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Picturesque Views on the
Southern Coast of England
ca. 1811
Interspersed with drawings and the printed pages of Coltman's British Itinerary, sixty-nine pages of this sketchbook are given over wholly or partly to these verses, which Turner intended as a commentary for his publication «The Picturesque Views on the Southern Coast of England», which he sketched on the 1811 West Country tour. In the first lines Turner invokes his Muse in return for promising his best efforts.
[D08396]
To that kind Providence that guides our step
Fain would I offer all that my powrs hold
And hope to be successfull in my weak attempt
To please. The difficulty great but when nou ['ght' inserted below]
Attempted nothing can be wrought
Trials thankfull for the mental ['power givn' running on below]
Whether innate or the gift of Heaven
Perception reasons actions close ally
Thoughts that in the mind [?embeded] lie
[?Kindly] expand thy [?monumental] store
and as the [?babling brook] continues [?pour]
[D08400]
A steady current nor with headlong force
Leaving fair natures bosom in ['its' inserted above] course
But like the Thames majestic broad and deep
Meandring greatness behold the yon
on each circling sweep
Ah could my [...]
Through varigated Chelseas [?growing] meads
To Twickm [i.e. 'Twickenham'] bowers that love Alexis read
In humble guise should [?eas'd my pled] assume
My self reard willow or the grotto gloom
T'would be my pride [?'its' or ', to'] hold from further scorn,
A remnant of his love which once the bank adorn
What once was his, can't injure but [?in]
[D08401]
That the great spirit rests not>
If then my ardent love of thee is said with truth
Alexis and the demolition of thy House forsooth
Broke thro the ['all' inserted above] trammels doubts and gingling ['some say' inserted above] rhyme
[?'Tost' or 'Roll'] into being
Has leagued and cheerd since that fatal time
Lead me along with thy armonuous verse
Teach me thy numbers and thy style rehearse
Throughout the lingering nights careers to stand
And [?sunny] incidents to write by Natures hand
The passing moments of a chequered life to give
To cheer ['find' inserted below] a moments pleasure that we live
[D08405]
To call what heroic into force and show
But [?inimitable] alas the gloworms fire
[D08409]
From thy famed banks I'll may <...> way
And with regret must leave and have to stray
Traverse the gloomy heath of Hounslow wild [...]
Render more dreary by Remebr[?ance]' sigh
That by the sounding [?nettles] nowhere tell
The dire frought grains may natures rebel
And wreak full mischief stand around
Framents [i.e. 'Fragments'] blacken
And air [...] horribly resounds
The swains around who beast [i.e. 'breast'] the silver Thame
[?Sequesters]
[D08410]
[? 'But' or 'Put'] arts and the love of war at mortal strife
Deprives the needy labourer of his life
Untill those days when leguerd Barons strong
Dared to tell their monarch acted wrong
And wrung a charter from ['his' inserted above] fallen pride
And to maintain it freedom all have diyd
The parched tracks of Memphis arid <[?waste]> sands
And planted laurells wreath in hostile lands
Thus native bravery Liberty decreed
Received the stimulus act from Runny mead
A little island still retains the name
laved by its [?parent silvery] Tame
[D08414]
Ah, little troubled seems the humble cot
That marks the island and its inmate lot
The meshy net bespeak the owner power
Like to the spider web in evil hour
The roaming fly [?'The joining webs' inserted below] and joining playfull webs
Within its mazes struggles in vain for ['but to die' inserted below]
Westward the sandy tracks of Bagshot rise
And Windsor Further brave the circling skies
Alas the gloomy care dreams create
[?Conncomitant] ever of a princely state
Should hang so long to a clear [?sooth]
[?The sayer] oft coy
[D08415]
Oft changes on the moon ['...' inserted above] the gleam of joy
So fair so gay assumes a gloom [?of] woe
And prince and peasant feel alike the blow
But distant rising through the darkning skies
The bleak expanse of Sarum plain arise
Where mouldring tumuli sepulchral steep
Gives but a niggard shelter een to sheep
The stunted thorn and holly barely live
And Nature asks of Heaven a short reprive
The scudding clouds distill a constant dew
And by the high exposure life renews
[D08418]
Hill after hill incessant cheats the eye
While each the intermediate space deny
The upmost one long call to attain
When still a higher calls on toil again
Then the famed Icknield Street appears a line
Roman the work and Roman the design
Opposing hill or streams alike to them
The [i.e. 'They'] seemed to scorn impediments for when
A little circuit would have given the same
But conquering difficulties cherishd Roman fame
[D08424]
There on the topmost hills exposed and bare
Behold yon [...] court the upper air
To guard the road maintain the watch and ward
Twas then old Sarum knew their high regard
The triple ditch but [?here] where earth denyd
Her kind assistance they by toil supplyd
Witness the inmost mount of labour all
And still remains a monument and wall
What perseverance can attain and bind
The unconquerable germ that ['sway' inserted below] the human mind
Power on Abettance thus by mutual strife
of Priests and Soldiers Salisbury sprang to life
[D08428]
Peaceful the streams lave now the [?unbounded] hills
No warlike clans of hostile armies thrill
The timorous female with dire alarms
Or tears ['calls' inserted below] a faithful ['vassal' inserted below] husband from her arms
Now roams the native oer the wide domain
No feudal [?classes] ['rights' inserted below] demands or claims
The recompence of labours all his own
Content and pleasure crown his humble home
That by the prattling murmur of the rill
Which rushing onwards feeds the malty mill
[D08434]
Whose stores the neighbouring village ['farms' inserted above] supplyd
and tell a justice never ear denyd
Close to the mill race stands the school
To urchin dreadful, on the dunces stool
Behold him placed behind the chair
In doleful guise twisting his yellow hair
While the grey matron tells him not to look
at passers by (thro door way) but his Book
Instant the din goes round the tender throng
Who meet its [?murmuring heard] her part along
[D08444]
Close to the [?'hreshold', i.e. 'threshold'] way worn stone
Her coifs hang bleaching on the [?spiky] thorn
Her only pride beside the thread & reel
For time had steeld her bosom even to feel
Tho once in May of life that half losed [i.e. 'closed'] Eye
Had ['taught' inserted above] that the proudest of her time to sigh
But mutual impulse only triumph gaind
And homely love to higher thoughts maintaind
But here again the sad concomitant of life
[D08448]
The growth of family produced strife
Roused from his long content cot he went
Where oft the labour and the [?osier] bent
To form the snares for lobsters arm in mail
but man more cunning over them prevail
lured by a few sea snail and whelks a prey
That they could gather in their watery way
Caught in a wicker cage not two feet wide
While the whole oceans open to the pride
Such petty profits could not life maintain
[D08454]
From his small cot he stretcht upon the main
And by one daring effort hope to gain
What hope appeared ever to deny
And from his labours and his toil to fly
And so [?she] proved entrapt and overpowrd
Long murmured gainst his hard thought lot
Rebeld against himself and even his wife forgot
But she [?repined] yet hoped, no tiding gaind
And fondly cherished [?oped] yet hope restrained
And only the <[?babbling]>
Would sighing pass delusive many an hour
[D08458]
By Church ancient walls and [?isolate] frownd
That nature gave by verdant greensward ground
Amids a marsh of [?rushes] saved by mounds
That [?irrugate] the meadows serve for bounds
To the overwhelming influx of the Sea
Which make the marsh appear an Esturary
Westward the sands by storms and drift hav gaind
a barrier and that barrier maintained
Backed by a sandy heath whose deep worn road
['buryd' or 'Denyd'] the groaning waggons pondrous load
This branching southwards as the point of Thule
[D08464]
Forms the harbour of the town of Poole
a little [?'headlong', i.e. headland] in a marshy lake
Which probably contemptuously was given
That deeps and shallows might for once be even
The floating sea weeds to the ['eye' inserted above] appears
And by the waving medium Seamen steers
One straggling street here constitutes a town
Across the gutter here ship owners frown
Gingling their money, passenger deride
The conseqence of misconceived pride
[D08468]
Southward of this indentured strand
The ruins of Corfe ['ruind' inserted above] turrets stand
Between two lofty downs whose shelving side
The lesser mountain for his towers supplyed
Caused by two slender streams which here unite
But early times give [blank] of their might
The arched causeway . . [blank] towring keep
And ['yet' inserted above] deep foss scarce fed the strggling sheep
While overhanging walls and gateways nod
Proclaim the the [sic] power of force and times keen rod
Even Earth inmost [?caverns] break to day ['own his sway' inserted above]
and prove the force of time in Studland bay
[D08474]
Where massy fragments seem disjoined to play
With sportive sea nymphs in the face of day
While the bold headlands of the seagirt shore
Receive ingulpht old ocean deepest store
Embayd the unhappy Halswell toild
And all their efforts Neptune [?herewith] foild
The deep rent ledges caught the trembling keel
But memory draws the viel where pity soft does kneel
And ask St Alban why he choose to rest
Where blades of grass seem [?'even' inserted above] to feel distrest
Twixt parching sun and raging wind
And often but a temporary footing find
[D08478]
disjointed mases breaking fast away
Till the sad [?'mews' or 'news'] [?grows] ['and' inserted above] the sway
of wintry billows foaming oer
In fell succession waves incessant roar
Denying all approach ah haples they
Who from mischanc [?reaches] means [?convey]
Or jutting headland for another takes
For Natures jealous has allowed no breaks
Of streams or vally sloping save but one
And there she still presents a breast of stone
Above all downs where press the nibbling sheep
Below the sea mew full possession keep
[D08479]
A little hollow excavated round
To a few fishing boats give anchorage ground
Guarded with bristling rocks whose strata rise
like vitrified scoria to southern skies
Called Lulworth cove but no security to those
Who wish from stormy sea a safe repose
Whoever lucklessly are driven
From Portland seeks an eastern haven
Must luff against the south west gale
and strike for Poole alone the tortured sail
For Wight again their safe return denys
The needles brave the force of Southern skies
[D08483]
The long long winter months but summer skies
Permit the Quarry to give up its prize
The tinkling hammer and the driving bore
Detaching fragments from the massy store
Then squared or rough in a shallow yawl
The wadding workmen by mere strength do hawl
Invention kindest friend to weak formd man
Taught him the leaver accumulating span
Seems palsyd paralized hopeless here
Even Swanage [?'itself' or 'Dock'] cant boast a pier
A single cart conveys a single stone
Into deep water [?foreigners] must own
[D08484]
But habit alas follow and we find
That each excuse most savours of the kind
Hence rugged Portland steps upon our view
And the same efforts tracing but anew
The ponderous shaft each track contane['s' smudged and overwritten with 'ins']
Upsets a load drags on a lengthened chain
As down the tracks worn step it glides
And by it draging wight ever serves to guide
Keeps the poor horse beneath the ponderous load
From [?oer poured] adown the shelving road
Some small endeavours of mechanic skill
To ship they steer overhanging at the will
Of takle firmly place by the jettys [?'side' or 'ride']
[D08485]
But here no depth of water even at tide
allows what Nature all around has thrown
While great [overwriting illegible smudged phrase] profuseness here alone is stone
Along the south and west no creeks appear
No.. bay or harbours labouring eyes to cheer
Who vain watching throng the creaking shrouds
And ['when' inserted above] night and darkness mix the gloomy clouds
Chaotic warfare ['when' inserted above] surges tell [?aloud]
The trembling pilot to beware nor hold
an onward course [?een] while the cable holds
the struggling ship her bows unto the wind
Nor rush on danger [?by] the hope to find
Upon the iron coast the Portland race
[D08493]
No hope amongst direfull reefs a resting place
Indented west and north a bank extends
Even to the utmost stretch the eye
Loose shelving beach thrown up by restless waves
A usefull barrier carefull nature craves.
Beneath the western waves the marshes lie
Luxuriant bearing every varied dye
Even Melcombe sands their safty owes
Melcombe whos sands oft trace the lover vows
Whose yelding surface tells the loved name
But Neptune jealous washes out the same
Alas the yeliding [sic] type commixing gives
Its tender hope and then coquetish leaves
[D08497]
So hopefull fancy leds us through our care
Strecht wide our visionary minds, on air
Build all our [?'umost', i.e. 'utmost', or 'inmost'] wishes could atain
Even to the sandy frailty of the main
And ask the blessing which we all desire
To give what Nature [?ever] could inspire
What madness asked or passion fans the flame
At once our pilots and our early bane
Enwrapt we hope ['wish' inserted above] the object not in scope
And prove a very libertine to hope
[...]
Can ardour [?imitate our of] youthful fire
Check for a [?moment] all our warm desire
[D08503]
Tempt us to declare to all who view
The name we hold most lovely and hope true
But thought created by the ardent mind
Prove oft as changling as the changing wind
A great [?for ...] renders all our care
A [?short] to others who are thought more fair
Absence the dreadfull monster to delight
Delusion like the silent midnight blight
Fraility that ever courted oft beloved
And modesty though slighted most approved
All give and urge the intolerable smart
[D08513]
Of love when absent rankling at the heart
[...]
She tended oft the kine and to the mart
Bore all the efforts of her father's art
And homeward as she bore the needfull pence
Would loiter careless on or ask [?'taken' inserted above] thro mere <[?pence]> pretence
To youth much michief [sic] for maturely grown
[D08516]
It proved alas a mischief all her own
Guileless and innocent ['as' inserted above] she passed along
And cheered her footsteps with a morning song
When craft and letchery and combined
Proved but to triumph oer a spotless mind
To guard the coast their duty not delude
By promises as little heeded as thir good
When strictly follow'd give a conscious peace
And ask at the Eve of life a true ['just' inserted above] release
But idleness the bane of evry country weal
[D08520]
Equally enervates the solider [sic] and his Steel
Lo on yon bank beneath the Hedge they lie
And watch ['with' inserted above] cat-like each female by
One sidelong glance or hesitating step
Admits of not recall who once oer leap
The deep plowd sand are pled [i.e. 'piled'] up by the main
But time denies the [?cure] of love or gain
Deep sinks the curse of <...> lucre at the heart
And virtue staind o'er powers the greater part
Wan Melancholy sit the once full blooming maid
Misanthrope stalks the soul in silent shade
On the bold promontory thrown at length he lies
And sea mews shrieking are her obsequies
[D08534]
Or on the blasted heath or far stretchd down
Exposing still the field by iron sown
Barrow after barrow tell with silent awe
The dreadfull cause prevading nature's law
That the rude hands of warfare feudal strife
Denying peace and oft denying Life
Along the upmost ridge ..the. Maiden way
The work of Roman prowess brave the day
With triple ditch and barbican arise
Defying the hand of Time and stormy skies
Which from the wide distance [?driving] oer
Pour oer those bulwark cas[...] clouds or showers
[D08540]
Oh powrful beings hail whose stubborn soul
Even oer itself to urge [?even] self control
Thus Regulus who. every torture did await
Denyd himself admitance at the gate
Because of captive to proud Carthage power
But his firm soul would not the Romans lower
Not wife or children dear or self could hold
A Moments parley . love made him bold
Love of his country for not aut [i.e. 'aught'] beside
He loved but for that love he died
[D08550]
The same inflexibility of will
Made them to choose the inhospitable hill
Without recourse they stood supremely great
And firmly bid defiance even to Fate
Thus stands aloft this yet commanding [?'entrenched' inserted above] fort
The Maiden called still of commanding ['fort' or 'port']
So the famd Junfra [i.e. 'Jungfrau'] meets the nether skies
In endless snow untrod and man denies
With all his wiles precipitus or bold
The same great characters of Simplon ['summits' inserted above] hold
Thus [?Graves around] ['oer all' inserted above] the guarded area tell
Who fought for its possession and who fell
[D08559]
The chieftain Tumuls and the vassals sword
Own the dread sway of death, tremendous Lord
On every side each hill or vantage ground
The awfull relics evry where abound
And feelingly its ancient prowess own
Though power and arms and carnage roam
Oer other lands yet still in silent pride
It looks around majestic tho decried
And useless now, so on the sea girt shore
Where Abbotbury cliffs beats back the watery roar ['reecho to the roar' inserted above]
Another guards the passage to the main
[D08563]
Where the soft [blank] flowing gives renown
Mid steep worn hills ['lead' inserted above] to the low sunk town
Whose trade has flourished from early time
Remarkable for thread and ['cald' inserted above] Bridport twine
Here roars the busy mill called breaks
Through various <...acks the> processes eer takes
The flax in dressing each with one accord
Draw out the thread and meet the just reward
Its population great, and all employed
And children even draw the twisting cord
Behold from small beginnings like the stream
That from the high raised downs to marshy [?ream]
[D08569]
First feeds the meadows where grows the line
Then drives the mill that all its powers define
Dividing the vegetating [?pulpy mass] with care till
On the peopled town who all combine
To throw the many strands in lengthened twine
Then onward to the Sea its freight it pours
And by the ['its' inserted above] prowess holds to distant shores
The straining vessel to its cordage ['as to canvass' inserted above] yields
So Britain floats the produce of her fields
Why should the Volga or the Russians
Be coveted for hemp why such ['thus' inserted above] supply'd
The sinew of our strength our naval pride
Have not we soil sufficient rich or lies
Pressing, dividing all vegetating pass withdrawn
high swels the [?'stoney' or 'shiney'] mass
[D08578]
If heat is requisite more than our suns can give
Ask but the vast continent where Hindoo live
More than the mother country ten times told
Plant but the ground with seed instead of Gold
Urge all our barren tracts by Agriculture skill
And Britian Britian [sic] British canvass fill
Alone and unsupported prove her strength.
By mean her own to meet the direfull length
Of continental hatred, calld blockade
When ['continental' inserted above] every power and every port is laid
Under the proscriptive term themselves have made
[D08591]
Oer the Dorsetian downs that far expand
Their scathed ridges into Devons land
The mounting Sun bedeckd with purple dyes
As o'er ther heathy summits beaming flies
The gilding radiance on the upmost [?ride]
That looking Eastwards on rocky rampart stood
A Guardian once like others thro the Land
Where native valour dare to make a stand
Against [?des...] and Rome, [blank] fought
The prize of valour gaind though Dearly bought
Thus wrought their nature by [?pror... degrees]
As morning fogs that rising tempt the breeze
[D08597]
Grey and condensing hovering o'er the swamp
Of deep sunk woods or marshes dull and dank
Crowd like tumulous legions beneath the hill
Like [?congerated] clouds and edding [i.e. 'eddying'] rill
This way or other as the air incline
Till the all powerfull doth on them shine
Dispersed and shewing on their edge its powers
In varied lights sometimes in force combined
It seems to brave the force of Sun and wind
Blotting the luminary, sheds a doutfull day
Besprinkling oft the traveller on his way
[D08600]
at others stealing 'neath each down of hill
and scarce diaphinous the vally fill
Then day bring on is courses and sultry car
All nature panting dreads the <[?heating]> ['ruling' inserted above] star
Along the narrow road whose deep worn track
Fill up with dust the [?'usal', i.e. 'usual'] burthened pack
Plods heavily and dull with heat opprest
And champs and snorting tells his great distress
Burthend with stone or sand where the steep ascent
Prevent the earth or slide whose quick descent
Make even a load of nothing endless toil
And to the oerloaded path ever [?quick] recoil
[D08610]
Upon its gall'd withers. and the heavy Sand
Upheld by pegs within the panniers stand
Relieved from its load the other flies
like Satan scals [i.e. 'scales'] aloft in nether skies
or sulfrous cloud at open east fortells
Where atmospheric [?'contraries' or 'contraction'] doth dwell
And the warm vapour condensing from the main
Oer the wide welkin darksome clouds remain
Till borne by various currents dimly spread
The sickness rays of the wan sun [?begin shed]
A gloomy lurid intervall succeeds
As from the high [?reard] noon the orb recedes
Spotty as partial quenching the evening sky
[D08616]
In tinted of clouds of every shape and dye
Meantime an uper current rolls around the clouds
And bear against the blast the thunder loud
Breaking on the upmost hills then quick ascend
The scattered magazines and congealing tend
To the full charged elementary strife
To man even fears and oft [?relinquishd] Life
A corse tremedous awfull. Dark indeed
Died the smitten ['wretch' inserted above] not doomed to bleed
The current dead chard with the viens
Sulphur[...] and livid still the form retains
Most dreadful visitation <[?of the]> instantaneous death
Of supreme goodness sapient allows the fleeting breath
To fall apparently without a thought of pain
[D08619]
Exalted sat St Michael in his Chair
Full many a fathom in the c[...]ling air
Scarce can the giddy ken of mortal sight
Behold the dreadfull chasm but in fright
Forget the reason Heaven on her bestowd
And strike appalld from thir high abode
The raging waves tumultuous roard around
As on the Western side [?precipitous] abound
Cover with manacles that to the tread give way
To those adventurers who dare thir slippry way
Upon the muddy steep the owner stands
[D08624]
And call aloud to those who ply the strand
With siens all ready for the pilchard soon
Awaits his orders but the high born noon
That bid so fair <...> is sudden wrapt in gloom
Harsh sounds the wind and in the grim S. West
The Welkin looks in gloomy mantle drest
The [?'sickning' or 'sinking'] sun by slow dgrees grow wan
And scarce a shadow gives or shines on man
The [?man prognostic] sudden heaves on high
A grand swell calm and rolling ply
[D08627]
The [?shaggy] rocks with what this shore is girth,
In overwhelm <...> betray thir mirth
For the topmost hills the clouds descends
and Earth and Ocean in one [?twine] ends
The vessels which so plain plow this Coast
Shirk the Haze even as ever the lost
So must the land to them <...> they hold
Thir course in confidence by needle told
How awfull must the land appear to them
Scarce with [?keen powr] lost and then again
In doubt bewixt [i.e. 'betwixt'] optical and magnatic point
[D08633]
The [?good ...] embayed in awfull hours
What port to leeward Roadstead none
No chance save but a dreadfull one
To lure the ship onshore to save the crew
O could the pencil point no justice true
Crash goes her mast compleatly by the board
Even by [?'that' or 'thir'] fright her sides all gored
[?Indignant] to the waves who power alone
Sufficient proved stood [?her] on beach of stone
Of Granite Marble Slate and Lime stone formd
are all of this [?Herculean] character forms disarmd
[D08635]
all smooth and polished harshly sounding roll
and clamourous [?'till' or 'fill'] the oceans great controul
Yet the last refuge for within this bay
To those who dare to cross the Atlantic Sea
Penszance [sic] [?Neyland] and little [?Limer's] cove
Still offer safety to them to [?hove]
From the winds the winds that rage upon our Isle
And stormly bid [?favourites] not to smile
Deceitfull fierce [?noisily] frail
Often they tempt to sea the anxious sail
[D08645]
Looking most smooth and calm within Mount bay
While big with ruin lurks the washy way
First shoots [?Tol Pedn Penwith] to the main
And by her rocky breast the roaring surges sustain
The ['waste of waters' written over illegible ink words] which the Atlantic pours
From all her [?waves] and Ocean utmost stores
Here. Ends their last recourse the straglin land
Supplis no fishing cove or even sand
Shapeless and huge the rock abound
Range about grey Granite upmost bound
In every form the human mind could think
Bind the Channel coast's impenetrable link
[D08648]
that holds oer the [?...ptrome] blest afar
Form as her wash beats back the [?raging] war
That holds [?oer ...] that look afar
To spurn and [...] the [?war...] war
In foam and billows [?than there in] bend
The Cape of Cornwall and the [?land] Lands End
[D40904]
Of Horizontal strata, deep with fissure gored
And far beneath the wartery billows [?g]ored
In [written over 'And'] <...> caverns ever wet with foam and spray
Impervious to the blissfull light of day
Blocked up by fragments or by falling give
a rocky Isle in which the sea mews live
Bear their rough forms and brave the utmost rage
of storms that stain our Britain parish page
With plunder, Shipwrecks, deathfull woe
And even life itself has been for plunder far to low
To feel the [?miseries] of anothers woe
[?Look on yon ...]
[...]
[D08651]
For Heaven ah nought beyond
The raging water our continuous bond
Engulph again its [...] raging tries
To force it passage back to air and skies
Precipitious and horrid rock on rock
Bare on their bosoms each impetous shock
Aloft the covring spray imperous hurld
Display the sutborn [i.e. 'stubborn'] prowess of this rocky world
The [?'babblin' or 'battlin'] water recoiling in vengfull power
To every inlets deep [?insidious] roar
Sounds thro each rocky cavern tempest wrought
[D08652]
Betiding notes of woe more direfull fraught
With Sea mews clangings and the gannet squeal
The [?slap and billows] clamouring, circling wheel
[?And] endless warfare
[D08657]
Can man [?unheedfull] see the coming storm
Roll gathering on and to himself disarm
Of fear behold the meek heifer and the savage bull
Seek shelter and no longer rang [i.e. 'range'] and cull
The various blossoms of the culture [?field]
and think that he more power shall not yield
His life beneath the forked blaze
That the next instant may eraze
His boasted prowess courage, reason, all
Prostrated lifeless [?beamless]
To madness turned or [?lying] lifless [i.e. 'lifeless'] fall
<[?Appal'd]> the
Till passing onward quick the scattered robes
All their parting show the purple bow
Right Eastward till the near <[?appr]>[...] decline
Of the all the chearing light that glorious shines
On skies [?o'er spread] clouds empurpled flushed in streaks
[D08661]
In orange, reds and golden glows the rich welkin cheek
Blue charms but little shone in such a sky
While distant hills mantain the powerfull dye
In all its changes even the russet down embrownd
By midday sun or rock or mossy mountain crownd
And deep sunk hamlets smoke assumes a tone
That true to Nature Art is proud to own
Beyond herself in fair harmonious [?dies]
And practically imitations dies
How manfold [i.e. 'manifold'] the tones yet all harm[...]us [i.e. 'harmonious'] blend
In sweet succession following each to lend
The ever lovely running link of harmony
That pleasing ['ever' inserted above] cheating the anxious Eye
To measures distance and its lines defy,
Deep in the foreground <'way'> the various [?woods] afford
In verdure richly clad lies [?Poppelford]
[D08666]
Between the dark [?embosomed] forest sheen
Sparkling in [?partial] greeting the stream
Where fall the western lights enbeaming ray
Excluded, there the deep reflections play
Then wide ext[...]d [i.e. 'extended'] downs of [?'gos', i.e. 'gorse'] and corn
Wild & cultured land and those that never shorn
Lie only tended by the scatterd sheep
Where the neglected ever seems to creep
Struggled with difficulty like a [?serpents] train
In form in writing with [?disease] and pain
Beyond these barren tracts yon level plain
Trough [i.e. 'Through'] which the Ex [i.e. 'Exe'] rolls sullen to the main
Begirt with honors of Pomona's care
his busy crowded clamours Exeter
The <[?Town]>[...] and civic then attest
and Commerce
[D08670]
Totness the port where hangs the neglected bar
This once resounding shore now silent is thro war
Yet gleams afar by her blanched sails
And straining pendants which the [?eye] regales
amidst the mass of richness floating round
Did hurt the sight from quantity till a bound
striving to find by [?happyness] coming hour
The West [?country] but allows that power
Towring above the long [?inclined] space
Where Dawlish pastures fair and [?watring] place
Tiegnmouth and Babicombe and Ore
[?Refer] in majestic greatness bleak Dart moor
Whose upmost Crags like broken ridges rest drest
in sombre majesty oft capt in cloudy vest.
[D08675]
[?Cast] the gay occident of Saffron hue
In tendrest medium of distance blue
While the deep ocean denies a smooth entrance
calm foamless [blank] far distance
the beauties ['and' inserted above] wonder of the deep
While the blanchd spots of canvass creep
Like natures landmarks ['upon the dark medium and as' inserted above] village spires
Point as in ['on who thro' inserted above] ['form' or 'foam'] where hope aspires
The blanchd sand within the reach of tide
Glimers in lucid interval the washing pride
[?One] little murmurs ['tracks' or 'breaks'] along the shore
In treacherous smoothness scarcely blanched ['white' inserted above] o'r
With foam frail power undulating
[D08679]
deceitfull smoothing that the [?wrekers] sloop boat
made up sticks and to where sails float proof [?afloat]
Require the little native wading in the stream
Guides his first Essays '' thro the glorious theme
Spreads thro the village shool [i.e. 'school'] and all the throng
Bare the triumphant Argo quick anon
A little navey rears thus begin
the stream of glory oft to accident akin
So oft has small beginning given birth
To the great [?'Demagous', i.e. 'Demagogues'] that tyranize on Earth
Lifted the warrior ['solider', i.e. 'soldier' inserted below] from the ranks to hold
And wield an iron sceptre uncontrould
War reard the [?humble] ['[...] of a cot' inserted above]
To scenes that fancy neer could form his lot
[D08685]
Within the ever teeming roll of Fame
Read deep and [...] upon each revered name
[...] could the boast H[...]d [...] claim
As by [...] ['when' inserted above] wed takes honors chain
Love [...] the ever sh[...] roll
To M[...] ever open to whose soul
[...] the [...] that [...] thinks
Those eager after glory [...] drinks the exh[...] draught
[...] un[...]ble [...] ny good [...]
[...] do ever meet [...]
[...] thy glory [...] care [...] bought
To death by life that [...] was forced to spare
In vision and death [...] Morpheus share
And others to come all w[...] that [...] expose
And honor bloomg true as bending rose
[D08689]
Hangs having bloomd sheds upon the bear [i.e. 'bier']
of fallen greatness its last fragrant tear
[an illegible word inserted between these lines]
Lost oer the first and ask if little pride
Can stand the contest by fair minds side
[another, almost illegible, variation on the previous line]
Rang all their power even so and bright
[?There ...]
Alas that might reward for merit tried
Should give the means of [?losing & ...] pride
Should longer thy house [?abuses]
[D08693]
Alas ['so' inserted above] soon the high raised Nelsonian star
Should extension suffer and gory Trafalgar
With all thy well [?'earne', i.e. 'earned'] glorys <...> written on
In brotherhood bereft of Heaven a son
In gracious powr ['long' inserted above] shed for some wise end
Deprives to him which the [?best deign] to send
The scourge of Europe hence exults unseen
In deep futurity on this Island green
Obstructions gives and shorten his repose
In rancourous hate implacable serve
The lash recoiling gives a lash to fear
A nation prowess by untimely laws
Is weakend not Enforced while just appause [i.e. 'applause']
[D08696]
Such that most een follow Nelson
Will [?navy] [?'defenders' or 'defend us'] emulate his fame
Alas no second Blenhim [i.e. 'Blenheim'] yet is found
No monumnt but yet decks the Ground
[?Activate] in our hearts but still our eyes
Would pleasing view his Cenotaph arise
On some bold promontory where the western main
Rich with his actions ever blesst by fame
Beheld him weather oft in naval pride
Our roaring Channels strong allance [i.e. alliance'] tide
Usfull [i.e. 'Usefull'] as the Eddystone beams its honor drest
And high the lighted gleam in flamey vest
A Sea mark [?'emuling', i.e. 'emulating'] reverd and ever known
My nation gratitudes monumental stone
[D08701]
Binding in one generous emolument the Sailor mind
In action dreadfull in his last moments kind
Seen far a sea a tear bright to those
To beating the drum [?eer] sighing for repose
With locks bedecked with brave spray borne
and to [...] worth [...] storm
Unlike his mastman [?security] in the smoke
Whose long last action gravely great with weeping eye
Bespeak a naval [?prowess] [...] defy
Yet ever ready when the threatning storm shall rage
Tis above that the thundring cannon roar
Then murdrous guns send with resounding air
[?Blank] deep in hostile plank, have [?shed] in gore
The stubborn Man and his country bore
[D08702]
crashing falls the mast beneath the blow
and [?bearing] along the hostile ensign's fo
The shattered hull rolls dreadfull drinks
Deep [overwriting ''] at her many wounds, she sinks
above below tho all her trusted crew
still for existance Evil to eschew
Then the bold seamen enemies no more
Ply round the sinking ship the busy oar
Incessant acting what their noble hearts [?'soul' or 'sigh']
Rich with humanty [i.e. 'humanity'] swells high
Thus in that horrid night on Egypts shore
Heard the shrill [?scrack] and hostile cannon roar
Flashing amidst the darkness till anon
Rising in blood staind vests the waning moon
gleaming athwart Aboukir[s] narrow bay
Tho smoke and carnage victory dreadfull way
[D08703]
The crippled ships whose scuppers bleeding run
Dy'd the death of heros even Victorys daring son
The gallant Nelson fell for Britons fate
And
[D08731]
Howling the wild south west with boistrous sweep
Lash the rude shore that rising from the deep
Presents a bristled front Basaltic like or anged [i.e. 'ranged']
Rock pilled on rock in many forms arranged [?estranged]
Disjointed looks and seming promisc[...]s thrown
By nature hand yet the water own
A Power supreme on the upmost stones
Fringed o'er with mossy lichen which attunes
For Earth [?allimiting] quality rears aloof
Denys all footing with a stern reproof
Piramidal and rough refuse to [?'guide' or 'give']
[D08736]
a [...] .. even the [?feather] Fish
Who [?'congerate', i.e. 'congregate'] and waits the rising tide
Clamorus [?shriek in thrilling] note of care
And [?Bar...] .. ominous the rising air
That [?eddy] thro the caverns yelds a note
more [?harmoniously]
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