advantage.

On the barren neatn

100

hepherd tends his flock, that daily crop verdant dinner from the moffy turf, ent; after them the cackling goofe, grazer, finds wherewith to ease her want. should I more? Ev'n on the cliffy height 105 nmaen Mawr, and that cloud-piercing hill,

If a penurious clay fhou'd be thy lot,

Or rough unwieldy earth, nor to the plough
Nor to the cattle kind, with fandy ftones
And gravel o'er-abounding, think it not
Beneath thy toil; the furdy pear-tree here
Will rife luxuriant-]

rgil thus defcribes a barren foil, as fuiting well the Olive-tree.
Difficiles primum terræ, collefque maligni,
Tenuis ubi argilla, et dumofis calculus arvis
Palladiæ gaudent filvâ vivacis olivæ.

GEORG. ii. 179.

And first for heath and barren hilly ground,
Where meagre clay and flinty ftones abound,
Where the poor foil all fuccour feems to want,
Yet this fuffices the palladian plant.

6. Penmaen Mawr.]

DRYDEN.

Penmaen

Plinlimmon, from afar the traveller kens,

Astonish'd, how the goats their fhrubby browse Gnaw pendent; nor untrembling canft thou fee, How from a fcraggy rock, whofe prominence 110 Half overshades the ocean, hardy men,

Penmaen Mawr, a ftupendous rock near Aberconway in Carnarvonfhire, rifes perpendicularly from the fea to the heighth of 1400 or 1500 feet.

and that cloud-piercing hill

Plinlimmon]

Plinlimmon, a very high mountain in North Wales, ftands partly in Montgomeryshire and partly in Carnarvonshire. The epithet CLOUDPIERCING is particularly defcriptive of this mountain, whofe top is almost always enveloped in clouds. This is fo much the case of both Snowdon and Plinlimmon, that travellers, who have often been at the foot of them, have seldom, if ever, had an opportunity of observing their fummits.

109. Nor untrembling canst thou fee,

How from a craggy rock, whofe prominence
Half overfbades the ocean, hardy men,

Fearless of rending winds and dashing waves,
Cut famphire, to excite the fqueamish guft
Of pamper'd luxury.]

Samphire, or fea-fennel, is gathered in great plenty from the rocks near the fea. It is fometimes ufed in medicine, but it is chiefly valued for the purpose of pickling.- -Shakefpear has finely introduced the hazardous manner of gathering this herb, in his admired description of Dover Cliffs, in his KING LEAR.

How fearful

And dizzy 'tis to caft one's eyes fo low!

The crows and choughs that wing the midway air
Shew scarce fo grofs as beetles. Half way down
Hangs one that gathers famphire. Dreadful trade!
Methinks he seems no bigger than his head.
The fishermen who walk upon the beach
Appear like mice; and yon tall anch'ring bark
Diminish'd to her cock; her cock a buoy,

Almost too small for fight. The murm'ring furge,
That on the unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes,

Cannot be heard fo high.-I'll look no more,
Left my brain turn, and my deficient fight
Topple down headlong.

Fearless

hear the roots; in vain! the nurfling grove

s fair a while, cherish'd with foster earth; when the alien compost is exhaust, native poverty again prevails.

Tho' this art fails, defpond not; little pains, due hour employ'd, great profit yield. industrious, when the fun in Leo rides,

114. Then let thy ground,

Not lie unlabor'd; if the richest ftem

Refufe to thrive, yet who would doubt to plant
Somewhat, that may to human ufe redound-]
Thus Virgil GEORG. ii. 35.

Quare agite o, proprios generatim difcite cultus,
Agricolæ, fructufque feros mollite colendo :
Neu fegnes jaceant terræ.

Search then, ye farmers, with fagacious mind,
How beft to manage ev'ry various kind,
With culture civilize your favage trees,
Nor let your lands lie dead in flothful ease.

128. When the fun in Leo rides- 1

WARTON.

125

Milton

And darts his fultriest beams, portending drought,

Forgets not at the foot of ev'ry plant

To fink a circling trench, and daily pour

A just supply of alimental streams,
Exhausted fap recruiting; else, false hopes

He cherishes, nor will his fruit expect

130

Th' autumnal season, but, in summer's pride, 135 When other orchats fmile, abortive fail.

Thus the great light of heav'n, that in his course
Surveys and quickens all things, often proves
Noxious to planted fields, and often men
Perceive his influence dire; fwelt'ring they run 140
To grots and caves, and the cool umbrage feek
Of woven arborets, and oft' the rills

Still streaming fresh revisit, to allay
Thirst inextinguishable. But if the Spring
Preceding should be deftitute of rain,
Or blast feptentrional with brushing wings
Sweep up the fmoky mifts, and vapours damp,
Then wo to mortals! Titan then exerts

Milton thus defcribes the Spring, P. L. i. 769,

In Spring-time, when the fun with Taurus rides.

Where Dr. Bentley would read IN Taurus rides.

142. Of woven arborets.]

From Milton, P. L. ix. 437.

Among THICK-WOVEN ARBORETS and flowers
Imborder'd on each bank-

145

His

BOOK I.

CIDER.

17

150

His heat intense, and on our vitals preys;
Then maladies of various kinds, and names
Unknown, malignant fevers, and that foe
To blooming beauty, which imprints the face
Of fairest nymph, and checks our growing love,
Reign far and near; grim Death, in diff'rent shapes,
Depopulates the nations; thousands fall

155
His victims; youths, and virgins, in their flow'r,
Reluctant die, and, fighing, leave their loves
Unfinish'd, by infectious heav'n destroy'd.
Such heats prevail'd, when fair Eliza, last
Of Winchcomb's name (next thee in blood, and worth,
O fairest St. John!), left this toilfome world

159. Such beats prevail'd]

161

The uncommon heat of the weather in the fummer of 1705, the year preceding the publication of our Author's poem, is particularly noticed in that year's Hiftory of Europe, an annual publication of that time.

when fair Eliza, laft

Of Winchcomb's name

The lady, whofe death Philips here laments, was the daughter of Sir Henry Winchcomb, of Bucklebury in the county of Berks, a gentleman of a confiderable estate, which defcended to him from the famous Jack of Newbury.

The ancestor of the family, fo called, was John Winchcomb, an eminent clothier at Newbury. He had a hundred looms in his own houfe, each managed by a man and a boy, and acquired by his business a great fortune, being as fpirited and generous, as he was induftrious and opulent. He ferved in the expedition, in the reign of Henry VII, against James IV. King of Scotland, at the battle of Flodden Field, where he commanded a hundred of his own men, all clothed and armed at his own expence. He entertained Henry VIII. and his firft Queen Catherine, at his houfe in Newbury; he also rebuilt a great part of the church of Newbury, and died about the year 1520.

161. O fairest St. John.]

Henry St. John, Secretary at War in the beginning of Q. Anne's reign,

D