[Page 23]

A DESCRIPTIVE POEM: ADDRESSED TO TWO LADIES
* Miss Lowthers, daughters of the late Lord Lonsdale.
, AT THEIR RETURN FROM VIEWING THE MINES NEAR WHITEHAVEN.

1 WELCOME to light, advent'rous pair!
2 Thrice welcome to the balmy air
3 From sulph'rous damps in caverns deep
e From sulph'rous damps, &c.] The coal mines near Whitehaven are greatly infested with fulminating damps; large quantities of them being frequently collected in those deserted works, which are not ventilated with perpetual currents of fresh air: and, in such works, they often remain for a long time, without doing any mischief. But when, by some accident, they are set on fire, they then produce dreadful explosions, very destructive to the miners; and bursting out of the pits with great impetuosity, like the fiery eruptions from burning mountains, force along with them ponderous bodies to a great height in the air.
,
4 Where subterranean thunders sleep,
[Page 24]
5 Or, wak'd, with dire Aetnaean sound
6 Bellow the trembling mountain round,
7 Till to the srighted realms of day
8 Thro' flaming mouths they force their way;
9 From bursting streams
f From bursting streams, &c.] The coal in these mines hath, several times, been set on fire by the fulminating damp, and hath continued burning for many months; until large streams of water were conducted into the mines, and suffered to fill those parts where the coal was on fire. By such fires, several collieries have been intirely destroyed; of which there are instances near Newcastle, and in other parts of England, and in the shire of Fife in Scotland; in some of which places, the fire has continued burning for ages. But more mines have been ruined by inundations.
, and burning rocks,
10 From nature's fierce intestine shocks;
11 From the dark mansions of despair,
12 Welcome once more to light and air!
13 But why explore that world of night
14 Conceal'd till then from female sight?
15 Such grace and beauty why confine
16 One moment to a dreary mine?
17 Was it because your curious eye
18 The secrets of the earth would spy,
19 How intervein'd rich minerals glow,
20 How bubbling fountains learn to flow?
21 Or rather that the sons of day
22 Already own'd your rightful sway,
23 And therefore, like young Ammon, you
24 Another world would fain subdue?
[Page 25]
25 What tho' sage Prospero attend,
26 While you the cavern'd hill descend,
27 Tho', warn'd by him, with bended head
28 You shun the shelving roof, and tread
29 With cautious foot the rugged way,
30 While tapers strive to mimic day?
31 Tho' he with hundred gates and chains
32 The Daemons of the mine restrains
g The daemons of the mine restrains, &c.] In order to prevent, as much as possible, the collieries from being filled with those pernicious damps, it has been found necessary carefully to search for those crevises in the coal, from whence they issue out; and at those places, to confine them within a narrow space; and from those narrow spaces in which they are confined, to conduct them through long pipes into the open air; where being set on fire, they consume in perpetual flames, as they continually arise out of the earth.
,
33 To whom their parent, jealous earth,
34 To guard her hidden stores gave birth,
35 At which, while kindred furies sung,
36 With hideous joy pale Orcus rung;
37 Tho' boiling with vain rage they sit
38 Fix'd to the bottom of the pit,
39 While at his beck the spi'rits of air
40 With breath of heaven their taints repair;
41 Or if they seek superior skies,
42 Thro' ways assign'd by him they rise,
43 Troop after troop at day expire
44 In torments of perpetual fire;
[Page 26]
45 Tho' he with fury-quelling charms
46 The whole infernal host disarms,
47 And summons
h And summons, &c.] Those who have the direction of these deep and extensive works, are obliged to use great care and art in keeping them continually ventilated with perpetual currents of fresh air; which afford the miners a constant supply of that vital fluid, and expel out of the mines damps and other noxious exhalations, together with such other burnt and foul air, as is become poisonous and unfit for respirtion.
to your guarded sides
48 A squadron of etherial guides,
49 You still, when we together view
50 The dreadful enterprize and you,
51 The public care and wonder go
52 Of all above and all below.
53 For at your presence toil is o'er,
54 The restless miner works no more.
55 Nor strikes the flint
i Nor strikes the flint, &c.] It having been observed by Mr. Speding, who superintends these collieries, and to whom the author here gives the name of Prospero, that the fulminating damp could only be kindled by flame, and that it was not liable to be set on fire by red-hot iron, nor by the sparks produced by the collision of flint and steel, he invented a machine, in which, while a steel wheel is turned round with a very rapid motion, and flints are applied thereto, great plenty of fiery sparks are emitted, that afford the miners such a light as enables them to carry on their work in close places, where the flame of a candle, or lamp, would occasion dreadful explosions. Without some invention of this sort, the working of these mines, so greatly annoyed with these inflammable damps, would long ago have been impracticable.
, nor whirls the steel
56 Of that strange spark-emitting wheel,
[Page 27]
57 Which, form'd by Prospero's magic care,
58 Plays harmless in the sulphurous air,
59 Without a flame diffuses light,
60 And makes the grisly cavern bright.
61 His task secure the miner plies,
62 Nor hears Tartarian tempests rise;
63 But quits it now, and hastes away
64 To this great Stygian holiday.
65 Agape the sooty collier stands,
66 His axe suspended in his hands,
67 His Aethiopian teeth the while
68 "Grin horribly a ghastly smile,"
69 To see two goddesses so fair
70 Descend to him from fields of air.
71 Not greater wonder seiz'd th' abode
72 Of gloomy Dis, infernal god,
73 With pity when th' Orphean lyre
74 Did every iron heart inspire,
75 Sooth'd tortur'd ghosts with heavenly strains,
76 And respited eternal pains.
77 But on you move
k But on you move, &c.] The reader may suppose that he hath entered these mines by the opening at the bottom of a hill, and hath al ready passed through a long adit, hewn in the rock, and arched over with brick, which is the principal road into them for men, and for horses; and which, by a steep descent, leads down to the lowest vein of coal. Being arrived at the coal, he may suppose himself still to descend, by ways less steep, till, after a journey of a mile and a half, he arrives at the profoundest parts of the mine. The greatest part of this descent is through spacious galleries, which continually intersect other galleries; all the coal being cut away except large pillars, which, in deep parts of the mine, are three yards high, and about twelve yards square at the base; such great strength being there required to support the ponderous roof.
thro' ways less steep
78 To loftier chambers of the deep,
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79 Whose jetty pillars seem to groan
80 Beneath a ponderous roof of stone.
81 Then with increasing wonder gaze
82 The dark inextricable maze,
83 Where cavern crossing cavern meets,
84 (City of subterraneous streets!)
85 Where in a triple
l A triple story, &c] There are here three strata of coal, which lie at a considerable distance one above another. The mines wrought in these parallel strata have a communication by pits, and are compared by the author to the different stories of a building.
story end
86 Mines that o'er mines by flights ascend.
87 But who in order can relate
88 What terror still your steps await?
89 How issuing from the sulphurous coal
90 Thick Acherontic rivers
m Thick Acherontic rivers, &c.] The water that flows from the coal is collected into one stream, which runs towards the fire-engines. This water is yellow and turbid, from a mixture of ocher, and so very corrosive, that it quickly consumes iron.
roll?
91 How in close center of these mines,
92 Where orient morning never shines,
[Page 29]
93 Nor the wing'd zephyrs e'er resort,
94 Infernal darkness holds her court?
95 How, breathless, with faint pace, and slow
n How, breathless, with faint pace, and slow, &c.] Those who descend into these mines, find them most close and sultry in the middle parts, that are most remote from the pits and adits, and perceive them to grow cooler the nearer they approach to those pits which are sunk to the deepest parts of the mines; down which pits, large streams of fresh air are made to descend, and up which, the water is drawn out, by means of fire-engines.
,
96 Thro' her grim sultry realm you go,
97 Till purer rising gales dispense
98 Their cordials to the sickening sense?
99 Your progress next the wondering muse
100 Thro' narrow galleries pursues;
101 Where earth
o Where earth, &c.] The vein of coal is not always regularly continued in the same inclined plane, but, instead thereof, the miners frequently meet with hard rock, which interrupts their further progress. At such places there seem to have been breaks in the earth, from the surface downwards; one part of the earth seeming to have sunk down, while the part adjoining has remained in its ancient situation. In some of these places, the earth may have sunk ten or twenty fathoms, or more; in other places, less than one fathom. These breaks, the miners call Dykes; and when they come at one of them, their first care is to discover whether the starta in the part adjoining be higher or lower than in the part where they have been working: or, (to use their own terms) whether the coal be cast down, or cast up. If it be cast down, they sink a pit to it; but if it be cast up to any considerable height, they are often-times obliged, with great labour and expence, as at the place here described, to carry forwards a level or long gallery through the rock, until they again arrive at the stratum of coal.
, the miner's way to close,
102 Did once the massy rock oppose:
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103 In vain: his daring axe he heaves,
104 Tow'rds the black vein a passage cleaves:
105 Dissever'd by the nitrous blast,
106 The stubborn barrier bursts at last.
107 Thus urg'd by hunger's clamorous call,
108 Incessant labour conquers all.
109 In spacious rooms once more you tread,
110 Whose roofs
p Whose roofs, &c.] These colours, with which the free-stone roof of the mines is beautifully variegated in many places, and which have the appearance of clouds, seem to proceed from exsudations of salts, other, and other earthy substances.
with figures quaint o'erspread
111 Wild nature paints with various dyes,
112 With such as tinge the evening skies.
113 A different scene to this succeeds:
114 The dreary road abruptly leads
115 Down to the cold and humid caves,
116 Where hissing fall the turbid waves.
117 Resounding deep thro' glimmering shades
118 The clank of chains your ears invades.
119 Thro' pits profound from distant day,
120 Scarce travels down light's languid ray.
121 High on huge axis heav'd, above,
122 See ballanc'd beams unweary'd move!
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123 While pent within the iron womb
q

While pent within the iron womb, &c.] The author hath here taken occasion to celebrate the fire-engine, the invention of which does such honour to this nation. He has endeavoured to describe, in a poetic manner, the effects of the elastic steam, and the great power of the atmosphere; which, by their alternate actions, give force and motion to the beam of this engine, and by it, to the pump-rods, which elevate the water through tubes, and discharge it out of the mine. It appears, from pretty exact calculations, that it would require about 550 men, or a power equal to that of 110 horses, to work the pumps of one of the largest fire-engines now in use, (the diameter of whose cylinder is seventy inches) and thrice that number of men to keep an engine of this size constantly at work. And that as much water may be raised by an engine of this size kept constantly at work, as can be drawn up by 2520 men with rollers and buckets, after the manner now daily practised in many mines; or as much as can be borne up on the shoulders of twice that number of men; as is said to be done in some of the mines of Peru. So great is the power of the air in one of those engines.

There are four fire-engines belonging to this colliery; which, when all at work, discharge from it about 1228 gallons every minute, at thirteen strokes; 1,768,320 gallons every twenty-four hours. By the four engines here employed, nearly twice the above-mentioned quantity of water might be discharged from mines that are not above sixty or seventy fathoms deep, which depth is rarely exceeded in the Newcastle collieries, or in any of the English collieries, those of Whitehaven excepted.

The reader may find an account of Savery's engine in Harris's Lexicon Technicum. Many great improvements have been made to it since, and are daily making; several of which are related in the Philosophical Transactions. The best account of it, its various improvement and uses, is, I think, in Dr. Desaguliers's course of experimental philosophy, vol. 11.

124 Of boiling caldrons pants for room,
125 Expanded steam, and shrinks, or swells,
126 As cold restrains, or heat impells,
[Page 32]
127 And, ready for the vacant space,
128 Incumbent air resumes his place,
129 Depressing with stupendous force
130 Whate'er resists his downward course,
131 Pumps mov'd by rods from ponderous beams
132 Arrest the unsuspecting streams,
133 Which soon a sluggish pool would lie;
134 Then spout them foaming to the sky.
135 Sagacious Savery! taught by thee
136 Discordant elements agree,
137 Fire, water, air, heat, cold unite,
138 And lifted in one service fight,
139 Pure streams to thirsty cities send,
140 Or deepest mines from floods defend.
141 Man's richest gift thy work will shine;
142 Rome's aqueducts were poor to thine!
143 At last the long descent is o'er;
144 Above your heads the billows roar
r Above your heads, &c.] The mines are here sunk to the depth of one hundred and thirty fathoms, and are extended under the sea to places where there is, above them, sufficient depth of water for ships of large burden. These are the deepest coal-mines that have hitherto been wrought; and perhaps the miners have not, in any other part of the globe, penetrated to so great a depth below the surface of the sea; the very deep mines in Hungary, Peru, and elsewhere, being situated in mountainous countries, where the surface of the earth is elevated to a great height above the level of the ocean.
:
[Page 33]
145 High o'er your heads they roar in vain;
146 Not all the surges of the main
147 The dark recess can e'er disclose,
148 Rocks heap'd on rocks th'attempt oppose:
149 Thrice Dover's cliff from you the tides
150 With interposing roof divides!
151 From such abyss restor'd to light,
152 Invade no more the realms of night.
153 For heroines it may well suffice
154 Once to have left these azure skies.
155 Heroes themselves, in days of yore,
156 Bold as they were, atchiev'd no more.
157 Without a dread descent you may
158 The mines in their effects survey,
159 And with an easy eye look down
160 On that fair port and happy town.
161 Where late along the naked strand
162 The fisher's cot did lonely stand,
163 And his poor bark unshelter'd lay,
164 Of every swelling surge the prey,
165 Now lofty piers their arms extend,
166 And with their strong embraces bend
167 Round crowded fleets, which safe defy
168 All storms that rend the wintry sky,
[Page 34]
169 And bulwark, beyond bulwarks chain
170 The fury of the roaring main.
171 The peopled vale fair dwellings fill,
172 And length'ning streets ascend the hill;
173 Where industry, intent to thrive,
174 Brings all her honey to the hive;
175 Religion strikes with reverent awe,
176 Example works th' effect of law,
177 And plenty's flowing cup we see
178 Untainted yet by luxury.
179 These are the glories of the mine!
180 Creative commerce, these are thine!
181 Here while delighted you impart
182 Delight to every eye and heart,
183 Behold, grown jealous of your stay,
184 Your native stream
s Your native stream, &c.] The river Lowther.
his charms display,
185 To court you to his banks again;
186 Now wind in wanton waves his train,
187 Now spread into a chrystal plain;
188 Then hid by pendent rocks would steal,
189 But tuneful falls his course reveal,
190 As down the bending vale he roves
191 Thro' Yanwath woods, and Buckholme's groves;
192 Whose broad o'erspreading boughs beneath
193 Warbling he flows, while zephyrs breathe.
194 Here softly swells the spacious lawn,
195 Where bounds the buck, and skips the fawn,
[Page 35]
196 Or, couch'd beneath the hawthorn-trees,
197 In dappled groups enjoy the breeze.
198 Amid yon sunny plain, alone,
199 To patriarchal reverence grown,
200 An oak for many an age has stood
201 Himself a widely waving wood,
202 While men and herds, with swift decay,
203 Race after race, have pass'd away.
204 See still his central trunk sustain
205 Huge boughs, which round o'erhang the plain,
206 And hospitable shade inclose,
207 Where flocks and herds at ease repose!
208 There the brown fells ascend the sky,
209 Below, the green inclosures lie;
210 Along their sloping sides supine
211 The peaceful villages recline:
212 On azure roofs
t On azure roofs, &c.] The houses of this country are covered with a beautiful blue slate.
bright sun-beams play.
213 And make the meanest dwelling gay.
214 Thus oft the wise all-ruling Mind
215 Is to the lowly cottage kind,
216 Bids there his beams of favour fall,
217 While sorrow crowds the lofty hall,
218 That this may fear his awful frown,
219 And grateful that his goodness own.
220 If, grown familiar to the sight,
221 Lowther itself should less delight,
[Page 36]
222 Then change the scene: to nature's pride,
223 Sweet
u

Sweet Keswick's vale, &c.] This delightful vale is thus elegantly described by the late ingenious Dr. Brown in a letter to a friend.

"In my way to the north from Hagley, I passed through Dovedale; and, to say the truth, was disappointed in it. When I came to Buxton, I visited another or two of their romantic scenes; but these are inferior to Dovedale. They are all but poor miniatures of Keswick; which exceeds them more in grandeur than I can give you to imagine; and more, if possible, in beauty than in grandeur.

"Instead of the narrow slip of valley which is seen at Dovedale, you have at Keswick a vast amphitheatre, in circumference above twenty miles. Instead of a meagre rivulet, a noble living lake, ten miles round, of an oblong form, adorned with a variety of wooded islands. The rocks indeed of Dovedale are finely wild, pointed, and irregular; but the hilis are both little and unanimated; and the margin of the brook is poorly edged with weeds, morass, and brushwood. But at Keswick, you will, on one side of the lake, see a rich and beautiful landskip of cultivated fields, rising to the eye in fine inequalities, with noble groves of oak, happily dispersed; and climbing the adjacent hills, shade above shade, in the most various and picturesque forms. On the opposite shore, you will find rocks and cliffs of stupendous height, hanging broken over the like in horrible grandeur, some of them a thousand feet high, the woods climbing up their steep and shaggy sides, where mortal foot never yet approached: on these dreadful heights the eagles build their nests; a variety of water-falls are seen pouring from their summits, and tumbling in vast sheets from rock to rock in rude and terrible magnificence: while on all sides of this immense amphitheatre the lofty mountains rise round, piercing the clouds in shapes as spiry and fantastic as the very rocks of Dovedale. To this I must add the frequent and bold projection of the cliffs into the lake, forming noble bays and promontories: in other parts they finely retire from it, and often open in abrupt chasms or clefts, through which at hand you see rich and uncultivated vales, and beyond these, at various distance, mountain rising over mountain; among which, new prospects present themselves in mist, till the eye is lost in an agreeable perplexity.

Where active fancy travels beyond sense,
And pictures things unseen.

Were I to analyse the two places into their constituent principles, I should tell you, that the full perfection of Keswick consists of three circumstances, beauty, horror, and immensity united; the second of which alone is found in Dovedale. Of beauty it hath little; nature having left it almost a desert: neither its small extent, nor the diminutive and lifeless form of the hills, admit magnificence; but to give you a complete idea of these three perfections, as they are joined in Keswick, would require the united powers of Claude, Salvator, and Poussin. The first should throw his delicate sunshine over the cultivated vales, the scattered cots, the groves, the lake, and wooded islands. The second should dash out the horror of the rugged cliffs, the steeps, the hanging woods, and foaming water-falls; while the grand pencil of Poussin should crown the whole with the majesty of the impending mountains.

"So much, for what I would call the permanent beauties of this astonishing seene. Were I not afraid of being tiresome, I could now dwell as long on its varying or accidental beauties. I would sail round the lake, anchor in every bay, and land you on every promontory and island. I would point out the perpetual change of prospect: the woods, rocks, cliffs, and mountains, by turns vanishing or rising into view: now gaining on the sight, hanging over our heads in their full dimensions, beautifully dreadful; and now, by a change of situation, assuming new romantic shapes, retiring and lessening on the eye, and insensibly losing themselves in an azure mist. I would remark the contrast of light and shade, produced by the morning and evening sun; the one gilding the western, the other the eastern side of this immense amphitheatre; while the vast shadow projected by the mountains buries the opposite part in a deep and purple gloom, which the eye can hardly penetrate: the natural variety of colouring which the several objects produce is no less wonderful and pleasing: the ruling tincts in the valley being those of azure, green, and gold, yet ever various, arising from an intermixture of the lake, the woods, the grass, and corn-fields: these are finely contrasted by the grey rocks and cliffs; and the whole heightened by the yellow streams of light, the purple hues, and misty azure of the mountains. Sometimes a serene air and clear sky disclose the tops of the highest hills: at others, you see the clouds involving their summits, resting on their sides, or descending to their base, and rolling among the vallies, as in a vast furnace; when the winds are high, they roar among the cliffs and caverns like peals of thunder; then, too, the clouds are seen in vast bodies sweeping along the hills in gloomy greatness, while the lake joins the tumult, and tosses like a sea: but in calm weather the whole scene becomes new: the lake is a perfect mirror; and the landskip in all its beauty: islands, fields, woods, rocks, and mountains, are seen inverted, and floating on its surface. I will now carry you to the top of a cliff, where, if you dare approach the ridge, a new scene of astonishment presents itself; where the valley, lake, and islands, seem lying at your feet; where this expanse of water appears diminished to a little pool amidst the vast and immeasurable objects that surround it; for here the summits of more distant hills appear beyond those you have already seen; and rising behind each other in successive ranges and azure groups of craggy and broken steeps, form an immense and awful picture, which can only be expressed by the image of a tempestuous sea of mountains. Let me now conduct you down again to the valley, and conclude with one circumstance more; which is, that a walk by still moon-light (at which time the distant water-falls are heard in all their variety of sound) among these inchanting dales, open such scenes of delicate beauty, repose, and solemnity, as exceed all description.

Keswick's vale, the muse will guide.
[Page 37]
224 The muse, who trod th'inchanted ground,
225 Who sail'd the wonderous lake around,
[Page 38]
226 With you will haste once more to hail
227 The beauteous brook of Borrodale.
[Page 39]
228 From savage parent, gentle stream!
229 Be thou the muse's favourite theme:
230 O soft insinuating glide
231 Silent along the meadow's side,
232 Smooth o'er the sandy bottom pass
233 Resplendent all thro' fluid glass,
234 Unless upon thy yielding breast
235 Their painted heads the lilies rest,
236 To where in deep capacious bed
237 The widely liquid lake is spread.
238 Let other streams rejoice to roar
239 Down the rough rocks of dread Lodore
x Of dread Lodore, &c.] A very high caseade here falls into the lake of Derwentwater, near where Borrodale-beck (or brook) enters into it, as described above.
,
240 Rush raving on with boisterous sweep,
241 And foaming rend the frighted deep,
242 Thy gentle genius shrinks away
243 From such a rude unequal fray;
244 Thro' thine own native dale, where rise
245 Tremendous rocks amid the skies,
[Page 40]
246 Thy waves with patience slowly wind,
247 Till they the smoothest channel find,
248 Soften the horrors of the scene,
249 And thro' confusion flow serene.
250 Horrors like these at first alarm,
251 But soon with savage grandeur charm,
252 And raise to noblest thoughts your mind:
253 Thus by thy fall, Lodore, reclin'd,
254 The cragged cliff, impendent wood,
255 Whose shadows mix o'er half the flood,
256 The gloomy clouds, which solemn sail,
257 Scarce lifted by the languid gale
258 O'er the capp'd hill, and darken'd vale;
259 The ravening kite, and bird of Jove,
260 Which round th' aëreal ocean rove,
261 And, floating on the billowy sky,
262 With full expanded pennons fly,
263 Their fluttering or their bleating prey
264 Thence with death-dooming eye survey;
265 Channels by rocky torrents torn
y Channels by rocky torrents torn, &c.] For an account of an extraordinary storm in a part of this country, called St. John's vale, by which numerous fragments of rocks were driven down from the mountains, along with cataracts of water, see a letter from Cockermouth, inserted in the Gentleman's Magazine of October, 1754.
,
266 Rocks to the lake in thunder borne,
267 Or such as o'er our heads appear
268 Suspended in their mid career,
[Page 41]
269 To start again at his command,
270 Who rules fire, water, air, and land,
271 I view with wonder and delight,
272 A pleasing, tho' an awful sight:
273 For, seen with them, the verdant isles
274 Soften with more delicious smiles,
275 More tempting twine their opening bowers,
276 More lively glow the purple flowers,
277 More smoothly slopes the border gay,
278 In fairer circle bends the bay,
279 And last, to fix our wandering eyes,
280 Thy roofs, O Keswick, brighter rise
281 The lake and lofty hills between,
282 Where giant Skiddow shuts the scene.
283 Supreme of mountains, Skiddow, hail!
284 To whom all Britain sinks a vale!
285 Lo, his imperial brow I see
286 From foul usurping vapours free!
287 'Twere glorious now his side to climb,
288 Boldly to scale his top sublime!
289 And thence my muse, these flights forbear,
290 Nor with wild raptures tire the fair.
291 Hills, rocks, and dales have been too long
292 The subject of thy rambling song.
293 Far other scenes their minds employ,
294 And move their hearts with soster joy.
295 For pleasures they need never roam,
296 Theirs with affection dwell, at home.
[Page 42]
297 Thrice happy they at home to prove
298 A parent's and a brother's love,
299 Her bright example pleas'd to trace,
300 Learn every virtue, every grace,
301 Which lustre give in female life
302 To daughter, sister, parent, wife;
303 Grateful to see her guardian care
304 A tender father's loss repair,
305 And, rising far o'er grief and pain,
306 The glories of her race maintain.
307 Their antient seats let others fly,
308 To stroll beneath a foreign sky,
309 Or loitering in their villas stay,
310 Till useless summers waste away,
311 While, hopeless of their lord's return,
312 The poor exhausted tenants mourn;
313 From Lowther she disdains to run
314 To bask beneath a southern sun,
315 Opens the hospitable door,
316 Welcomes the friend, relieves the poor;
317 Bids tenants share the lib'ral board,
318 And early know and love their lord,
319 Whose courteous deeds to all extend,
320 And make each happy guest a friend.
321 To smiling earth the grateful main
322 Thus gives her gather'd streams again
323 In showers on hill, and dale, and plain.
[Page 43]
324 O may the virtues, which adorn
325 With modest beams his rising morn,
326 Unclouded grow to perfect day!
327 May he with bounty's brightest ray
328 The natives chear, enrich the soil,
329 With arts improve, reward their toil,
330 Glad with kind warmth our northern sky,
331 And generous Lonsdale's loss supply.

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Title (in Source Edition): A DESCRIPTIVE POEM: ADDRESSED TO TWO LADIES, AT THEIR RETURN FROM VIEWING THE MINES NEAR WHITEHAVEN.
Author: John Dalton
Themes: science; trades; labour
Genres: prospect poem / topographical poem
References: DMI 27306

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Pearch, G. A collection of poems in four volumes. By several hands. Vol. I. [The second edition]. London: printed for G. Pearch, 1770, pp. 23-43. 4v. ; 8⁰. (ESTC T116245; DMI 1122; OTA K093079.001) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [(OC) 280 o.788].)

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The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic text originally produced by the TCP project, this ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.