XVII. 'Tis paft! he cry'd-but if your fouls Let thefe dim eyes once more behold, XVII. She came; his cold hand foftly touch'd XIX. But oh his fifter's jealous care, A cruel fifter fhe! Forbade what Emma came to fay; "My Edwin, live for me!" XX. Now homeward as the hopeless wept The church-yard path along, The blast blew cold, the dark owl fcream'd XXI. Amid the falling gloom of night, Her ftartling fancy found In every bush his hovering fhade, His groan in every found. XXII. Alone, appall'd, thus had the pafs'd The vifionary vale When lo! the death-bell finote her ear, Sad founding in the gale! XXII. Juft XXIII. Just then the reach'd, with trembling step, Her aged mother's door He's gone! the cry'd; and I shall fee That angel-face no more! XXIV. I feel, I feel this breaking heart Beat high ageinft my fide From her white arm down funk her head';, She fhivering figh'd, and died. Extract of a Letter from the Curate of BowES, in YORKSHIRE, on the Subject of the preceding Poem. To Mr. COPPERTHWAITE at MARRICK. WORTHY SIR, * As to the affair mentioned in yours, it happened long before my time. I have therefore been obliged to confult my clerk, and another person in the neighbourhood, for the truth of that melancholy event. The history of it is as follows: both THE family-name of the young man was Wrightfon; of the young maiden Railton. They were much of the fame age; that is, growing up to twenty. In their birth was no difparity: but in fortune, alas! she was his inferior. His father, a hard old man, who had by his toil acquired a handfome competency, expected and required that his fon should marry fuitably. Y 4 But But as "amor vincit omnia," his heart was unalterably fixed on the pretty young creature already named. Their courtship, which was all by stealth, unknown to the family, continued about a year. When it was found out, old Wrightfon, his wife, and particularly their crooked daughter Hannah, flouted at the maiden, and treated her with notable contempt. For they held it as a maxim, and a ruftic one it is, "that blood, was "nothing without groats." The young lover fickened, and took to his bed about Shrove Tuesday, and died the Sunday fevennight after. On the last day of his illness, he defired to fee his niftrefs. She was civilly received by the mother, who bid her welcome-when it was too late. But her daughter Hannah lay at his back; to cut them off from all opportunity of exchanging their thoughts. At her return home, on hearing the bell toll out for his departure, the screamed aloud that her heart was burft, and expired fome moments after. The then curate of Bowes* inferted it in his register, that they both died of love, and were buried in the fame grave, March 15, 1714. I am, DEAR SIR, Yours, &c. * Bowes is a small village in Yorkshire, where in former times the Earls of Richmond had a caftle. It tands on the edge of that vaft and mountainous tract, named by the neighbouring people, Stanemore; which is always expofed to wind and weather, defolate and folitary throughout. CAMD. BRIT. ON THE DEATH O F LA DY ANSON. ADDRESSED TO HER FATHER. 1761. CROWN'D with honour, bleft with length of days, Thou whom the wife revere, the worthy praife; Ah, no! when Love, when Reason, hand in hand,. And Piety applauds the falling tear. Those facred drops, by virtuous weakness shed, From tender thought their fource unblam'd they draw, By Heaven approv'd, and true to Nature's law. When She now no change, nor you no fear can feel : A FUNERAL HY M N. YE I.. E midnight shades, o'er Nature spread ! In honour of th' approaching dead, On this pale ground, Through all this deep surrounding gloom,, The tear untaught,, Those meeteft mourners at a tomb.. II. Lo as the furplic'd train draw near The flow fad bell, the fable bier, With trembling stream, Attending tapers faintly dart; Each mouldering bone, Each sculptor'd stone, Strikes mute inftruction to the heart! III. Now, |
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