Here stands in comely order on the plain, Delineates thought, and to the wondering eye 'Mid clustered sheafs, the king of golden corn, Embodies vocal air, and groups the sound. Unbearded wheat, support of human life ; THE BRITISH MINES ; COAL, FULLER'S EARTH, BUILDING-STONE, There rises in round heaps the maltster's hope, LIME, LEAD, IRON ; SMELTING OF IROX ORE. Grain which the reaper's care solicits best With various blessings teems thy fruitful womb. By tempting promises of potent beer, Lo ! from the depth of many a yawning mine, The joy, the meed of thirst-creating toil ; Thy fossil treasures rise. Thy blazing hearths The poor man's clammy fare l the sickle reaps ; From deep sulphureous pits, consumeless stores The steed's light provender obeys the scythe. Of fuel boast. The oil-imbibing earth, Labor and mirth united, glow beneath The fuller's mill assisting, safe defies The mid-day sun : the laughing hinds rejoico : All foreign rivals in the clothier's art. Their master's heart is opened, and his eye The builder's stone thy numerous quarries hide ; Looks with indulgence on the gleaning poor. With lime, its close concomitant. The hills, At length, adorned with boughs and garlands gay, The barren hills of Derby's wildest peak, Nods the last load along the shouting field. In lead abound ; soft, fusile, malleable ; Now to the God of harvest, in a song, Whose ample sheets thy venerable domes, The grateful farmer pays accepted thanks, From rough inclement storms of wind and rain, With joy unfeigned : while to his ravished ear In safety clothe. Devona's ancient mines, The gratulations of assisting swains Whose treasures tempted first Phænicia's sons Are music. His exulting soul expands : To court thy commerce, still exbaustless, yield He presses every aiding hand; he bids The valued ore, from whence, Britannia, thou The plenteous feast, beneath some spreading tree, Thine honored ? name deriv'st. Nor want'st thou Load the large board ; and circulates the bowl, Of that all-useful metal, the support [store The copious bowl, unmeasured, unrestrained, Of every art mechanic. Hence arise A free libation to the immortal gods, 2 In Dean's large forest numerous glowing kilns, Who crown with plenty the prolific soil. The rough rude ore calcining ; whence conveyed To the fierce furnace, its intenser heat APOSTROPHE TO GREAT BRITAIN ; HER PRODUCTS; APPLES ; Melts the hard mass, which flows an iron stream, J. PHILIPS ; KENT ; HOPS ; HEMP ; FLAX; PAPER. Hail, favored island ! happy region, hail ! On sandy beds below : and stiffening there, Whose temperate skies, mild air, and genial dews, A ponderous lump, but to the hammer tamed, Enrich the fertile glebe ; blessing thy sons Takes from the forge, in bars, its final form. With various products, to the life of man FISHERIES OF BRITAIN; BIRDS, CATTLE; FLOWERS AND FRUITS; Indulgent. Thine Pomona's choicest gift, DYE-STUFFS, WIELD, WOAD, MADDER. The tasteful apple, rich with racy juice, But the glad muse, from subterranean caves Theme of thy enviod song, Silurian bard ; Emerging, views with wonder and delight Affording to the swains, in sparkling cups, What numerous products still remain unsung. Delicious beverage. Thine, on Cantium's hills, With fish abound thy streams; thy sheltering woods The flowery hop, whose tendrils climbing round To fowl give friendly covert ; and thy plains The tall aspiring pole, bear their light heads The cloven-footed race, in various herds, Aloft, in pendent clusters; which in malt's Range undisturbed. Fair Flora's sweetest buds Fermenting tuns infused, to mellow age Blow on thy beauteous bosom; and her fruits Preserves tho potent draught. Thine too the plant, Pomona pours in plenty on thy lap. To whose tough, stringy stalks thy numerous fleets Thou to the dyer's tinging cauldron giv'st Owe their strong cordage : with her sister stem, The yellow-staining weed, luteola 3; Her fairer sister, whence Minerva's 3 tribe, The glastum 4 brown, with which thy naked sons To enfold in softness beauty's lovely limbs, In ancient time their hardy limbs distained ; Present their woven texture : and from whence, Nor the rich rubia 5 does thine hand withhold. A second birth, grows the papyrean 4 leaf, 1 Fuller's earth is found in no other country ; and as it is A tablet firm, on which the painter bard of so great use in the manufacturing of cloth, the exportation of it is prohibited. Dr. Woodward says this fossil is of more value to England than the mines of Peru would be. 1 Rye, of which is made a coarse, clammy kind of bread, 2 The learned antiquary, Bochart, is of opinion that the used by the poorer people in many parts of England, on Phænicians, coming to buy tin in the island of Albion, gave account of its cheapness. It is a favorite bread with many it the name of Barat-Anac; that is, the land or country of in the United States. Tin ; which, being softened by the Greeks into Britannia, 2 The author acknowledges the God of the Harvest, a few was adopted by the Romans. This etymology seems to be lines above, and should not here restore an usurped domin confirmed by the Grecians calling the isles of Scilly, Cassiion to the immortal gods,' long since happily deceased ; terides, which signifies in Greek the same as Barat-Anac in his bowl,' likewise, is too. unmeasured' and unrestrained' Phænician. - Rapin. even for a heathen taste; as Epicurus taught at the end of 3 Wield, commonly called dyer's wood. 4 Woad. the previous canto.-J. 6 Madder, which is used by the dyers for making the most 3 Minerva is said to have invented the art of weaving. solid and richest red ; and, as Mortimer observes, was 4 The pellicle of the Egyptian plant, papyrus, was an- thought so valuable in King Charles the First's time, that ciently used for writing upon ; whence the name of paper. it was made a patent commodity. ESCULENT PRODUCTS OF BRITAIN. EULOGY OF BRITAIN, HER PRODUCTS AND LIBERTIES. Grateful and salutary spring the plants These are thy products, fair Britannia, these Which crown thy numerous gardens, and invite The copious blessings, which thy envied sons, To health and temperance, in the simple meal, Divided and distinguished from the world, Unstained with murder, undefiled with blood, Secure and free, beneath just laws, enjoy, Unpoisoned with rich sauces, to provoke Nor dread the ravage of destructive war ; The unwilling appetite to gluttony. Nor black contagion's pestilential breath ; [towns, For this the bulbous esculents their roots Nor rending earth's convulsions, — fields, flocks, With sweetness fill; for this, with cooling juice Swallowed abrupt, in ruin's frightful jaws ; The green herb spreads its leaves; and opening buds, Nor worse, far worse than all, the iron hand And flowers and seeds, with various flavors tempt Of lawless power, stretched o'er precarious wealth,The ensanguined palate from its savage feast. Lands, liberty, and life, the wanton prey Of its enormous, unresisted gripe. But further now in vegetation's paths, [crops, THE MEDICINAL PLANTS OF BRITAIN ; SAGE, LAVENDER, MINT, VALERIAN, ANGELICA, CAMOMILE, WORMWOOD, CENTAURY. Through cultured fields, and woods, and waving The wearied muse forbears to wind her walk. Nor bath the god of physic and of day To flocks and herds her future strains aspire, Forgot to shed kind influence on thy plants And let the listening hinds instructed hear The closing precepts of her labored song. THE SHEPHERDS AND SHEEP OF BRITAIN ; CARE OF SHEEP. Of cordial sage, the purple-flowering head Lo ! on the other side yon slanting hill, Of fragrant lavender, enlivening mint, Beneath a spreading oak's broad foliage, sits Valerian's fetid smell, endows benign The shepherd swain, and patient by his side With their cephalic virtues. He the root His watchful dog ; while round the nibbling flocks Of broad angelica, and tufted flower Spread their white fleeces o'er the verdant slope, Of creeping camomile, impregnates deep A landscape pleasing to the painter's eye. With powers carminative. In every brake Mark his maternal care. The tender race, Wormwood and centaury their bitter juice, Of heat impatient, as of pinching cold To aid digestion's sickly powers, refine. Afraid, he shelters from the rising sun, Beneath the mountain's western side ; and when MEDICINAL QUALITIES OF BRITISH PLAYTS; MARSH-MALLOWS, The evening beam shoots eastward, turning seeks ERYNGO, HYPERICUM, LIQCORICE, POPPY, BAUM, SAFFRON, The alternate umbrage. Now to the sweetest food Of fallowed fields he leads, and nightly folds, The smooth althæal its balsamic wave To enrich the exhausted soil : defending safe Indulgent pours. Eryngo's strengthening root From murderous thieves, and from the prowling fox, Surrounds thy sea-girt isle, restorative, Their helpless innocence. DISEASES OF SHEEP ; MANGE CURED WITH TOBACCO ; VERMIN His skilful eye Upon the bleating nation. The foul mange The scarlet poppy, on thy painted fields, Infectious, their impatient foot, by oft Bows his somniferous head, inviting soon Repeated scratchings, will betray. This calls To peaceful slumber the disordered mind : For his immediate aid, the spreading taint Lo! from the balm's exhilarating leaf, To stop. Tobacco, in the briny wave The moping fiend, black melancholy, flies ; Infused, affords a wash of sovereign use To heal the dire disease. The wriggling tail Devouring vermin lurk : these, or with dust Or deadened lime besprinkled thick, fall off The blessed thistle,s whose rejective power In smothered crowds. Relieves the loaded viscera ; and to thee THE MURRAIN IN SHEEP ; ITS SYMPTOMS AND CURE. The rose, the violet, their emollient leaves On every bush, on every bank, display. Diseases numerous Assault the harmless race : but the chief fiend, Which taints with rottenness their inward frame, 1 Marsh-mallows. 2 St. John's-wort. And sweeps them from the plain in putrid heaps, 3 Carduus, called, by physical writers, Carduus Benodictus. A nuisance to the smell, this, this demands CURED WITH LIME. His watchful care. If he perceives the fleece THE SHEEP WASHING AND SHEARING. Refulgent Summer now his hot domain Hath carried to the tropic, and begins His backward journey. Now beneath the sun Mellowing their fleeces for the impending shears, The woolly people in full clothing sweat : When the smooth current of a limpid brook The shepherd seeks, and plunging in its waves The frighted innocents, their whitening robes In the clear stream grow pure. Emerging hence, On littered straw the bleating flocks recline Till glowing heat shall dry, and breathing dews Perspiring soft, again through all the fleece Diffuse their oily fatness. Then the swain Prepares the elastic shears, and gently down The patient creature lays ; divesting soon Its lightened limbs of their encumbering load. BEST TIME TO BREED SHEEP AT MICHAELMAS. Cautious and fearful, some in early Spring Recruit their flocks ; as when the wintry storms The tender frame hath proved. But he whose aim Ambitious should aspire to mend the breed, In fruitful autumn stocks the bleating field With buxom ewes, that, to their soft desires Indulgent, he may give the noblest rams. Yet not too early in the genial sport Invite the modest ewe ; let Michael's feast Commemorate the deed ; lest the cold hand Of Winter pinch too hard the new-yeaned lamb. HOW TO CHOOSE A RAM; GOOD POINTS ; FIGHT. How nice, how delicate appears his choice, When fixing on the sire to raise his flock ! His shape, his marks, how curious he surveys ! His body large and deep, his buttocks broad, Give indication of internal strength ; Be short his leg, yet active ; small his head ; So shall Lucina's pains less pungent prove, And less the hazard of the teeming ewe ! Long be his tail, and large his wool-grown ear; Thick, shining, white, his fleece ; his hazel eye Large, bold, and cheerful ; and his horns, if horns You choose, not straight, but curving round and round On either side his head. These the sole arms His inoffensive mildness bears ; not made For shedding blood, nor hostile war ; yet these, When love, all-powerful, swells his breast, and Into his heart new courage, these he aims, (pours With meditated fury, at his foe. In glowing colors, here the tempted muse Might paint the rushing conflict, when, provoked, The rival rams, opposing front to front, Spring forth with desperate madness to the fight : But as deterred by the superior bard, Whose steps, at awful distance, I revere, Nor dare to tread ; so by the thundering strife Of his majestic fathers of the herd, My feebler combatants appalled retreat. MILCH COWS; MILKING. At leisure now, ( let me once again, Once, ere I leave the cultivated fields, My favorite Patty, in her dairy's pride, Revisit ; and the generous steeds which grace Tho pastures of her swain, well pleased, survey. The lowing kine, see, at their customed hour, Wait the returning pail. The rosy maids, Crouching beneath their sides, in copious streams Exhaust the swelling udder. Vessels large And broad, by the sweet hand of neatness cleaned, Meanwhile, in decent order ranged, appear, The milky treasure, strained through filtering lawn, Intended to receive. BRITISH WOOL, THE ORIGIN OF BRITISH COMMERCE. O more than mines of gold, than diamonds far More precious, more important is the fleece ! This, this the solid base on which the song Of commerce build, exalted to the sky, The structure of their grandeur, wealth, and power. Hence in the earliest childhood of her state, Ere yet her merchants spread the British sail, To earth descending in a radiant cloud, Britannia seized the invaluable spoil. To ocean's verge exulting swift she flew; There, on the bosom of the bounding wavo, Raised on her pearly car, fair commerce rode Sublime, the goddess of the watery world, On every coast, in every clime adored. High waving in her hand the woolly prize, Britannia hailed and beckoned to her shore The power benign. Invited by the fleece, From whence her penetrating eyes foresaw What mighty honors to her name should rise, She beamed a gracious smile. The obedient winds, Reined by her hand, conducted to the beach Her sumptuous car. But more convenient place The muse shall find, to sing the friendly league, Which, here commenced, to time's remotest age Shall bear the glory of the British sail. DAIRY WORK DESCRIBED ; PATTY MAKING BUTTER. At early day, Sweet slumber shaken from her opening lids, My lovely Patty to her dairy hies : There from the surface of expanded bowls A ponderous load imposed, his justice dooms. CHEESE-MAKING. Is cheese her care? Warm from the teat she The milky flood. An acid juice infused, (pours From the dried stomach drawn of suckling calf,' Coagulates the whole. Immediate now Her spreading hands bear down the gathering curd, Which hard and harder grows ; till, clear and thin, The green whey rises separate. Happy swains ! 0, how I envy ye the luscious draught, The soft salubrious beverage ! To a vat, The size and fashion which her taste approves, She bears the snow-white heaps, her future cheese ; And the strong press establishes its form. VARIOUS BREEDS OF HORSES; THE HUNTER; THE CHASE. But not alone to these inferior tribes The ambitious swain confines his generous breed. Hark! in his fields, when now the distant sounds Of winding horns, and dogs, and huntmen's shout, Awake the sense, his kindling hunter neighs ; Quick start his ears erect, his beating heart Exults, his light limbs bound, he bears aloft, Raised by tumultuous joy, his tossing head ; And all-impatient for the well-known sport, Leaps the tall fence, and, listening to the cry, Pursues with voluntary speed the chase. See ! o'er the plain he sweeps, nor hedge nor ditch Obstructs his eager flight ; nor straining hills, Nor headlong steeps deter the vig'rous steed : Till joined at length, associate of the sport, He mingles with the train, stops as they stop, Pursues as they pursue, and all the wild, Enlivening raptures of the field enjoys. THE HAPPY HOUSEWIFE AND HER HUSBAND ; CREAM; SYLLABUBS ; THYRSIS, THE HERDSMAN ; HIS FAMILY AND HOME. But nicer cates, her dairy's boasted fare, The jellied cream, or custard, daintiest food, Or cheese-cake, or the cooling syllabub, For Thyrsis she prepares ; who from the field, Returning, with the kiss of love sincere, Salutes her rosy lip. A tender look, Meantime, and cheerful smiles his welcome speak: Down to their frugal board contentment sits, And calls it feasting. Prattling infants dear Engage their fond regard, and closer tie The band of nuptial love. They, happy, feel Each other's bliss, and, both in different spheres Employed, nor seek nor wish that cheating charm, Variety, which idlers to their aid Call in, to make the length of lazy life Drag on less heavily. Domestic cares, Her children and her dairy, well divide The appropriated hours, and duty makes Employment pleasure. He, delighted, gives Each busy season of the rolling year, To raise, to feed, to improve the generous horse ; And fit for various use his strength or speed. TITE RACE-HORSE AND RACE DESCRIBED. Easy in motion, perfect in his form, His boasted lineage drawn from steeds of blood, He the fleet courser, too, exulting shows, And points with pride his beauties. Neatly set His lively head, and glowing in his eye True spirit lives. His nostril wide inhales With ease the ambient air. His body firm And round ; upright his joints ; his horny hoofs Small, shining, light; and large his ample reach. His limbs, though slender, braced with sinewy strength, Declare his wingéd speed. His temper mild, Yet high his mettled heart. Hence in the race All emulous, he hears the clashing whips ; He feels the animating shouts ; exerts With eagerness his utmost powers ; and strains. And springs, and flies, to reach the destined goal. HORSE-BREEDING; THE LONDON DRAY-HORSE ; CRUEL DRIVING REPROVED; THE ROADSTER. THE CHARGER, OR WAR-HORSE, DESCRIBED. But, lo! the boast, the glory of his stalls, His warrior steed appears. What comely pride, What dignity, what grace, attend on all His motions ! See ! exulting in his strength, On great Culloden's memorable field. [throne He paws the ground impatient. On his brow TRIBUTE TO THE KING ; ENGLAND IN WAR AND PEACE ; FARX ING ; COMMERCE ; ARTS. THE CAVALRY CHARGE DESCRIBED; THE DUKE OF CUMBER LAND AT CULLODEN ; MARLBOROUGH. But when the battle's martial sounds invade His ear, when drums and trumpets loud proclaim The rushing onset ; when thick smoke, when fire, Burst thundering from the cannon's awful mouth; Then all inspired he kindles into flame ! Intrepid, neighs aloud ; and, panting, seems Impatient to express his swelling joys Unutterable. On danger's brink he stands, And mocks at fear. Then springing with delight, Plunges into the wild confusion. Terror flies Before his dreadful front; and in his rear Destruction marks her bloody progress. Such, Such was the steed thou, Cumberland, bestrod’st, When black rebellion fell beneath thy hand, Rome and her papal tyranny subdued, And such, O prince !! great patron of my theme, Should e'er insidious France again presume On Europe's freedom, such, though all averse To slaughtering war, thy country shall present To bear her hero to the martial plain, Armed with the sword of justice. Other cause Ne'er shall ambition's sophistry persuade Thine honor to espouse. Britannia's peace ; Her sacred rights ; her just, her equal laws : These, these alone, to cherish or defend, Shall raise thy youthful arm, and wake to war, To dreadful war, the British lion's rage. But milder stars on thy illustrious birth Their kindest influence shed. Beneath the smile Of thy indulgence, the protected arts Lifting their graceful heads - her envied sail Fair commerce spreading to remotest climes And plenty rising from the encouraged plough — Shall feed, enrich, adorn, the happy land. 1 George II. began to reign in 1727, George III. in 1760. Dodsley was born in 1703, and died in 1764. Tusser's "pril's Husbandry." IF April be dripping, then do I not hate, For him that hath little, his fallowing late ; Else otherwise, fallowing timely is best, For saving of cattle, of plough, and the rest. Be suér of plough to be ready at hand, Ere compas? ye spread that on hillocks did stand ; Lest drying, so lying, do make it decay, Ere ever much water do wash it away. Get into thy hop-yard with plenty of poles, Among those same hillocks divide them by doles. Three poles to a hillock (I pass not how long), Shall yield thee more profit, set decply and strong. Sell bark to the tanner ere timber ye fell ; Cut low by the ground, else do ye not well. In breaking, save crooked, for mill and for ships ; And ever, in hewing, save carpenter's chips. First see it well fenced, ere hewers begin ; Then see it well stadled, without and within ; Leave growing for stadles the likest and best, Though seller and buyer dispatched the rest. Save elm, ash, crab-tree, for cart and for plough ; 1 2. Compas' means compost manure. To stadle' is, in cutting, to leave standing a sufficient number of thriving young trees, or "stadles,' to replenish the wood-lot. 1 2 3 Hulver is the antique name for holly. St. Andrew's Day is November 30. “Sost' means swilled about ; it is a word still heard in New England. |