From thee began, aufpicious maid, my fong,
With thee shall end; for thou art fairer far
Than are the nymphs of Cirrha's moffy grot;
To loftier rapture thou canst wake the thought,
Than all the fabling Poet's boasted pow'rs. 305
Hail, queen divine! whom, as tradition tells,
Once in his evening walk a Druid found,
Far in a hollow glade of Mona's woods;
And piteous bore with hospitable hand
To the close fhelter of his oaken bow'r.
There foon the fage admiring mark'd the dawn
Of folemn musing in your pensive thought;
For when a fmiling babe, you lov'd to lie
Oft deeply lift'ning to the rapid roar

310

Of wood-hung Meinai, ftream of Druids old. 315

V. 301. From thee began, aufpicious maid, my fong,
With thee fhall end;-]

Horace to Mæcenas, Ep. I. i. 1.

Prima dicte mihi, fumma dicende Camœnâ.

Virgil to Pollio, Ecl. viii. 11.

A te principium, tibi definet; accipe juffis
Carmina cœpta tuis :

Thus tranflated by Dr. Warton:

With thee began my fongs, with thee shall end.

V. 303.

the nymphs of Cirrha's mofly grot;] The Muses. The town and plain of Cirrha, or Cyrrha, are in Phocis, at the foot of Mount Parnaffus.

V. 315.

Meinai-] Menai, or Meneu, the ftrait which divides the ifle of Anglesey from Caernarvonshire.

INSCRIPTIONS.

VOL. I.

H

INSCRIPTION IN A HERMITAGE.

AT ANSLEY HALL IN WARWICKSHIRE.

(Published in 1777.)

I.

BENEATH this ftony roof reclin'd,
I footh to peace my penfive mind;
And while, to fhade my lowly cave,
Embowering elms their umbrage wave;

V. I. Beneath this ftony roof reclin'd, &c.] Mr. Headley refers to an Infcription upon a large root at the Leafowes;

O let me haunt this peaceful fhade, &c.

I will take the opportunity of quoting here, somewhat at length, a paffage from our Poet's father, as a fpecimen of his manner, in which we find the fame train of thought as in the Infcription before us :

Sweeter the lonely Hermit's fimple food,
Who in lone caves, or near the ruthy flood,
With eager appetite åt early hours
From maple difh falubrious herbs devours :
Soft drowsy dews at eve his temples steep,
And happy dreams attend his easy fleep;
Wak'd by the thrush, to neighb'ring vales he goes,
To mark how fucks the bee, how blooms the rofe,
What latent juice the trodden herbage yields,
Wild nature's phyfic in the flowery fields.
With temperance footh'd, each folitary day

Free, innocent, and eafy fteals away,

Till age down bends him to the friendly grave,

No fafhion's dupe, no powerful paffion's flave. P. 178.