Inverted pinnacles of bright As if the genius of the mine His subject train, and each had brought His altars now? The ancient world--- And Egypt from her airy height Is fallen-now his tributes cease From blinded Rome and bleeding Greece. Or who conceive his anguish'd mind, The heart-wrung groan, the scalding tear, But, though the orbs of light were quench'd, And o'er his friends and kinsmen reign; And many a tale of wonder tell The loosen'd rock on which he stood How many a precious year is spent, NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. NOTE 1, P. 30, L. 25, &c. Selden represents the principalities of Deira and Bernicia as earldoms given in perpetuity; of which the instances were not frequent during the Saxon period. The limit of Bernicia on the south is sometimes said by the ancient English writers to be the Tyne, and sometimes the Tees. In the same manner its northern limit is sometimes said to be the Frith of Forth, at other times the Tweed. It is probable that, at different periods of time, its actual limits did thus vary. NOTE 2, P. 31, L. 3, &c. Tynemouth Priory is situated on a peninsula formed of stupendous rocks, on the north side of the river Tyne, against which the heavy seas break with great vehemence and tumult. Waltheof, to shew some colour or pretext for the degradation of this monastery, pretended it was an unfit situation for devotion; which, observes Wallis, "is so far from being the case, that few can exceed it for presenting the mind with a variety of solemn objects, capable of raising it to an adoration and awful reverence of the Deity. The very precipice it stands on, lofty and almost perpendicular, whose semicircular base withstands the fury of the waves, must have inspired the religious with a firm reliance on him who is the rock of ages: the calms-the storms-the ships-must all by turns have furnished them with occasions to praise him whose wonders are in the deep." NOTE 3, P. 31, L. 21. There Hartley's moon of burning sand. Hartley is about five miles north from North Shields, and contains glass-houses for the manufacture of bottles, salt-works, and other manufactories. NOTE 4, P. 31, L. 28. From Pont to Cambois, &c. Cambois is situated at the mouth of the river Wansbeck, and between seven and eight miles south by east from Morpeth. Cambois is a small port, belonging to Sir Matthew White Ridley, Bart., and its exports consist chiefly of corn, timber, and grindstones. The banks of the Wansbeck are beautifully clothed with wood, and there are some fine plantations at Sheepwash, above three miles west from Cambois. NOTE 5, P. 32, L. 3. Unequal'd, save by Hartford's vale. Hartford House, erected by the late William Burdon, Esq., is delightfully situated at the southern extremity of Bedlingtonshire, on the beautiful and picturesque banks of the river Blyth. |