WINDSOR-FOREST.

To the Right Honourable

GEORGE Lord LANSDOWN.

HY forefts, Windfor! and thy green retreats,

THY

At once the Monarch's and the Mufe's feats, Invite my lays. Be prefent, fylvan maids ! Unlock your springs, and open all your fhades. GRANVILLE commands; your aid, O Mufes, bring!

What Mufe for GRANVILLE can refuse to fing? The Groves of Eden, vanish'd now fo long, Live in description, and look green in fong:

Thefe,

This Poem was written at two different times: the first part of it, which relates to the country, in the year 1704, at the fame time with the Paftorals: the latter part was not added till the year 1713, in which it was published. P. VARIATIONS.

VER. 3, etc. originally thus,

Chafte Goddess of the woods, Nymphs of the vales, and Naiads of the floods, Lead me thro' arching bow'rs, and glimm'ring glades. Unlock your fprings

IMITATIONS.

P.

VER. 6.

neget quis carmina Gallo? Virg.

Thefe, were my breast inspir'd with equal flame,
Like them in beauty, fhould be like in fame.
Here hills and vales, the woodland and the plain,
Here earth and water seem to strive again;
Not Chaos-like together crufh'd and bruis'd,
But, as the world, harmoniously confus'd :
Where order in variety we see,

15

20

And where, tho' all things differ, all agree. Here waving groves a chequer❜d scene display, And part admit, and part exclude the day; As fome coy nymph her lover's warm address Nor quite indulges, nor can quite repress. There, interfpers'd in lawns and op'ning glades, Thin trees arise that shun each other's fhades. Here in full light the ruffet plains extend: There wrapt in clouds the blueifh hills afcend. Ev'n the wild heath displays her purple dyes, And 'midft the defart fruitful fields arife, That crown'd with tufted trees and springing corn, Like verdant ifles the fable waste adorn.

25

Let India boaft her plants, nor envy we

The weeping amber or the balmy tree,

30

While by our oaks the precious loads are born,

And realms commanded which those trees adorn.

Not

VARIATIONS.

VER. 25. Originally thus ;

Why should I fing our better funs or air,
Whofe vital draughts prevent the leach's care,
While thro' fresh fields th' enliv'ning odours breathe,
Or fpread with vernal blooms the purple heath? P.

Not proud Olympus yields a nobler fight,

Tho' Gods affembled grace his tow'ring height,
Than what more humble mountains offer here, 35
Where, in their bleffings, all those 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 reapers hand;
Rich Industry fits fmiling on the plains,
And peace and plenty tell, a STUART reigns.
Not thus the land appear'd in ages paft,

A dreary defert, and a gloomy waste,
To favage beafts and favage laws a prey,

40

45

And kings more furious and severe than they ; Who claim'd the fkies, difpeopled air and floods, The lonely lords of empty wilds and woods : Cities laid wafte, they ftorm'd the dens and caves, (For wiser brutes were backward to be slaves.) What could be free, when lawless beafts obey'd, And ev❜n the elements a Tyrant fway'd?

50

In

VER. 33. Not proud Olympus, etc.] Sir J. Denham, in his Cooper's Hill, had faid,

Than which a nobler weight no mountain bears,
But Atlas only, which fupports the spheres.

The comparison is childish, for this ftory of Atlas being fabulous, leaves no room for a compliment.

OurPoet

has been more artful (though he employs as fabulous a circumftance in his comparison) by fhewing in what the nobility of the hills of Windfor. Foreft confifts

Where, in their blessings, all those Gods appear, etc. not to speak of the beautiful turn of wit. VER. 45. Savage larus] The Forest Laws.

VARIATIONS.

VER. 49. Originally thus in the MS.

VOL. I.

E

From

In vain kind feafons fwell'd the teeming grain,
Soft fhow'rs diftill'd, and funs grew warm in vain;
The swain with tears his fruftrate labour yields, 55
And famifh'd dies amidst his ripen'd fields.
What wonder then, a beaft or fubject flain
Were equal crimes in a defpotic reign?
Both doom'd alike, for fportive Tyrants bled,
But while the fubject ftarv'd, the beaft was fed.
Proud Nimrod first the bloody chace began,
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 ravish'd from th' induftrious swains,
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 1;

70 The

VER. 65. The fields are ravish'd, etc ] Alluding to the deftruction made in the New Foreft, and the tyrannies exercifed there by William I. P.

i

VARIATIONS.

From towns laid wafte, to dens and caves they ran (For who first stoop'd to be a slave was man.)

VER. 57, etc.

No wonder favages or fubjects flain

But fubjects ftarv'd while favages were fed.

It was originally thus, but the word favages is not properly applied to beafts but to men; which occafioned the alteration. P.

VER. 65. The fields were ravish'd from th' induftrions Swains, From men their cities, and from Gods their fanes:]

Trans

The fox obfcene to gaping tombs retires,
And favage howlings fill the facred quires.
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, 75
And ferv'd alike his Vaffals and his God.
Whom ev'n the Saxon fpar'd and bloody Dane,
The wanton victims of his sport remain.
But fee, the man who fpacious regions gave
A wafte 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 subjects cries,
Nor faw difpleas'd the peaceful cottage rise.

E 2

80

85

Then

VER. 80 himself deny'd a grave !] The place of his interment at Caen in Normandy was claimed by a gentleman as his inheritance, the moment his fervants were going to put him in his tomb: fo that they were obliged to compound with the owner before they could perform the King's obfequies.

VER. 81. fecond hope] Richard, fecond fon of William the Conqueror.

VARIATIONS.

VER. 72. And wolves with howling fill, etc.

The Author thought this an error, wolves not being common in England at the time of the Conqueror.

Tranflated from,

IMITATIONS.

Templa adimit divis, fora civibus, arva coloris,

an old monkish writer, I forget who.

P.