A DESCRIPTIVE POEM: ADDRESSED TO TWO LADIES, AT THEIR RETURN FROM VIEWING THE MINES NEAR WHITEHAVEN. BY DR. DALTON. WELCOME to light, advent'rous pair! Thrice welcome to the balmy air From sulph'rous damps in caverns deep, Where subterranean thunders sleep, Or, wak'd, with dire Aetnaean sound Bellow the trembling mountain round, Till to the srighted realms of day Thro' flaming mouths they force their way; From bursting streams, and burning rocks, From nature's fierce intestine shocks; From the dark mansions of despair, Welcome once more to light and air! But why explore that world of night Conceal'd till then from female sight? Such grace and beauty why confine One moment to a dreary mine? Was it because your curious eye The secrets of the earth would spy, How intervein'd rich minerals glow, How bubbling fountains learn to flow? Or rather that the sons of day Already own'd your rightful sway, And therefore, like young Ammon, you Another world would fain subdue? What tho' sage Prospero attend, While you the cavern'd hill descend, Tho', warn'd by him, with bended head You shun the shelving roof, and tread With cautious foot the rugged way, While tapers strive to mimic day? Tho' he with hundred gates and chains The Daemons of the mine restrains, To whom their parent, jealous earth, To guard her hidden stores gave birth, At which, while kindred furies sung, With hideous joy pale Orcus rung; Tho' boiling with vain rage they sit Fix'd to the bottom of the pit, While at his beck the spi'rits of air With breath of heaven their taints repair; Or if they seek superior skies, Thro' ways assign'd by him they rise, Troop after troop at day expire In torments of perpetual fire; Tho' he with fury-quelling charms The whole infernal host disarms, And summons to your guarded sides A squadron of etherial guides, You still, when we together view The dreadful enterprize and you, The public care and wonder go Of all above and all below. For at your presence toil is o'er, The restless miner works no more. Nor strikes the flint, nor whirls the steel Of that strange spark-emitting wheel, Which, form'd by Prospero's magic care, Plays harmless in the sulphurous air, Without a flame diffuses light, And makes the grisly cavern bright. His task secure the miner plies, Nor hears Tartarian tempests rise; But quits it now, and hastes away To this great Stygian holiday. Agape the sooty collier stands, His axe suspended in his hands, His Aethiopian teeth the while "Grin horribly a ghastly smile," To see two goddesses so fair Descend to him from fields of air. Not greater wonder seiz'd th' abode Of gloomy Dis, infernal god, With pity when th' Orphean lyre Did every iron heart inspire, Sooth'd tortur'd ghosts with heavenly strains, And respited eternal pains. But on you move thro' ways less steep To loftier chambers of the deep, Whose jetty pillars seem to groan Beneath a ponderous roof of stone. Then with increasing wonder gaze The dark inextricable maze, Where cavern crossing cavern meets, (City of subterraneous streets!) Where in a triple story end Mines that o'er mines by flights ascend. But who in order can relate What terror still your steps await? How issuing from the sulphurous coal Thick Acherontic rivers roll? How in close center of these mines, Where orient morning never shines, Nor the wing'd zephyrs e'er resort, Infernal darkness holds her court? How, breathless, with faint pace, and slow, Thro' her grim sultry realm you go, Till purer rising gales dispense Their cordials to the sickening sense? Your progress next the wondering muse Thro' narrow galleries pursues; Where earth, the miner's way to close, Did once the massy rock oppose: In vain: his daring axe he heaves, Tow'rds the black vein a passage cleaves: Dissever'd by the nitrous blast, The stubborn barrier bursts at last. Thus urg'd by hunger's clamorous call, Incessant labour conquers all. In spacious rooms once more you tread, Whose roofs with figures quaint o'erspread Wild nature paints with various dyes, With such as tinge the evening skies. A different scene to this succeeds: The dreary road abruptly leads Down to the cold and humid caves, Where hissing fall the turbid waves. Resounding deep thro' glimmering shades The clank of chains your ears invades. Thro' pits profound from distant day, Scarce travels down light's languid ray. High on huge axis heav'd, above, See ballanc'd beams unweary'd move! While pent within the iron womb Of boiling caldrons pants for room, Expanded steam, and shrinks, or swells, As cold restrains, or heat impells, And, ready for the vacant space, Incumbent air resumes his place, Depressing with stupendous force Whate'er resists his downward course, Pumps mov'd by rods from ponderous beams Arrest the unsuspecting streams, Which soon a sluggish pool would lie; Then spout them foaming to the sky. Sagacious Savery! taught by thee Discordant elements agree, Fire, water, air, heat, cold unite, And lifted in one service fight, Pure streams to thirsty cities send, Or deepest mines from floods defend. Man's richest gift thy work will shine; Rome's aqueducts were poor to thine! At last the long descent is o'er; Above your heads the billows roar: High o'er your heads they roar in vain; Not all the surges of the main The dark recess can e'er disclose, Rocks heap'd on rocks th'attempt oppose: Thrice Dover's cliff from you the tides With interposing roof divides! From such abyss restor'd to light, Invade no more the realms of night. For heroines it may well suffice Once to have left these azure skies. Heroes themselves, in days of yore, Bold as they were, atchiev'd no more. Without a dread descent you may The mines in their effects survey, And with an easy eye look down On that fair port and happy town. Where late along the naked strand The fisher's cot did lonely stand, And his poor bark unshelter'd lay, Of every swelling surge the prey, Now lofty piers their arms extend, And with their strong embraces bend Round crowded fleets, which safe defy All storms that rend the wintry sky, And bulwark, beyond bulwarks chain The fury of the roaring main. The peopled vale fair dwellings fill, And length'ning streets ascend the hill; Where industry, intent to thrive, Brings all her honey to the hive; Religion strikes with reverent awe, Example works th' effect of law, And plenty's flowing cup we see Untainted yet by luxury. These are the glories of the mine! Creative commerce, these are thine! Here while delighted you impart Delight to every eye and heart, Behold, grown jealous of your stay, Your native stream his charms display, To court you to his banks again; Now wind in wanton waves his train, Now spread into a chrystal plain; Then hid by pendent rocks would steal, But tuneful falls his course reveal, As down the bending vale he roves Thro' Yanwath woods, and Buckholme's groves; Whose broad o'erspreading boughs beneath Warbling he flows, while zephyrs breathe. Here softly swells the spacious lawn, Where bounds the buck, and skips the fawn, Or, couch'd beneath the hawthorn-trees, In dappled groups enjoy the breeze. Amid yon sunny plain, alone, To patriarchal reverence grown, An oak for many an age has stood Himself a widely waving wood, While men and herds, with swift decay, Race after race, have pass'd away. See still his central trunk sustain Huge boughs, which round o'erhang the plain, And hospitable shade inclose, Where flocks and herds at ease repose! There the brown fells ascend the sky, Below, the green inclosures lie; Along their sloping sides supine The peaceful villages recline: On azure roofs bright sun-beams play. And make the meanest dwelling gay. Thus oft the wise all-ruling Mind Is to the lowly cottage kind, Bids there his beams of favour fall, While sorrow crowds the lofty hall, That this may fear his awful frown, And grateful that his goodness own. If, grown familiar to the sight, Lowther itself should less delight, Then change the scene: to nature's pride, Sweet Keswick's vale, the muse will guide. The muse, who trod th'inchanted ground, Who sail'd the wonderous lake around, With you will haste once more to hail The beauteous brook of Borrodale. From savage parent, gentle stream! Be thou the muse's favourite theme: O soft insinuating glide Silent along the meadow's side, Smooth o'er the sandy bottom pass Resplendent all thro' fluid glass, Unless upon thy yielding breast Their painted heads the lilies rest, To where in deep capacious bed The widely liquid lake is spread. Let other streams rejoice to roar Down the rough rocks of dread Lodore, Rush raving on with boisterous sweep, And foaming rend the frighted deep, Thy gentle genius shrinks away From such a rude unequal fray; Thro' thine own native dale, where rise Tremendous rocks amid the skies, Thy waves with patience slowly wind, Till they the smoothest channel find, Soften the horrors of the scene, And thro' confusion flow serene. Horrors like these at first alarm, But soon with savage grandeur charm, And raise to noblest thoughts your mind: Thus by thy fall, Lodore, reclin'd, The cragged cliff, impendent wood, Whose shadows mix o'er half the flood, The gloomy clouds, which solemn sail, Scarce lifted by the languid gale O'er the capp'd hill, and darken'd vale; The ravening kite, and bird of Jove, Which round th' aëreal ocean rove, And, floating on the billowy sky, With full expanded pennons fly, Their fluttering or their bleating prey Thence with death-dooming eye survey; Channels by rocky torrents torn, Rocks to the lake in thunder borne, Or such as o'er our heads appear Suspended in their mid career, To start again at his command, Who rules fire, water, air, and land, I view with wonder and delight, A pleasing, tho' an awful sight: For, seen with them, the verdant isles Soften with more delicious smiles, More tempting twine their opening bowers, More lively glow the purple flowers, More smoothly slopes the border gay, In fairer circle bends the bay, And last, to fix our wandering eyes, Thy roofs, O Keswick, brighter rise The lake and lofty hills between, Where giant Skiddow shuts the scene. Supreme of mountains, Skiddow, hail! To whom all Britain sinks a vale! Lo, his imperial brow I see From foul usurping vapours free! 'Twere glorious now his side to climb, Boldly to scale his top sublime! And thence — my muse, these flights forbear, Nor with wild raptures tire the fair. Hills, rocks, and dales have been too long The subject of thy rambling song. Far other scenes their minds employ, And move their hearts with soster joy. For pleasures they need never roam, Theirs with affection dwell, at home. Thrice happy they at home to prove A parent's and a brother's love, Her bright example pleas'd to trace, Learn every virtue, every grace, Which lustre give in female life To daughter, sister, parent, wife; Grateful to see her guardian care A tender father's loss repair, And, rising far o'er grief and pain, The glories of her race maintain. Their antient seats let others fly, To stroll beneath a foreign sky, Or loitering in their villas stay, Till useless summers waste away, While, hopeless of their lord's return, The poor exhausted tenants mourn; From Lowther she disdains to run To bask beneath a southern sun, Opens the hospitable door, Welcomes the friend, relieves the poor; Bids tenants share the lib'ral board, And early know and love their lord, Whose courteous deeds to all extend, And make each happy guest a friend. To smiling earth the grateful main Thus gives her gather'd streams again In showers on hill, and dale, and plain. O may the virtues, which adorn With modest beams his rising morn, Unclouded grow to perfect day! May he with bounty's brightest ray The natives chear, enrich the soil, With arts improve, reward their toil, Glad with kind warmth our northern sky, And generous Lonsdale's loss supply.