" This is followed by the "Elysian Tempe of
Stourhead," the seat of Sir Richard Colt Hoare, to whose talents and
benevolence Mr. Bowles pays a merited tribute. Longleat, the residence
of the Bishop of Bath and Wells, succeeds; and Marston, the abode of the
Rev. Mr. Skurray, a friend of the author from his "youthful days,"
introduces the following beautiful descriptive snatch:--
And witness thou,
Marston, the seat of my kind, honour'd friend--
My kind and honour'd friend, from youthful days.
Then wand'ring on the banks of Rhine, we saw
Cities and spires, beneath the mountains blue,
Gleaming; or vineyards creep from rock to rock;
Or unknown castles hang, as if in clouds;
Or heard the roaring of the cataract.
Far off,[5] beneath the dark defile or gloom
Of ancient forests--till behold, in light,
Foaming and flashing, with enormous sweep,
Through the rent rocks--where, o'er the mist of spray,
The rainbow, like a fairy in her bow'r,
Is sleeping while it roars--that volume vast,
White, and with thunder's deaf'ning roar, comes down.
[5] At Shaffhausen.
Part III. opens with the following metaphorical gem:--
The show'r is past--the heath-bell, at our feet,
Looks up, as with a smile, though the cold dew
Hangs yet within its cup, like Pity's tear
Upon the eye-lids of a village-child!
This is succeeded by a poetic panorama of views from the Severn to
Bristol, introducing a solitary ship at sea--and the "solitary sand:"--
No sound was heard,
Save of the sea-gull warping on the wind,
Or of the surge that broke along the shore,
Sad as the seas.
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