PREFACE.

THE following Poem takes its name from a ridge of hills, which is the boundary between the counties of Oxford and Warwick, and remarkable for its beautiful and extensive prospect, of which the latter forms a considerable part. This circumstance afforded the writer an opportunity, very agreeable to him, of paying a tribute to his native country, by exhibiting its beauties to the public in a poetical delineation; divided, by an imaginary line, into a number of distinct scenes, corresponding with the different times of the day, each forming an entire picture, and containing its due proportion of objects and colouring.

In the execution of this design, he endeavoured to make it as extensively interesting as he could, by the frequent introduction of general reflections, historical, philosophical, and moral; and to enliven the description by digressions and episodes, naturally arising from the subject.

EDGE HILL.

BOOK I.

The Argument.

The subject proposed. Address. Ascent to the hill. General view. Comparison. Philosophical account of the origin and formation of mountains, &c. Morning view, comprehending the south-west part of the scene, interspersed with elements and examples of rural taste; showing, at the same time, its connexion with, and dependance upon, civil government; and concluding with an historical episode of the red horse.

MORNING.

BRITANNIA's rural charms, and tranquil scenes,
Far from the circling ocean, where her fleets,
Like Eden's' nightly guards, majestic ride,
I sing; O may the theme and kindred soil
Propitious prove, and to the' appointed hill
Invite the Muses from their cloister'd shades,
With me to rove, and harmonize the strain!

Nor shall they, for a time, regret the loss
Of their loved Isis, and fair Cherwell's stream,
While to the north of their own beauteous fields
The pictured scene they view, where Avon shapes

1 Milton's Paradise Lost, book iv.

His winding way, enlarging as it flows,
Nor hastes to join Sabrina's prouder wave.
Like a tall rampart, here the mountain rears
Its verdant edge; and, if the tuneful maids
Their presence deign, shall with Parnassus vie.
Level and smooth the track which thither leads!
Of champaign bold and fair. Its adverse side
Abrupt, and steep. Thanks, Miller! to thy paths,
That ease our winding steps. Thanks to the fount,
The trees, the flowers, imparting to the sense
Fragrance or dulcet sound of murmuring rill,
And stilling every tumult in the breast!
And oft the stately towers that overtop
The rising wood, and oft the broken arch
Or mouldering wall, well taught to counterfeit
The waste of time, to solemn thought excite,
And crown with graceful pomp the shaggy hill.
So Virtue paints the steep ascent to fame3:
So her aerial residence displays.

Still let thy friendship, which prepared the way,
Attend and guide me, as my ravish'd sight
O'er the bleak hill or shelter'd valley roves.
Teach me with just observance to remark
Their various charms, their storied fame record,
And to the visual join the mental search.

The summit's gain'd! and from its airy height The late trod plain looks like an inland sea, View'd from some promontory's hoary head, With distant shores environ'd; not with face Glassy and uniform, but when its waves

2 Sanderson Miller, Esq. of Radway.

3 See Lord Shaftesbury's Judgment of Hercules.

Are gently ruffled by the southern gale,
And the tall masts like waving forests rise.
Such is the scene! that from the terraced hill
Displays its graces; intermixture sweet

Of lawns and

groves, of open and retired. Vales, farms, towns, villas, castles, distant spires, And hills on hills, with ambient clouds enrobed, In long succession court the labouring sight, Lost in the bright confusion. Thus the youth, Escaped from painful drudgery of words, Views the fair fields of science wide display'd, Where Phoebus dwells, and all the tuneful Nine; Perplex'd a while he stands, and now to this Now that bless'd seat of harmony divine Explores his way, with giddy rapture tired: Till some sage Mentor, whose experienced feet Have trod the mazy path, directs his search, And leads him wondering to their bright abodes. Come then, my friend! guide thou the' adventurous And with thy counsel regulate her flight. [Muse, Yet, ere the sweet excursion she begins, O! listen, while, from sacred records drawn, My daring song unfolds the cause whence rose This various face of things-of high and low— Of rough and smooth. For with its parent earth Coeval not prevail'd what now appears Of hill and dale; nor was its new-form'd shape, Like a smooth polish'd orb, a surface plain, Wanting the sweet variety of change, Concave, convex, the deep, and the sublime: Nor from old Ocean's watery bed were scoop'd Its neighbouring shores; nor were they now depress'd,

Now raised by sudden shocks; but fashion'd all

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