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 pensive 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, fomewhat at length, a paffage from our Poet's father, as a specimen of his manner, in which we find the fame train of thought as in the Inscription before us:

Sweeter the lonely Hermit's fimple food,
Who in lone caves, or near the rushy flood,
With eager appetite at early hours
From maple dish falubrious herbs devours:
Soft drowly dews at eve his temples fteep,
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 fashion's dupe, no powerful paffion's flave. P. 178.

And while the maple dish is mine,
The beechen cup, unftain'd with wine;
I fcorn the gay licentious croud,
Nor heed the toys that deck the proud.

II.

Within my limits lone and still
The blackbird pipes in artless trill;
Faft by my couch, congenial guest,
The wren has wove her moffy neft;
From bufy fcenes, and brighter fkies,
To lurk with innocence, fhe flies;
Here hopes in fafe repofe to dwell,
Nor aught fufpects the fylvan cell.

III.

At morn I take my cuftom'd round,

To mark how buds yon fhrubby mound;

V. 5. And while the maple difh is mine,] Comus, ver. 390:

For who would rob a hermit of his weeds,

His few books, or his beads, or maple difb,
Or do his gray hairs any violence?

And Milton's fixth Elegy, ver. 61:

Stet prope fagineo pellucida lympha catillo,
Sobriaque e puro pocula fonte bibat.

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V. 17. At morn I take my cuftom'd round,] Mr. Headley quotes the following from Milton's Arcades, where the Genius of the wood is introduced defcribing his daily occupation:

When evening gray doth rife, I fetch my round

Over the mount and all this hallow'd ground;