311 A NORTHERN PROSPECT. When blazing noon illumes the plain, And tips each spiry dome with quiv'ring fire, Where Ratcheugh's pillar'd rocks aspire Swift let my steps the airy height attain. Around the various prospect thrown, Th' expanded sea's majestic zone In many a floating tint reflects the beam; Dark stretch the wood's high-shelt'ring arms, The village spreads her simple charms, And shines afar the silver-winding stream. Bold on the eye advance those tow'rs, Where Percy boasts his princely bowers, Crown the slope-hill, and awe the subject-vale; In faded glory Warkworth's turrets rise, And point to yonder cell * the raptur'd eyes, Where figur'd rocks record the Hermit's tale. Swift o'er Howick's attic hall, And shelter'd Craster's sylvan wall, The Hermitage. The view excursive flies, Where Dunstonburgh* o'erhangs the roaring tide, And lifts his shatter'd arms, and mourns his ruin'd pride. Trembling o'er the rocky ground, Like the vex'd sea, when thund'ring winds are fled; "Relentless hands, which these proud works de fac'd! Mistaken avarice, with such costly waste crown: On the black vale when rolling vapours spread, The turrets gleam high o'er the driving blast: Sharp + rear'd their drooping head. Beneath old Cheviot's frown, * A romantic fortress, nearly demolished to enlarge a farm-house, which lies at its feet. + Dr. Sharp, late Archdeacon of Northumberland. See Ford's* white line the verdant slope adorn ; These fragments of Lancastrian pride, These broken halls, these jutting mounds o'erthrown, Rough gales, as thro' the mould'ring arch they haste, Learn, soften'd, to bemoan; While deaf'ning waves, with aggregated roar, Dim-shewn in yonder leafy glade, Well might'st thou haunt that cloister'd shade! Let those proud trophies + tell Where hostile monarchs fought and fell, These walls beleag'ring round; Unhurt by war's tumultuous rage, The tranquil monk illum'd the page, Safe in thy consecrated ground. Amid yon' happy woods The careless rustic seeks his game, *Ford Castle, repair'd by Lord Delaval. Monuments in the pleasure-grounds of the Duke of Northumberland, which commemorate the captivity of one king of Scotland, and the death of another, while they were besiging the castle of Alnwick. Or in the murm'ring floods To yon' majestic walls repair; Know Tyson,+ Vescy,t or Fitzharding there Spread their rich banners in the flutt'ring gale; Learn to contemn, from their neglected tale, The wild ambition of a name. * + The Saxon, and first Norman Lords of Alnwick. * Founder of Warkworth Castle. FINIS, ERRATA. Page 27, note, for Atque, read Atqui, 141, line 3, for substantives, read substances. |