XII. TO THE LADY FLEMING, ON SEEING THE FOUNDATION PREPARING FOR THE ERECTION OF RYDAL CHAPEL, WESTMORELAND. [AFTER thanking Lady Fleming in prose for the service she had done to her neighbourhood by erecting this Chapel, I have nothing to say beyond the expression of regret that the architect did not furnish an elevation better suited to the site in a narrow mountain-pass, and, what is of more consequence, better constructed in the interior for the purposes of worship. It has no chancel; the altar is unbecomingly confined; the pews are so narrow as to preclude the possibility of kneeling with comfort; there is no vestry; and what ought to have been first mentioned, the font, instead of standing at its proper place at the entrance, is thrust into the farther end of a pew. When these defects shall be pointed out to the munificent Patroness, they will, it is hoped, be corrected.] I. BLEST is this Isle-our native Land; Of hoary Time to decorate; Where shady hamlet, town that breathes II. O Lady! from a noble line Of chieftains sprung, who stoutly bore * (As records mouldering in the Dell To build, within a vale beloved, III. How fondly will the woods embrace IV. Well may the villagers rejoice! Nor heat, nor cold, nor weary ways, That would unite in prayer and praise; More duly shall wild wandering Youth Receive the curb of sacred truth, Shall tottering Age, bent earthward, hear The Promise, with uplifted ear; And all shall welcome the new ray Imparted to their sabbath-day. * Bekangs Ghyll-or the dell of Nightshade-in which stands St. Mary's Abbey in Low Furness. VOL. IV. Z V. Nor deem the Poet's hope misplaced, Sound o'er the lake with gentle shock VI. Lives there a man whose sole delights VII. A soul so pitiably forlorn, If such do on this earth abide, VIII. Alas! that such perverted zeal Should spread on Britain's favoured ground! That public order, private weal, Should e'er have felt or feared a wound From champions of the desperate law Which from their own blind hearts they draw; Who tempt their reason to deny God, whom their passions dare defy, IX. But turn we from these 'bold bad' men; With this day's work, in thought and word. Heaven prosper it! X. may peace, and love, To kneel together, and adore their God! z 2 1823. XIII. ON THE SAME OCCASION. Oh! gather whencesoe'er ye safely may Our churches, invariably perhaps, stand east and west, but why is by few persons exactly known; nor, that the degree of deviation from due east often noticeable in the ancient ones was determined, in each particular case, by the point in the horizon, at which the sun rose upon the day of the saint to whom the church was dedicated. These observances of our ancestors, and the causes of them, are the subject of the following stanzas. WHEN in the antique age of bow and spear Then, to her Patron Saint a previous rite He rose, and straight-as by divine command, Mindful of Him who in the Orient born There lived, and on the cross his life resigned, |