A history of English literature

by Edward Albert

Were heard the lowing herds along the vale,

And flocks loud bleating from the distant hills,

And vacant shepherds piping in the dale:

And now and then sweet Philomel would wail,

Or stock-doves plain amid the forest deep,

That drowsy rustled to the sighing gale;

And still a coil the grasshopper did keep;

Yet all these sounds yblent inclined all to sleep.

The Castle of Indolence

Thomson also wrote some dramas, including one bad tragedy, Sophanisba (1729); and in collaboration with Mallet he produced the masque Alfred (1740), which happens to contain the song Rule, Britannia. The song is usually said to be Thomson’s.