Far other scenes their minds employ, And move their hearts with softer joy. For pleasures they need never roam, Their's, with affection, dwell at home. Thrice happy they at home to prove A Parent's and a Brother's love ; Her bright example pleas'd to trace, Learn every virtue, every grace, Which lustre give in female life To daughter, sister, parent, wife : Grateful to see her guardian care A tender Father's loss repair, And, rising far o'er grief and pain, The glories of her race maintain.

Their ancient seats let others fly, To roll beneath a foreign sky; Or loitering in their villas stay, 'Till useless summers waste away, While, hopeless of their lord's return, The poor exhausted tenants mourn; From Lowther she disdains to run To bask beneath a southern sun, Opens the hospitable door, Welcomes the friend, relieves the poor; Bids tenants share the lib'ral board, And early know and love their Lord, Whose courteous deeds to all extend, And make each happy guest a friend, To smiling Earth the grateful Main

Thus gives her gather'd streams again,
In showers on hill, and dale, and plain.

O may the virtues which adorn With modest beams his rising morn, Unclouded grow to perfect day! May he with bounty's brightest ray The natives cheer, enrich the soil, With arts improve, reward their toil, Glad with kind warmth, our northern sky, And generous Lonsdale's loss supply.

Ere yet your footsteps quit the place
Your presence long hath deign’d to grace,
With softening eye and heart deplore
The conscious scenes your own no more,

When vernal clouds their influence shower,
Expand the bud, and rear the flower,
Who to yon' leafing grove will come
Where the rath primrose loves to bloom,
And fondly seek with heedful tread
The forward floret's downy head ?
Or, when the violet leaves the ground,
Scent the pure perfume breathing round?

Epist. VII. EPISTLES DESCRIPTIVE, &c.

61

The garden tribes that gladlier grew
While cherish'd by your fostering view,
No more resume their wonted hues,
No more their wonted sweets diffuse.

Who first will spy the swallow's wing,
Or hear the cuckoo greet the Spring ?
Unmark'd shall then th' assiduous dove
With ruffling plumage urge his love;
Unnoted, though in lengthen’d strain,
The bashful nightingale complain!

O'er the broad down who then delight,
Led by the lapwing's devious flight,
To see her run and hear her cry,
Most clamorous when least danger's nigh?

Who listless now will sauntering stay
Where rustics spread th’unwither'd hay,
And o’er the field survey askance
The

wavy vapor quivering dance ?
Or sunk supine with musing eye
Listen the hum of noon-day ily?
Or watch the bee from bell to bell
Where shelter'd lilies edge the dell?
Or mid the sultry heat reclin'd
Beneath the poplar woo the wind,
While to the lightest air that strays
Each leaf its hoary side displays ?

Who, drawn by Nature's varying face, O'er heaven the gathering tempest trace ? Or, in the rear of sunny rain, Admire the wide bow's gorgeous train ; Till blending all its tints decay, And the dim'd vision fleets away ; In misty streams of ruddy glow, That cast an amber shine below, And melting into ether blue The freshen'd verdure gild anew?

Who now ascend the upland lawn When Morning tines the kindling dawn, To view the goss'mer pearl'd with dew That tremulous shoots each glistering hue ? Or mark the clouds in liveries gay Surround the radiant orb of day? Who, when his amplest course is run, Wistful pursue the sinking sun ? To common eyes he vainly shines, Unheeded rises, or declines !

In vain, with saffron light o'erspread,
Yon summit lifts its verdant head,
Discovering ev'ry whiten'd cote
And coppice, clear to eye remote;
While down the steep each loftier oak,
Outbraving still the woodman's stroke,