2. Of the mail-cover'd Barons, who, proudly, to battle,i 3. No more doth old Robert, with harp-stringing numbers, Raise a flame, in the breast, for the war-laurell'd wreath; Near Askalon's towers, John of Horistan slumbers, 2 Unnerv'd is the hand of his minstrel, by death. 4. Paul and Hubert too sleep in the valley of Cressy; For the safety of Edward and England they fell: My Fathers! the tears of your country redress ye : How you fought! how you died! still her annals can tell. 4 5. On Marston,3 with Rupert, 'gainst traitors contending, Four brothers enrich'd, with their blood, the bleak field; i. Of the barons of old, who once proudly to battle.—[4to] 1. [No record of any crusading ancestors in the Byron family can be found. Moore conjectures that the legend was suggested by some groups of heads on the old panelwork at Newstead, which appear to represent Christian soldiers and Saracens, and were, most probably, put up before the Abbey came into the possession of the family.] 2. Horistan Castle, in Derbyshire, an ancient seat of the B-R-N family [4to]. [Horiston.-4to.] 3. The battle of Marston Moor, where the adherents of Charles I. were defeated. 4. Son of the Elector Palatine, and related to Charles I. He afterwards commanded the Fleet, in the reign of Charles II. For the rights of a monarch their country defending, 6. i. Shades of heroes, farewell! your descendant departing 7. iv. Though a tear dim his eye at this sad separation," i. For Charles the Martyr their country defending.— ii. Bids ye adieu!--[4to] iii. Though a tear dims.—[4to] iii. [4to. P. on V. Occasions.] iv. 'Tis nature, not fear, which commands his regret.-[4to] v. In the grave he alone can his fathers forget.—[4to] 66 1. [Sir Nicholas Byron, the great-grandson of Sir John Byron the Little, distinguished himself in the Civil Wars. He is described by Clarendon (Hist. of the Rebellion, 1807, i. 216) as “a person of great affability and dexterity, as well as martial knowledge." He was Governor of Carlisle, and afterwards Governor of Chester. His nephew and heir-atlaw, Sir John Byron, of Clayton, K.B. (1599-1652), was raised to the peerage as Baron Byron of Rochdale, after the Battle of Newbury, October 26, 1643. He held successively the posts of Lieutenant of the Tower, Governor of Chester, and, after the expulsion of the Royal Family from England, Governor to the Duke of York. He died childless, and was succeeded by his brother Richard, the second lord, from whom the poet was descended. Five younger brothers, as Richard's monument in the chancel of Hucknall Torkard Church records, " faithfully served King Charles the First in 8. That fame, and that memory, still will he cherish ;" When decay'd, may he mingle his dust with your own! 1803. TO E1 LET Folly smile, to view the names Yet Virtue will have greater claims To love, than rank with vice combin'd. And though unequal is thy fate, Since title deck'd my higher birth; Thine is the pride of modest worth. Our souls at least congenial meet, Nor can thy lot my rank disgrace; Our intercourse is not less sweet, Since worth of rank supplies the place. November, 1802. i. Your fame, and your memory, still will he cherish.—[4to] the Civil Wars, suffered much for their loyalty, and lost all their present fortunes." (See Life of Lord Byron, by Karl Elze : Appendix, Note (A), p. 436.)] 1. [E- was, according to Moore, a boy of Byron's own age, the son of one of the tenants at Newstead.] ON THE DEATH OF A YOUNG LADY,1 COUSIN TO THE AUTHOR, AND VERY DEAR TO HIM. I. HUSH'D are the winds, and still the evening gloom, And scatter flowers on the dust I love. 1. The author claims the indulgence of the reader more for this piece than, perhaps, any other in the collection; but as it was written at an earlier period than the rest (being composed at the age of fourteen), and his first essay, he preferred submitting it to the indulgence of his friends in its present state, to making either addition or alteration.-[4to] ["My first dash into poetry was as early as 1800. It was the ebullition of a passion for my first cousin, Margaret Parker (daughter and granddaughter of the two Admirals Parker), one of the most beautiful of evanescent beings. I have long forgotten the verse; but it would be difficult for me to forget her-her dark eyes-her long eye-lashes-her completely Greek cast of face and figure! I was then about twelve-she rather older, perhaps a year. She died about a year or two afterwards, in consequence of a fall, which injured her spine, and induced consumption. . . I knew nothing of her illness, being at Harrow and in the country till she was gone. Some years after, I made an attempt at an elegy-a very dull one."-Byron Diary, 1821; Life, p. 17.] [Margaret Parker was the sister of Sir Peter Parker, whose death at Baltimore, in 1814, Byron celebrated in the " Elegiac Stanzas," which were first published in the poems attached to the seventh edition of Childe Harold.] 2. Within this narrow cell reclines her clay, That clay, where once such animation beam'd; The King of Terrors seiz'd her as his prey; Not worth, nor beauty, have her life redeem'd. 3. Oh! could that King of Terrors pity feel, Or Heaven reverse the dread decree of fate, Not here the mourner would his grief reveal, Not here the Muse her virtues would relate. 4. But wherefore weep? Her matchless spirit soars Beyond where splendid shines the orb of day; And weeping angels lead her to those bowers, Where endless pleasures virtuous deeds repay. 5. And shall presumptuous mortals Heaven arraign! 6. Yet is remembrance of those virtues dear, i. Such sorrow brings me honour, not disgrace.-[4to] 1802. |