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 fubjects cries,
Nor faw difpleas'd the peaceful cottage rise.
Then gath'ring flocks on unknown mountains fed,
O'er fandy wilds were yellow harvests spread,
The forefts wonder'd at th' unufual grain,
And fecret transport touch'd the confcious fwain.
Fair Liberty, Britannia's Goddess, rears
Her chearful head, and leads the golden years.

Ye vig'rous fwains! while youth ferments your [blood, And purer fpirits fwell the fprightly flood, Now range the hills, the thickest woods befet, Wind the fhrill horn, or fpread the waving net. When milder autumn fummer's heat fucceeds, And in the new-fhorn field the partridge feeds, Before his Lord the ready fpaniel bounds, Panting with hope, he tries the furrow'd grounds, But when the tainted gales the game betray, Couch'd clofe he lies, and meditates the prey;

* William Rufus, fecond son of William the Conqueror.

Fork Soem & alle for ibertive tyrants bled,
Bells wile divages were fed.
Freed Normal Sthe Soody Chace began,
A ngay later, and his prey was man.
On high Norma besis that barb'rous name,
And miles is trembling faves the royal game.

Ravid from th' industrious swains,

From mes that cines, and from Gods their fanes:
The loved tewas with weeds le cover'd o'er;
TRAINTVA thro' naked temples roar;
Roune broken celemas dabing ivy twin'd;
O'er heaps of rain talk the fately hind;
The sex offene to gaping tombs retires,
And waves with how ling fill the facred quires.
Awhy do Nobles, by his Commons curft,
Ta' opprefor rul'd tyrannick where he durst,
Stretch'd o'er the Poor, and Church, his ir
And treats alike his vanals and his C
Whom ev'n the Saxon spar'd

The wanton victims of hi
But fee the man who fi

A wafte for beafts, hi

↑ Alluding to the n William I.

tretc

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 fubjects cries,
Nor faw difpleas'd the peaceful cottage rife.
Then gath'ring flocks on unknown mountains fed,
O'er fandy wilds were yellow harvests spread,
The forefts wonder'd at th' unusual grain,
And secret transport touch'd the conscious swain.
Fair Liberty, Britannia's Goddess, rears
Her chearful head, and leads the golden years.
Ye vig'rous fwains! while youth ferments your

[blood, And purer fpirits fwell the fprightly flood, Now range the hills, the thickest woods befet,

Secure they truft th' unfaithful field, befet,

Till hov'ring o'er 'em fweeps the fwelling net..
Thus (if finall things we may with great compare)
When Albion fends her eager fons to war,

Pleas'd, in the Gen'ral's fight, the host lie down
Sudden, before fome unfufpecting town,

The captive race, one instant makes our price,
And high in air Britannia's standard flies.

See! from the brake the whirring pheasant fprings
And mounts exulting on triumphant wings.
Short is his joy; he feels the fiery wound,
Flutters in blood, and panting beats the ground.
Ah! what avail his gloffy, varying dyes,
His purple creft, and fcarlet-circled eyes,
The vivid green his fhining plumes unfold,
His painted wings, and breast that flames with gold?
Nor yet, when moist Arcturus clouds the sky,
The woods and fields their pleafing toils deny:
To plains with well-bred beagles we repair,

And trace the mazes of the circling hare.
(Beasts taught by us, their fellow-beasts pursue,
And learn of man each other to undo.)
With flaught'ring guns th' unweary'd fowler roves,
When frofls have whiten'd all the naked groves;

Where

Where doves in flocks the leaflefs trees o'erfhade,
And lonely woodcocks haunt the wat'ry glade.

He lifts the tube, and levels with his eye;
Strait a fhort thunder breaks the frozen fky.
Oft", as in airy rings they skim the heath,
The clam'rous plovers feel the leaden death:
Oft', as the mounting larks their notes prepare,
They fall, and leave their little lives in air.

In genial spring, beneath the quiv'ring fhade,
Where cooling vapours breathe along the mead,
The patient fifher takes his filent stand,
Intent, his angle trembling in his hand;

With looks unmov'd, he hopes the scaly breed,
And eyes the dancing cork, and bending reed.
Our plenteous ftreams a various race supply;
The bright-ey'd perch with fins of Tyrian die,
The filver eel in fhining volumes roll'd,
The yellow carp, in fcales bedrop'd with gold,
Swift trouts, diverfify'd with crimson ftains,
And pykes, the tyrants of the wat’ry plains.
Now Cancer glows with Phœbus' fiery car;
The youth rufh eager to the fylvan war;
Swarm o'er the lawns, the foreft walks furround,.
Rowze the fleet hart, and chear the op'ning hound.
Th' im-