A NORTHERN PROSPECT. W HEN 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. P 2 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; Mistaken avarice, with such costly waste The marsh exhale, the heath recede, The turrets gleam high o'er the driving blast: Beneath old Cheviot's frown, See Ford's white line the verdant slope adorn; A romantic fortress, nearly demolished to enlarge a farm-house, which lies at its feet. † Dr. Sharp, late Archdeacon of Northumberland. Ford Castle, repair'd by Lord Delaval. 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! Where hostile monarchs fought and felf, 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, Nor heeds where creeping ivy's trail * 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 besieging the castle of Alnwick. Remarks the abbey's shorten'd shade; To yon' majestic walls repair; Know Tyson,† Vescy,+ 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. J. AND J. HADDOCK, PRINTERS, WARRINGTON. |