Ruin of ages! nods: such, too, the leas
And ruddy tilth which spiry Ross beholds,50
From a green hillock, o'er her lofty elms;
And Lemster's brooky tract and airy Croft;
And such Harleian Eywood's swelling turf,
Wav'd as the billows of a rolling sea;
And Shobden, for its lofty terrace fam'd, 55
Which from a mountain's ridge, elate o'er woods,
And girt with all Siluria, seas around
Regions on regions blended in the clouds.
Pleasant Siluria! land of various views,
Hills, rivers, woods, and lawns, and purple groves 60
Pomaceous, mingled with the curling growth
Of tendril hops, that flaunt upon their poles,
More airy wild than vines along the sides
Of treacherous Falernum, or that hill
Vesuvius, where the bowers of Bacchus rose, 65
And Herculanean and Pompeian domes.
But if thy prudent care would cultivate
Leicestrian Fleeces, what the sinewy arm
Combs thro' the spiky steel in lengthen'd flakes;
Rich saponaceous loam, that slowly drinks 70
The blackening shower, and fattens with the draught,
Or heavy marl's deep clay, be then thy choice,
Of one consistence, one complexion, spread
Thro' all thy glebe; where no deceitful veins
Of envious gravel lurk beneath the turf, 75
To loose the creeping waters from their springs,
Tainting the pasturage: and let thy fields
In slopes descend and mount, that chilling rains
May trickle off, and hasten to the brooks.
Yet some defect in all on earth appears: 80
All seek for help, all press for social aid.
Too cold the grassy mantle of the marle,
In stormy winter's long and dreary nights,
D
