NOTE 18. Pag 22.

Sweet bird thy truth shall Harlem's walls attest.

During the seige of Harlem, when that city was reduced to the last extremity, and on the point of opening its gates to a base and barbarous enemy, a design was formed to relieve it; and the intelligence was conveyed to the citizens by a letter which was tied under the wing of a pigeon.

THUANUS, lib. lv. c. 5. The same messenger was employed at the seige of Mutina, as we are informed by the elder Pliny. Hist. Nat. x. 37.

NOTE 19. Page 22.

Hark! the bee, &c.

This little animal, from the extreme convexity of her

eye cannot see many inches before her.

NOTES

ON THE SECOND PART.

NOTE 20. Page 28.

These still exist, &c.

THERE is a future existence even in this world; an existence in the hearts and minds of those who shall live after us. It is in reserve for every man, however obscure; and his portion, if he be diligent, must be equal to his desires. For in whose remembrance can we wish to hold a place, but such as know, and are known by us? These are within the sphere of our influence, and among these and their descendants we may live evermore.

It is a state of rewards and punishments; and like that revealed to us in the gospel, has the happiest influence on our lives. The latter excites us to gain the favour of God; the former to gain the love and esteem of wise and good men; and both conduce to the same end; for in framing our conceptions of the deity, we only ascribe to him exalted degrees of wisdom and goodness.

NOTE 21. Page 31.

Yet still how sweet the soothings of his art.

The astronomer chalking his figures on the wall in Hogarth's view of Bedlam, is an admirable exemplification of this idea.

See the RAKE'S PROGRESS, plate 8.

NOTE 22. Page 31.

Turns but to start, and gazes but to sigh!

The following stanzas are said to have been written on a blank leaf of this Poem. They present so affecting a reverse of the picture, that I cannot neglect the opportu nity of introducing them here.

Pleasures of memory;-oh supremely blest
And justly proud beyond a poet's praise;
If the pure confines of thy tranquil breast
Contain, indeed, the subject of thy lays;
By me how envied ;-for to me,
The herald still of misery,
Memory makes her influence known

By sighs, and tears, and grief, alone;
I greet her as the fiend, to whom belong
The vulture's ravening beak, the raven's funeral song.
Alone, at midnight's haunted hour,
When nature woo's repose in vain,
Remembrance wastes her penal power,
The tyrant of the burning brain;
She tells of time mispent, of comfort lost,
Of fair occasions gone for ever by;

Of hopes too fondly nursed, too rudely crost,
Of many a cause to wish, yet fear, to die;

For what, except the instinctive fear
Lest she survive, detains me here,
When "all the life of life" is fled?-

What, but the deep inherent dread,

Lest she beyond the grave resume her reign
And realize the hell that priests and beldams feign!

NOTE 23. Page 33.

Hast thou through Eden's wild-wood vales pursued, &c.

On the road-side between Penrith and Appelby, stands a small pillar with this inscription:

This pillar was erected in the year 1656; by Ann, Countess Dowager of Pembroke, &c. for a memorial of her last parting in this place, with her good and pious mother, Margaret, Countess Dowager of Cumberland, on the 2d of April 1616: in memory whereof she hath left an annuity of 41. to be distributed to the poor of the parish of Brougham, every 2d day of April for ever, up. on the stone-table placed hard by. Laus Deo!'

The Eden is the principal river of Cumberland, and has its source in the wildest part of Westmoreland.

NOTE 23. Page 33.

Thus with the manly glow of honest pride,
O'er his dead son old ORMOND nobly sighed.

Ormond bore the loss with patience and dignity, though he ever retained a pleasing, however melancholy, sense of the signal merit of Ossory. I would not exchange my dead son,' said he, 'for any living son in Christendom.' HUME, vi. 340.

F

The same sentiment is inscribed on Miss Dolman's urn, at the Leasowes.

Heu, quanto minus est cum reliquis versari, quam tui meminisse !

NOTE 24. Page 34.

High on exulting wing the heath-cock rose.

This bird, according to Mr. Pennant, is remarkable for his exultation during the spring; when he calls the hen to his haunts with a loud and shrill voice, and is so inattentive to his own safety as to be easily shot. Brit. Zoology, 266.

NOTE 25. Page 34.

Derwent's clear mirror, &c.

The lake of Keswick, in Cumberland.

NOTE 26. Page 37.

Down by St. Herbert's consecrated grove.

A small wooded island once dignified with a religious house.

NOTE 27. Page 38.

When lo! a sudden blast the vessel blew.

In a lake, surrounded with mountains, the agitations are often violent and momentary. The winds blow in