"How glad is Skipton at this hour— Though she is but a lonely tower! Το vacancy and silence left; Of all her guardian sons bereft― "Oh! it was a time forlorn, Swords that are with slaughter wild Blissful Mary, mother mild, Maid and mother undefiled, Save a mother and her child! "Now who is he that bounds with joy On Carrock's side, a Shepherd Boy? No thoughts hath he but thoughts that pass In secret, like a smothered flame? O'er whom such thankful tears were shed "Alas! when evil men are strong "A recreant harp, that sings of fear A weak and cowardly untruth! Our Clifford was a happy youth, And thankful through a weary time And tends a flock from hill to hill: That learned of him submissive ways; They moved about in open sight, To and fro, for his delight. He knew the rocks which angels haunt On the mountains visitant; He hath kenned them taking wing: And the caves where faëries sing Armour rusting in his halls On the blood of Clifford calls ;— 'Quell the Scot,' exclaims the lance- Tell thy name, thou trembling field; Happy day, and mighty hour, When our Shepherd, in his power, Mailed and horsed, with lance and sword, To his ancestors restored, Like a re-appearing star, Like a glory from afar, First shall head the flock of war!" Alas! the fervent harper did not know That for a tranquil soul the lay was framed, Love had he found in huts where poor men lie; In him the savage virtue of the race, Glad were the vales, and every cottage hearth; The Shepherd Lord was honoured more and more: And ages after he was laid in earth, "The good Lord Clifford" was the name he bore. Mr. Southey, describing the mountain scenery of the Lake region, says, "The story of the Shepherd Lord Clifford, which was known only to a few antiquarians till it was told so beautifully in verse by Wordsworth, gives a romantic interest to Blencathara." Henry Lord Clifford was the son of John Lord Clifford, who was slain at Towton, which battle placed the House of York upon the throne. His family could expect no mercy from the conqueror; for he was the man who slew the younger brother of Edward IV. in the battle of Wakefield— a deed of cruelty in a cruel age. The hero of this poem fled from his paternal home, and lived for twenty-four years as a shepherd. He was restored to his rank and estates by Henry VII. The following narrative is from an old MS. quoted by Mr. Southey : 66 So in the condition of a shepherd's boy at Lonsborrow, where his mother then lived for the most part, did this Lord Clifford spend his youth, till he was about fourteen years of age, about which time his mother's father, Henry Bromflett, Lord Vesey, deceased. But a little after his death it came to be rumoured, at the court, that his daughter's two sons were alive; about which their mother was examined: but her answer was, that she had given directions to send them both beyond seas, to be bred there; and she did not know whether they were dead or alive. "And as this Henry Lord Clifford did grow to more years, he was still the more capable of his danger, if he had been discovered. And therefore presently after his grandfather, the Lord Vesey, was dead, the said rumour of his being alive, being more and more whispered at the court, made his said loving mother, by the means of her second husband Sir Lancelot Threlkeld, to send him away with the said shepherds and their wives into Cumberland, to be kept as a shepherd there, sometimes at Threlkeld, and amongst his father-in-law's kindred, and sometimes upon the borders of Scotland, where they took lands, purposely for these shepherds that had the custody of him; where many times his father-in-law came purposely to visit him, and sometimes his mother, though very secretly. By which mean kind of breeding this inconvenience befel him, that he could neither write nor read; for they durst not bring him up in any kind of learning lest by it his birth should be discovered. Yet, after he came to his lands and honours, he learnt to write his name only. "Notwithstanding which disadvantage, after he came to be possessed again, and restored to the enjoyment of his father's estate, he came to be a very wise man, and a very good manager of his estate and fortunes. This Henry Lord Clifford, after he came to be possessed of his said estate, was a great builder and repairer of all his castles in the north, which had gone to decay when he came to enjoy them; for they |