MY GRAND CLIMACTERIC. 1802.

As one, who journeys over unknown lands,

Ere yet the sun withdraws his western ray,

Stops on some mountain’s brow, whose site commands

The shifting scenes and labyrinths of the way;

With fond reverted look his thoughts retrace,

Where flowers their sweets, and wild-birds gave their song,

And dwell, long dwell! on many a favourite space,

Where prodigal of time he loiter’d long;

Lovers and friends in bright perspective rise,

Companions of his morn, on yon blue hill;

Down that blank plain he drops a look, and sighs,

Whence seem their parting words to reach him still;

Here his pain’d eyes unkindly districts mark,

Where faint heats smote him or fierce storms o’ertook;

There strain o’er deep’ning woods at noonday dark,

Where his false steps their destin’d course forsook;

Pond’ring the change and chances of the day,

As warning eve prepares her veil to close,

Serious, he now proceeds with short survey,

Expecting night’s dark hour, and hoping calm repose:

So I look back on more than sixty years,

In life’s sequester’d walks obscurely spent,

Where tho’ its trophied head no column rears,

Inscrib’d with mighty deed, or proud event,

Yet, on some few small eminencies, glow

The heart’s rejoicing-lights of self-applause;

Some generous claims surmount the gloom below,

And shame and sharp regrets a moment pause;

Yet these prevail—ah! might my wish prevail

That Time would turn my near exhausted glass;

Then not a grain should of its harvest fail;—

Seeds are but sands when unimprov’d they pass.

Vain wish! vain promise! what dost thou presume,

O weak Humanity? thyself but dust!

Since from the cradle, hourly, to the tomb,

Toil, trifle, err and grieve, frail thing! thou must.

But pleasures, passions lose their dangerous force;

And the world’s business shrinks as age descends:

O spare Adversity! my evening course;

My little part is play’d, my small importance ends.

To F. N. C. MUNDY, Esq.
ON HIS POEM
THE FALL OF NEEDWOOD.

Poet of Needwood, much my heart approves

This thy ow’d duty to his ravag’d groves,

The lost! the lovely! who in better days

View’d their each grace reflected in thy lays;

And O! when many a future Age has pass’d,

Rolling oblivious o’er his nameless Waste,

Its sometime beauties shall again revive,

And in thy pictur’d strains for EVER live.

Come, pensive listening, ye once jocund Throng,

Whilome that rov’d those forest-haunts along;

Explor’d, with pleasure brightening in your air,

Each coy, green labyrinth and each turfy lair,

Still, as in pride of youth, the wanton Spring

Expanded to the Sun her showery wing,

And cliffs, illustrious in their golden bloom,

Rose o’er the glades of light-besprinkled gloom.

Nor absent ye when Summer’s fervid Hours

Dropt more luxuriant curtains on the Bowers,

And the vast Oak’s writh’d arms of dusky green

Shadow’d the dappled Tenants of the Scene,

With rival Elm, whose mossy trunk appears

Out-numbering far the lonely Eagle’s years.

Nor when the Months consummate, left their vales

To Suns less ardent, less benignant gales,

And Autumn painted, with his tawny hand,

The shrinking foliage, and in colours bland

Streak’d the pale red with purple, faint and brief,

And tipt with tarnish’d gold each trembling leaf.

Nor e’en when Phœbus’ Steeds, no longer fleet,

With mane dishevel’d streaming to their feet,

Struggling thro’ clouds, th’ hybernal Solstice gain,

Their necks bedropt with globes of freezing rain,

And the loud Tyrant of the dying Year

Stript OTHER Groves, made OTHER Forests fear;

For Needwood to his sway disdain’d to yield;

His polish’d umbrage an unfailing shield,

Those numerous hollies on his breast and brow,

That thrust their scarlet clusters thro’ the snow,

Or spread their glossy leaves to transient rays

The rebel Glory of the icy days.

Nor if, ere yet arisen, dim Morning heard

Your lightheel’d Coursers paw the dewy swerd,

When the sly Prowler stole adown the wind,

And hop’d he left no tell-tale scent behind.

Vain hope! your swift staunch hounds the search began,

To right and left their hurrying numbers ran,

Till found the taint, in streaming files they hie,

And in one shrill, continuous, clamouring cry,

To which th’ accordant Forest joyous rings,

Hang on his rear, while o’er the vale he springs,

Dash through the rhimy glades, and round the hills

As when receiving tribute brooks and rills

O’er flinty bed a River foams and roars,

Loud and impatient of meandering shores;

Or, deepen’d, shews the Sun his mirror’d face,

Or zones with silver light the mountain’s base.

Now come, with Mundy, where the Ruin lowers!

He hymns the dirge of the devasted Bowers.

Echo his wailings o’er their fallen state,

Whom Centuries hail’d irregularly great.

Come, execrate the Edict that destroy’d,

Leaving Time-hallow’d Needwood bare and void!

There fell Imagination’s rural fane!

Thence fled fair-shafted Dian’s votive Train,

All which the Bard, entranc’d, in forest sees,

Satyrs and Fauns and leaf-crown’d Dryades.

They fled when Avarice, with rapacious frown,

From Mercia’s temples struck her sylvan crown.

Yet, gentle Minstrel, they whose raptur’d ears

Drank thy sweet Song in the departed years;

Saw oaken wreaths thy auburn brows entwine,

The well-won meed at Needwood’s shadowy shrine,

Shall find thy Gratulation’s vivid glow

Match’d by thy Requiem in its mournful flow;

The orb of Mundy’s Muse-illumin’d day

Setting with rival tho’ with milder ray;

Pleas’d shall compare the evening with the noon,

And feel, in equal power, the Cypress Garland won.

ANNA SEWARD.[[93]]

IMPROMPTU.
TO THE AUTHOR OF THE NEW POEM, ENTITLED
THE FALL OF NEEDWOOD.

OCTOBER, 1808.

When Poesy, the Child of Zeal,

Who soothes each Pang, that Earth can feel,

Beheld, at wounded Nature’s call,

That Scene of Horror, Needwood’s Fall!

She said, in haste to yield Relief,

And calm the Mighty Mother’s Grief:

“Nature! dear Parent! Power divine!

Whose Joys and Griefs are truly mine!

To you my sympathy devotes

My chearful, and my plaintive Notes:

With Feelings not to be supprest,

I view your lacerated Breast;

This Waste of Ravages! where stood

Your Sylvan Wealth! your graceful Wood!

I cannot from the rifled Earth

Call into sudden, second Birth

The Forest, vanished from your sight,

Tho’ once your Pride! and my Delight!

But I can raise, in your Distress,

A Charm, that scarce will soothe you less;

Behold this Proof of my Regard,

In Needwood’s fascinating Bard!

He, whom our blended Gifts engage

To sing, with youthful Fire, in age,

He, Needwood! by whose Breath you live,

Gives you, whatever Verse can give;

He makes immortal, in his Songs,

Your Beauties all, and all your Wrongs:

His Verse displays a deathless Charm,

That foils the Force of Havoc’s Arm;

Age after Age, while Nymphs are found

To breathe Delight on English Ground,

The grateful Dryads will admire

The Magic of their Mundy’s Lyre;

And boast the Wood, he lov’d to praise,

For ever verdant in his Lays.

W. HAYLEY.

[1]. [Dove, etc.] The river Dove.

[2]. [And bids his hollies, etc.] The numerous groves and clumps of hollies give uncommon beauty to the winter-scenes of Needwood Forest.

[3]. [Emes, etc.] Mr. Emes, who ornamented Beaudesart, the seat of Ld. Paget, which is seen from the Forest, and who has obtained great reputation for his Taste in ornamental Gardening, has frequently assured the Author, that he took his best hints from the scenes of Needwood.

[4]. [Maim’d the staunch hound, etc.] Alludes to the Order for Lawing, or cutting off a claw of all Dogs kept within the purlieus of the royal forests, to prevent their destroying the Deer.

[5]. [Here with fair peace, etc.] The Author rents his house, upon the verge of the forest, of Sir Wm. Bagot. It was built and inhabited by two gentlemen of the Bagot family.

[6]. [And Arden boasts, etc.] See Shakespear’s As you like it.—Scene Forest of Arden.

[7]. [The wandering Wood, etc.] Fairy Queen, Book 1st. chap. 1st. stanza 13th. This is the wandering Wood, this Errors den.

[8]. [And bears away, etc.] B. 1st. c. 2d. The Shield inscribed Sans Foy.

[9]. [A gaudy bee-bird’s, etc.] The Humming Bird.

[10]. [And there in gothic arches, etc.] Dr. Warburton observes the gothic architecture originally imitated the groves, which were in earlier times consecrated to religious worship.

Divine Legation.

[11]. [One like a sexton, etc.] Earth-stopper.

[12]. [Where this gay mount, etc.] A beautiful eminence called King’s-Standing.

[13]. [And Lichfield’s bower, etc.] Lichfield Bower is supposed to be the tumulus of three Saxon Kings slain in battle near that spot.

[14]. [British Nile, etc.] Dr. Plott calls the Dove the Nile of England, and attributes the fertility of its floods to the sheep dung washed from the hills in the Moorlands.

[15]. [Brown, etc.] Hawkins Brown Esq; of Foston upon Dove.

[16]. [C’andish, etc.] Doveridge, the seat of C’andish, Esq;

[17]. [Fitzherbert, etc.] Richard Fitzherbert, Esq; of Sommershall.

[18]. [The social flag, etc.] Messrs. Adderley and Scott have pitched a tent upon a fine hill above Coton, from whence a flag flies when they are at home, as a signal to their friends.

[19]. [Outlaw, etc.] A Deer-stealer refusing to surrender was here slain by a Keeper.

[20]. [Where life a gentler breast, etc.] This unfortunate young man being sent on an errand by the Author of this Poem, died on his return; was found next morning in the forest within a mile of his home, his dog standing by him. He was a weaver, supported his father and mother; was engaged on the night of his death to meet his sweetheart at a Christmas feast in the neighbourhood.

[21]. [Yon cliff, etc.] Tutbury Castle.

[22]. [Ferrers, etc.] Robert de Ferrers joining a rebellion against Henry 3d. forfeited the possession of Tutbury.

[23]. [Castle-guard, etc.] A service imposed upon those to whom Castles and Estates adjoining were granted.

[24]. [Mary, etc.] Mary Queen of Scots was a prisoner in Tutbury Castle at the time of the Duke of Norfolk’s intrigues: she listened to his proposals of marriage, as the only means of obtaining her liberty, declaring herself otherwise averse to farther matrimonial connections.

[25]. [While minstrels, etc.] The minstrels formerly crowded to Tutbury Castle, then a place of festivity and hospitality, in such numbers, as to require regulations of order and precedence amongst them, the person appointed for this purpose was called King of the Minstrels.

[26]. [In the rude sport, etc.] The annual Bull-running.

[27]. [Yon hill, etc.] Hound-hill, the ancient seat of the Vernon’s.

[28]. [Beside me lies, etc.] The situation of Needwood is high, and its banks, descending from the plain of the forest to the country below, are in many places a mile deep; they consist of alternate cliffs and dingles, and are entirely covered with trees and rough copses.

[29]. [Yes, Eaton-Banks, etc.] Eaton-Wood, seen from the Forest, was the property of the late Godfry Bagnell Clarke, Esquire.

[30]. [Henry, etc.] The Hon. Henry Vernon.

[31]. [On breezy wings, etc.] A Deer when hunted runs against the Wind.

[32]. [No shrite-cock, etc.] The Shrite-cock or Missel Thrush.

[33]. [Destruction’s arm, etc.] By order from the Dutchy Court of Lancaster, to which the forest of Needwood belongs, the timber is now felling under the direction of an officer of that Court.

[34]. [Huge Swilcar, etc.] Swilcar Oak stands singly upon a beautiful small lawn surrounded with extensive woods,—it is of remarkable size, and supposed to be six hundred years old.

[35]. [Accursed Julius, etc.] Cæsar cuts down a consecrated grove. Lucan, lib. 3.

[36]. [In freedom’s dearest days, etc.] The charter of Hen. 3. confirms the privilege to Lords of parliament of killing a Deer or two in any of the royal forests in their way to or from parliament, in the presence of the keeper, or on blowing a horn in his absence.—’tis about six hundred years since that king reigned.

[37]. [Yet, yet, fond Hope, etc.] Upon the above order from the Dutchy Court, Ld. Vernon proposed an inclosure of some parts of the forest, for the preservation of the young timber, and the beauty of the place.

[38]. [Flake of snow, etc.] Flake-white.

[39]. [Lakes, etc.] Carnation Colours.

[40]. [Where Desolation, etc.] The trees in some parts have been so injudiciously fallen, that the tillage of the ground is extremely difficult, or quite at a stand.

[41]. [Long Mercia sat beside enthron’d;] The magnificent site of the castle at Tutbury, no doubt was occupied by a considerable fort in or before the time of the Saxon heptarchy when it was the residence of the Kings and Earls of Mercia, who might alternately enjoy hence the pleasures of the chase in their adjoining forest of Needwood, or the satisfaction of security against an enemy.—Shaw’s History of Staffordshire.

[42]. [And prouder crowns its honours own’d.] See Needwood Forest, p. 23, of King’s-Standing.

[43]. [Loos’d Uproar &c.] The day of disafforesting presented an extraordinary scene of riot and disturbance, in consequence of the pursuit of the remaining deer by mobs from all parts.

[44]. [Repentant claimants &c.] It is believed that the freeholders now very generally regret the Inclosure.

[45]. [How far the foremost and the best,] Though formerly the yeomanry of this kingdom were every where trained to the use of the long-bow, and excelled all other nations in the art of shooting, it may be reasonably presumed that the best archers were to be found in and near the forests.

[46]. [You in your secret labyrinths &c.] Those scenes (forests in Somersetshire) will ever be famous in British history, while the remembrance continues of Alfred the Great. Frequent inundations of Danes and repeated losses had driven him from the management of affairs. But he retired before the enemies of his country only to attack them with more advantage. Seeing the time ripe for action he emerged from his retreat where he had been concealed, but not inactive during a twelvemonth; called his friends together in the forest of Selwood, which sheltered him and his numbers. Here arranging his followers, he burst from the forest like a torrent upon the Danes, and totally defeated them.—Gilpin’s Forest Scenery, Hume, &c.

[47]. [Your hush’d leaves &c.] Alfred on the night of his retirement from the Danes, it is said, had a vision of St. Cuthbert, comforting and assuring him he should be a great King.—Camden’s Britannia.

[48]. [You tun’d his harp, you trimm’d his bow.] He was skilful in the use of both.

[49]. [Your proud oaks lean’d] He provided himself with a naval power, which though the most natural defence of an island, had hitherto been totally neglected by the English.

[50]. [Your song-birds] He endeavoured to convey his morality to his subjects by apologues, parables, stories, and apothegms couch’d in poetry.

[51]. [While Liberty &c.] Amidst the necessary rigor of justice this great Prince preserved the most sacred regard to the liberty of his people.

[52]. [Lair] The couch or harbour of a wild beast. Milton.

[53]. [With fresh fray’d beams &c.] As soon as the new horns (or beams) of a stag have acquired their full dimensions and solidity, he rubs them against the trees in order to clear them of a skin with which they are covered.—Buffon. To fray (frayer, Fr.) is the hunting term for this operation.

[54]. [On yonder castled cliff &c.] Tutbury castle, the residence of John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster.

[55]. [And fill’d they not &c.] The Duke of Lancaster greatly distinguished himself in a battle fought between Najara and Navarete near the Ebro in Spain in 1367. He commanded the 1st battalion of the English army.—Johnes’s Froissart.

[56]. [Spain’s boasted slingers &c.] The Spanish commonalty made use of slings, to which they were accustomed, & from which they threw large stones which at first much annoyed the English: but when their first cast was over, and they felt the sharpness of the English arrows, they kept no longer any order.—Johnes’s Froissart.

[57]. [Hark! nations hail &c.] Alluding to his prowess and fame in the Crusades.

[58]. [The man thy Minstrels bring,] As the subject of their historic ballads. The minstrels were much encouraged in this King’s reign.

[59]. [As Sherwood’s Hero, &c.] The severity of those tyrannical forest-laws that were introduced by our Norman Kings, and the great temptation of breaking them by such as lived near the royal forests, must constantly have occasioned great numbers of outlaws, and especially of such as were the best marksmen. These naturally fled to the woods for shelter, and forming into troops endeavoured by their numbers to protect themselves from the dreadful penalties of their delinquency. This will easily account for the troops of banditti, which formerly lurked in the Royal forests, and from their superior skill in archery and knowledge of the recesses of those unfrequented solitudes, found it no difficult matter to resist or elude the civil power. Among those, none was ever more famous than Robin Hood, the Hero of Sherwood forest; of whom Stow’s account is briefly thus.—“In this time (about the year 1190, in the reign of Richard 1st) were many robbers and outlaws, among the which Robin Hood and Little John, renowned thieves, continued in woods despoyling and robbing the goods of the rich. They killed none but such as would invade them, or by resistance for their own defence. The saide Robert entertained an hundred tall men and good archers with such spoiles and thefts as he got, upon whom four hundred (were they ever so strong) durst not give the onset. He suffered no woman to be oppressed, violated, or otherwise molested: poor mens goods he spared abundantlie, relieving them with that, which by theft he got from Abbeys and the houses of rich Carles.” The personal courage of this celebrated outlaw, his skill in archery, his humanity, and especially his levelling principle of taking from the rich and giving to the poor, have in all ages rendered him the favourite of the common people. He was in early times the favourite subject of popular songs.—Percy’s Reliques of antient English Poetry, 1st vol.

[60]. [Bright brown blade, broad arrows, gown of green,] is the language of the ballads.

[61]. [Needwood, this brave man &c.] See in Robin Hood’s garland a ballad, (quoted in Shaw’s History of Staffordshire) giving an account of Robin Hood’s visit to Tutbury; and of his marriage there with Clorinda.________ The relation of the forest to Tutbury will probably admit of this consideration of them as one and the same.

[62]. [King’s-standing, &c.] See Needwood Forest, page 23.

[63]. [On the stain’d turf their wrecks are pil’d,] Bark-ranges.

[64]. [In smouldering heaps, &c.] Making charcoal.

[65]. [From blacken’d brakes,] Burning the furze-brakes.—Goss.—Bailey’s Dictionary.

[66]. [Yon Wretch] Surveyor or overlooker.

[67]. [Valley! where Marebrook, all unveil’d,] This Valley nearly bisected the Forest in beautifully varied windings, though without trees of any kind on its sides, or on the verge of its little stream, Marebrook, the course of which was remarkably flexuous; but is now actually turned down the straight fence-ditch.

[68]. [And knights and dames, and dwarfs portray’d, &c.] Needwood Forest, p. 16.

[69]. [But for the bee bird’s gaudy plume, &c.] See Needwood Forest, p. 16.

[70]. [Manuel.] The Forest earth-stopper in the hunting days of the author.

[71]. [You fox-gloves, &c.] See Digitalis—Loves of the plants, p. 78.

“The effect of this plant (the fresh leaves of which may be had at all seasons of the year) in that kind of Dropsy which is termed anasarca is truly astonishing.”

[72]. [Lyre and shield.] As the God of Medicine, giving health and safety, Apollo is sometimes described with a shield, as well as a lyre.

[73]. [Again to save &c.] See Needwood Forest, p. 43.

[74]. [And many a noble heart &c.] Alluding to the opposition to the Inclosure.

[75]. [Yet Limbrook, &c.] This rivulet rises on the late Forest and takes its course through an extensive valley on the brow of which stands Byrkley Lodge, and proceeds downwards by Yoxall Lodge: some beautiful Forest scenes have been added to the old Inclosures of these Lodges, where are shrubberies and sheets of water.

[76]. [And ever, in thy favour’d bound,] Applying the whole scenery around these lodges to Limbrook.

[77]. [When stoops the stranger ewe to drink;] Sheep were not depastur’d on the Forest.

[78]. [The tracks of their remember’d deer,] It is said that the Wolf-tracks may yet be seen in some parts which those animals frequented, in Ireland, centuries ago.

[79]. [Monster of the world] French Revolution.

[80]. [Emma’s art] Miss Emma Sneyd, of Byrkley Lodge, has produced some beautiful landscapes and drawings of the Forest scenes.

[81]. [“Here Gisborne penn’d his moral lay] The character and writings both in verse and prose of the Rev. Thomas Gisborne, of Yoxall Lodge, are equally well known and admired: the public has lately called for a seventh edition of his “Walks in a Forest.”

[82]. [Gigantic hollies!] Particular groups of hollies of great age and size are here alluded to, as in Needwood Forest p. 19. Having been lopped for the deer in winter, (the upper part of their remaining trunks and branches being again cloathed with their fresh ever-green shoots) they had somewhat the appearance of ruins.

[83]. [Fair Virgin!] The Hon. Catharine Venables Vernon died in the summer of 1775.

[84]. [Hark the same bell!—take, sister bier,] The Hon. Martha Venables Vernon died while the Author was writing this poem.

[85]. [Yes, Holly-Bush!] Formerly the residence of the Author, where many alterations have since been made and are making.

[86]. [Inland look;] In contradistinction to its former forest character, in which sense this word is repeatedly used by Shakespear in “As you like it,” though there applied to persons.

[87]. [Unambitious brow &c.] Needwood Forest p. 8.——[Favourite Tree Sycamore;] Needwood Forest p. 10.

[88]. [Hall, whose kind arm &c.] T. K. Hall, Esq. has purchased Holly Bush with a considerable portion of the adjacent Forest land, the scenery of which he intends to preserve.

[89]. [Revered Swilcar;] Needwood Forest p. 41, 42. &c.

[90]. [Horrid!—I see thee far!] The present appearance of Swilcar oak over a broad and hitherto uncultivated part of the late Forest, where not another tree remains, is very striking. He is fenced off from a new road.

[91]. [And some, with strength &c.] Alluding to the complimentary verses printed with Needwood Forest, and others afterwards sent to the author.

[92]. [Yon prison’d cliffs] The banks and cliffs of the Forest, hanging towards the river Dove, are now fenced in, though otherwise left in their former state.

[93]. Milton, in Comus, makes Naiades the plural of Naiad, “amid the flowery-kirtled Naiades.”

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES