percy said,
"And take your bows with speed:

"And now with me, my countrymen,
Your courage forth advance;
For never was there champion yet,
In Scotland or in France,

"That ever did on horseback come,
But if my hap it were,

I durst encounter, man for man,
With him to break a spear."

Earl Douglas, on his milk-white steed,
Most like a baron bold,

1 Quarry--the etymology of this word is doubtful. Some derive it from the Latin quæro, to seek or pursue, and thus quarry would mean the prey, or game aimed at; others connect it with the verb to carry, and consider it as the booty carried off (the field;) others again trace it to the French quarrée, or carrée, the square or inclosure into which the game was driven; hence it might afterwards signify the prey thus caught, then game of every kind. The last derivation best suits the present passage, which evidently refers to an inclosure of some kind.

2 Tividale-Teviotdale. The Teviot is a tributary of the Tweed.