University of Virginia Library

Hail to the spot, where Britain's laurel springs
With stem renew'd, and rears its growth to heaven;
What moral beauties, in their classic robe
Transparent, thus in regal state express'd,
With sweet benevolence enchant my soul?
What new creation rises to my view?
Where niggard nature every boon denied;
Where earth and water, with ungenial bent,
To form and taste, and order seem'd averse.
What powerful Fiat call'd this Eden forth,
Like that first paradise from chaos form'd,
And o'er the waste a beauteous world bid rise?
Behold a youthful king's coeval home!
A British monarch's best-lov'd natal bower,
Who cultivates the spot that gave him birth,
And crowns the scene his infant toils began,
By taste, by wisdom, and by truth inspir'd;
The guardian genius of his dawning thought,
Who wide disclos'd to wisdom's sacred ray
The eager inlets of his ample mind,
And pour'd upon each opening mental cell,
The virtue-forming scientific beam,
With letter'd and religious radiance fill'd,
The fair expanses of his princely soul,
And taught it early on the world to shine;
Who rear'd the monarch, and who form'd the man.
'Twas he who's penetrating plastic eye,
Whose copious, clear, and comprehensive thought,
By moral beauty and by genius led,
Where taste and learning mark'd th'unerring line;
'Twas he reform'd the rude enormous sketch,
To order, beauty, harmony and ease,
And crown'd with classic grace the kingly plan;
Where every transcript of a copious soul,
With strong attraction charms the judging eye;
And penetrates with sweet propriety,
The heart susceptible, the feeling string
Congenial stretch'd by beauty's hand impress'd,
And rich variety, where order reigns,
Who reads with raptur'd appetite regal'd
And feasted faculty, much more than strikes
The vague external sense by taste unschool'd,
And lectures vainly to the vulgar eye.

Hail happy princess! fruitful source whence all
Our lasting hopes through ages yet unborn,
In shining copious streams propitious flow,
To Britons glad prophetic sight; to thee,
To thee, this glowing garden offers up
Thy royal son's sublime unspotted vows;
To thee he consecrates his kingly taste,
With raptur'd thought and talents all inspir'd,
And daily with the lov'd idea glows.
I see the rising years in white array,
And distant periods wait his promis'd rule.
Lo! Time exults, and in his joyful march,
Behold the blessings of a British reign.
See Peace triumphant with her olive branch,
A glorious peace led on by victory,
With all the trophies crown'd of either world;
See Britain lift o'er both her laurell'd head;
Now wanton Plenty pours her teeming horn;
Now ruddy Health with naked bosom bounds,
Now taste shall thrive, now arts sublime shall tower;
Now godlike science in perfection reign;
Proud sculpture now with nature shall contend
For breathing mastery, and picture snatch
The palm from life; the muse again shall live;
Now she who imitates the plan divine,
That queen of all the arts, who crowns the earth
With stately piles, and rears her front to heav'n,
Now she once more the Grecian garb shall wear,
In Attic purity and pomp array'd,
And put the chastest Roman beauties on;
A British Cæsar shall exalt her stile,
With vestal purity and manly fire,
And finish what Augustus left undone;
A new Virtruvius near his side shall shine
Beneath his smile, and rival him of old;
Athens to Britain now shall yield the prize,
And Rome through envy turn the face aside.

Lo yonder moves with aweful port erect,
And sweet majestic mien, our youthful king;
How meek through all the monarch shines the man;
How comely clemency in him must reign,
Herself an angel, yet by him adorn'd.
The raptur'd muse her regal guide attends
At aweful distance due, with throbbing heart,
Triumphant to yon mild attractive shade,
Where heaven-born Peace from her ambrosial fane,
First beckons with inviting hand, the eye,
With melting mien triumphant, yet compos'd,
With meekness mix'd, with fortitude, with sweet
Humanity, with mercy tempering all;
Where prostrate kings their richest incense bring,
And human nature lifts the thankful eye
To heaven, and George, and Europe heals her wound.

Hail happy Peace, thou late celestial guest,
Who bore upon thy smooth-extended wing,
Thro' heav'n's wide-opening gate, that branch that springs
Immortal, near the mercy seat of God!
Oh gentle Peace! how calm is thy retreat?
Thy fruitful olives in the mildest gale,
Securely wave their green ambrosial heads,
And all the blossoms of the world are here;
Thy temple fortified with fragrant groves,
And blushing burden'd boughs, no storm need fear;
The murmuring zephyrs waft no rude report,
And all the whispering messages they bring,
On evening pinions, from autumnal skies
To Pleasure's ear, are social, kind, and sweet,
And every clime its richest growth sends here.

Through labyrinths of ever-living green,
By crimson roses intermingled sweet;
Where art and nature must incessant vie;
Behold the King delighted onward bends,
Like Pan, or Ceres, or Pomona glad,
Amidst the blessings which his reign bestows.

And lo! the sun's bright temple strikes the eye,
Parent of arts, to peace for ever near;
Thy gorgeous pile in orient pomp ascends,
In complex grandeur and luxuriant stile,
In gay Corinthian robe, sublime array'd,
The boast of Greece by British taste improv'd;
By kindred symbols temperately emblaz'd
That paraphrase, but not surcharge thy pure
Entablature from ancient Balbec brought,
In letter'd taste's discriminating hand,
By ripe experience in her travel'd grasp;
Thy bright specific character shall shine
Like some refulgent new discover'd star,
That gilds the forehead of the northern sky,
And strikes the feasted sight with glad suprize;
In rich alcoves the golden beams are lodg'd,
That travel slowly round this shining frame,
In semblant progress of the rolling year;
How apt upon the figur'd freeze are seen
Above thy lofty capitals display'd,
In sweet relief, thy own harmonious lyre,
And laurel meed, thy attributes confess'd;
Thy gilded gates unfold! thy crimson cell,
And burnish'd cove, now blaze upon the sight
With dazzling radiance, and delight the soul;
Whilst in thy vertic hemisphere inthron'd,
Above these twelve comparted signs that form
The figur'd windings of thy annual road,
Thy own refulgent globe supremely shines
With noontide ray, and gladdens all beneath.

And see the vegetating joyful glebe,
Around the basis of thy fertile fane,
Offer the fragrant firstlings of the year;
See a whole season round thy portals smile,
And heaven and earth thy genial courts adorn.

With hospitable thought from this lov'd fane,
The muse must turn her tardy step aside,
From Nature's genuine source awhile withdraw,
To visit Art in her laborious cells;
That fost'ring nurse that rears those orphans up,
From regions far remote beyond the burning line,
From Indian gardens, and from Eden's groves,
To Britain's cold adopting elimate brought;
Nor there shall die, nor disappoint his hope,
Whose patriot heart and powerful hand are stretch'd
From pole to pole for happy Britain's good;
Who brings these denizens of nature, health
And pleasure, home, and makes them flourish here;
Who reads their essence with a learned eye,
And scans each quality beneath the moon,
Of all the tribes that summer's livery wear,
And verge so near perception's shrinking class,
From the first pale postilion of the spring,
The primrose meek, to Jove's own plant sublime,
The princely oak and cedar tall, that crown
The top of Lebanon with fragrant state,
His philosophic feast, his pure regale,
The soul's best banquet, when from care set free.

Delightful luxury by virtue lov'd,
Would Britain make the great example her's,
And sanctify expence by wisdom's rule,
Nor lavish treasure, time, and life away,
At worship'd Folly's fascinating shrine,
That painted harlot, whose ensnaring glance
Draws in all ranks to her infected fane,
By custom crowded, and by fools ador'd
Beneath a thousand gaudy masks, put on
By frantic modes, and fashion's wasteful hand.

Hail fragrant guests! each privilege enjoy,
That royal hospitality can give;
Disclose your virtues, and your worth reveal,
Give sense, and taste, and Esculapius aid;
And what our cloudy heaven too oft denies,
Our feeble suns remote, and stinted dews,
Let fost'ring art, and rich prolific warmth
Supply, that glow through labyrinths of kind,
Insinuating, gentle steams, that ooze,
Emitted through ten thousand million pores,
Which breathing spread like heaven's ethereal gale,
The principles of vegetating life,
And teeming energy around, as from
Some genial atmosphere in Nature's prime;
Here heat, from animating fountains drawn,
From vital reservoirs, that like the heart,
Send circulating life and growth to all,
Above, below, around, reflex, repell'd,
With out-stretch'd arms, in winding warm embrace.
Ah! see what learned systems to supply
Thy simple ray, thou regent of the world.

And lo! the fresh relieving welcome air
Invited in, from all the wide expanse
Of heaven, with every fruitful quality
Endued, that Britain's atmosphere can give;
The rushing visitant immediate feels
The kind reception in its warping way,
From cell to cell with different warmth replete,
And mingles joyful with the mass it chears.
Whilst over head the envious sun reviews
A richer harvest than his beams can give,
And from his proud meridian lofty frowns
Upon thy prostrate skies and sliding hemispheres.

Behold both Indies in their varied pride,
With Europe's paler progenies contend,
These specimens of paradise that glow,
Like nature's candidates for beauty's palm,
With pure unborrow'd splendor richly dress'd,
That shame the gildings a birth night glare,
In colours stolen from yon celestial bow
When painted first, and angels mix'd the tints
With aromatic fragrance, that might bribe
The organs of the bless'd, and win the vote of heav'n.

The rododendron, mountain laurel, there,
That blends its blushes with the cheek of June,
And makes our painted summer still more proud,
Preserves, like florid youth, its morning glow,
'Till frighted by the fading year's decline,
A timid pale o'erspreads the crimson bloom,
That in its later stages whiter grows,
Like chearful age in snowy blossoms clad,
That wears a second season on its head,
And looks more pleasing in the recent change,
When the rich roses to the lillies yield,
And beauty's banner in the process shines,
By wise Columbus' northern empire lov'd,
From thence to Britain's fostering arms transfer'd.

See next the latifolia, kindred plant,
With counter beauties mark the varied scene
In lively red, in scarlet mantle priz'd,
That blooms illustrious in the sunny ray,
And glads the bright assemblies of the year,
Like sprightly youth in vivid colours clad,
The radiant robe of light's exulting morn,
Put on by Fancy in its fervid dance,
When led by Vigour through the wanton maze,
'Till grave Reflection, with her thoughtful tinge,
And sober drapery, deepens every dye,
And late to purple honours changes all.

The mirto there from hot Jamaica comes,
Pimento call'd, with spicy fragrance bless'd,
A foe to flatulence and vapours crude,
Whose essence warm dispels th'imprison'd pest,
And opens wide the gate to health and joy,
By Europe honour'd, and by learning lov'd.

Banana next, sustaining plant, behold,
In rich Arabia born, with all its virtues fraught,
That vital manna of the Western Ind,
The bread of millions shed from Nature's hand,
And worship'd daily by the numerous isles
That skirt America's immense domain.

Lo saccharum rich, that teeming tube, up-grows,
That luscious fountain of perpetual sweets,
By artful luxury inlisted still
In all her venial weak attacks on life,
That oft invites th'unguarded palate on
To weightier conflicts and more dangerous war,
Innoxious yet, and yet a friend to man;
The muse 'mongst Nature's gifts must rank it high,
And with her numbers deck the dulcet cane,
That to both Indies owes its boasted birth,
And fills the coffers of the public weal.

Behold the sapient stem put fertile forth
The sober berry, whose sagacious fume
Inspires deep thought, and technical debate,
And learned descant, and mysterious lore,
The dreams of statesmen, and the thoughts of kings,
That checks th'unruly grape's seditious steam,
And keeps the citadel of reason cool,
O'er whose wise flavour and polemic smoke
The ardent sages in close groupes oft sit,
And turn in warm campaigns the evening o'er,
To settle kingdoms, and dispel the spleen.

See coronilla, though Iberian born,
A match for Boreas on his Northern throne,
Display its ensigns o'er the wintry waste,
And with its blossoms brave the blustering year.

Lo next gardenio florido, from forth
Its treasur'd leaves unlocks Arabia;
The Cape's rich jessamin, whose fragrance fills
The blissful groves around, and joyful skies.

Magnolia too, the dulcet bay-tree nam'd,
In gay alliance mingles all its stores.
And sheds its essence o'er the neighbouring woods;
Itself a season in its flow'ry pride,
America its soil, the sun its sire.

From the far Cape of Hope diosmo comes,
And on the breeze throws open every cell,
Made rich by sweet adopted essences
Serene imbib'd, and odours not its own.

And see, the red and white azalia brings
Its aromatic forces to the field,
And joins its beauty with the bless'd allies.
Argenta see, in silver foliage broad,
With cooling glimmer in the fervid gale,
Refresh the sated eye, and cheer the soul,
That from the Cape its milder mantle brings.

Lo last the camphire tree! that magazine,
When by the touch enforc'd, an atmosphere
Sends all abroad of every fragrant gale,
That sense can banquet, or the heart enjoy;
From China's spicy shore this stranger comes,
To animate Britannia's distant sky.

The ravish'd muse o'ercome with rich regales,
With Nature's miscellaneous stores combin'd,
Through different climates measures back her way,
Through climates different as the plants they bear;
Where every stranger finds his native home,
And blooms as if beneath parental skies;
Amidst congenial essences it sprung,
In sweet spontaneous beds by art uncall'd,

The muse abroad now joyful breathes once more
Her native atmosphere, whose simple gale
Each loaded faculty delighted cheers,
By aromatic fragrance overcome,
The breath of paradise; and now athwart,
The broad domain that skirts this treasure house,
Of all that East, and West, and South can yield,
To yonder gate by beauty beckon'd on,
She joyful bends her hasty step intent.

And lo a flourish'd portico enrich'd,
That wears th'embroidery of the Queen it guards,
Where Fancy on her vernal throne presides
O'er all the colours of the painted year,
That charm th'affections, and deceive the eye;
Oh sweet inchantment, never feel decay;
Is beauty too a visionary bliss?
Do lovers languish for a fairy dream?
Are lilies living in the virgin face?
Are roses mingling with their whiteness there?
Ah sweet illusions all! are these unreal?
Are these the phantoms of a magic spell?
So stern Philosophy severe affirms,
With shrunk abstracted eye, and iron soul;
But nature to the heart so close akin,
Smiles in her face, her mystic frown defies,
To beauty clings, and her cold creed abhors.

Behold a heaven of rich variety,
A royal flower ground enamell'd high
With all that Ormus, India, or that Pontus lend
To British gardens in the pride of June;
Their names are needless, for their charms are known;
How complicated in their radiant beds!
Like earthly constellations they appear,
In all the painter's art of light and shade,
And just compartments mystic, rich and pure,
And breathing pictures in the spring of life,
That load with freitage sweet the passing gale,
To barter incense with Arabia's breeze,
That richer by the precious change might grow,
Though all its wealth were wafted on its wings;
Select embroidery carpetting the ground,
Where queens oft tread, and goddesses might move.
A range of stately trees on either side,
These tender florid families defend
From wintry insults, and the hostile year,
Like beauty shelter'd by th'unbending laws
From ruffian rage, and violating hands.

Invited still by sweet variety,
The feasted soul's unsatiating regale,
The raptur'd muse impatient presses on
From charm to charm, attracted still, with still
Increasing force, from nature's local sweets,
That please the sense, but interest not the heart,
To life, to energy, to intellect,
And motion from the will spontateous sprung,
To quick perception, spirit, sense, and choice,
And mental faculty by these express'd;
Where shape, and air, and symmetry divine,
And rays reflected from the source of thought,
That beam intuitive throughout the eye,
The speaking eye, that window of the mind;
That vigour, life, and grace diffuse o'er all,
And give to beauty and her shapes a soul;
Ah see in glittering tribes successive shine
The vivid offspring of the genial god;
These children of the sun, in rainbows rob'd,
Whose sportive pinion in the morning beam
Imbib'd the beauties of the brightest dawn,
When Nature wanton'd, and when Time was young;
The orient pheasant, bird of paradise,
That second phœnix, livery'd o'er with light,
In all the tinges that the prism yields,
When Newton's hand unfolds the robe of day,
And pours bright wonders on the dazzled sight,
With pride around their elegant domain,
Like earthly cherubims rejoic'd they run,
And bask in kingly George's bounteous beam;
In tints as different as their different climes,
They charm alternately the ravish'd eye,
By turns displaying as they glittering pass,
In beautiful extremes that joy the heart;
The costly mixtures, green, and red, and gold,
That East and West and Indian mines can yield,
The rising and the setting sun bestow'd;
Whilst o'er the margins of the crystal pool,
With vegetating gay mosaic crown'd,
(For earth and water here their charms unite)
Their glistering shapes as in a mirrour seen,
To the bright surface call the finny train,
By envy struck at such bespangled coats,
Like jealous beauties at a splendid show,
They vindicate their elemental pride,
In gay comparisons oppose their own,
With gold bedrop'd, and gems, and scarlet dyes,
In rival radiance mingling ray with ray.

And now from sight the soul has had her fill,
With colour, motion, shape and life replete;
A thousand seasons in them sounds I hear,
Nature's whole concert pouring on my sense,
Exotic harmony, Hesperian bands,
With both the Indies mix'd, where all agree.
Beneath an artificial hemisphere,
By Taste's own hand extended far and wide,
By royal hospitality uprear'd,
They bask in plenty, nor regret their own,
And thankful chaunt their kingly patron's praise;
And though not native, yet their charming song
On Greenland's frozen waste would find a friend;
Let merit still, though born beneath the pole,
Near Britain's genial monarch meet a home.

Lo now through this digressive devious path,
That outward leads my slow abstracted step
From forth this episode of richest charms,
A wide extended comely continent,
A cultivated world at once appear
In epic unity sublime and grandeur form'd,
Where lawns, and copious plains, and palaces,
And hills, and vales, and stately trees and groves,
And flocks and fragrant bowers, and silver lakes,
By taste and harmony together mix'd,
Compose the glorious groupe! Thou soul of all,
Exhilarating water! joyful guest!
Thou fertile source, that voluntary cam'st
From earth's irriguous womb, and animat'st
The garden! thou that all the wide-spread lake
With never-failing copious streams supply'st,
Thou, thou the muse's first attention claim
With just pretence, and first demand her song!
Thou pride and charm of all th'enchanting plan,
Which dignifies, adorns, and gives the groupe
Its vigour, source of vegetable life,
And vernal beauty, Flora's fruitful nurse,
Thou nectar of her many-colour'd sons,
Ambrosial sons, thou cordial of the spring,
Thy stimulating virtue yet was not.—
This new creation languish'd yet for thee,
The wounded earth was oft explor'd in vain,
In vain her inmost vitals oft explor'd,
Nor rich exhilarating stream was found,
Where panting Taste her feverish thirst might cool,
And quench at once her ardent appetite;
The destin'd moment labour'd into birth,
The royal blooming babe, the Prince our hope,
Our dawning hope, now like the vernal year
Ascending, or the morning star benign;
The Prince himself was then alone inspir'd,
His watchful angel ministring unseen,
With guiding influence in the garb of chance,
By innocent and artless agents led,
Reveal'd the welcome visitant to sight,
And chear'd the thirsty glebe; a beauteous fawn,
That fearful fed upon the flowery mead,
Luxuriant, Nature's denizen alone,
Unciviliz'd as yet by human bribes,
Nor yet domestic made, came bounding up,
With fond familiar gaze; admiring still,
Still nearer to the smiling Prince he came,
Then stretching forth his taper neck, in act
Of courtesy, and mildest homage, meek,
As if by gratitude and reason taught,
He gently touch'd, he kindly kiss'd his hand,
Then oft step'd forward, and as oft return'd,
Then gambol'd round, and kiss'd again his hand,
As if on some important message sent,
Which he by earnest and expressive deed
Would willingly make known.
Now to a rich-wove thicket in a vale,
Where water-loving willows all around
With vigorous verdure grew; with guiding step,
She led him bounding on, and oft return'd,
Beseeching still, where reason seem'd to plead.
The Prince with wonder struck and sweet surprize,
His earnest, mute, persuasive guide, pursu'd,
Quick through the fragrant path by jessamins,
And intermingling roses arched o'er,
Which clustered round his beauteous face with pride,
And kindly kiss'd his crimson cheeks with love,
With seeming love, and extasy inspir'd;
When lo! that instant to his wond'ring sight,
From forth the gushing glebe, a fountain rich,
A new-born fountain rose, and water'd all
The fainting flowers around with copious rills,
And promis'd to his future hopes a lake;
Whilst on a youthful laurel near his side,
Fast by the hallow'd well, a nightingale,
With thrilling transport charm'd his list'ning ear,
And seem'd to celebrate the mystic spring.

Lo now the long-extended liquid plain,
With glassy face meandring bright, and broad,
That still absorbs, and still gives back the scene,
Refreshing still, and still embracing all;
That full-grown daughter of the sacred well,
In full perfection, like its princely Lord,
Partaking still, and still diffusing health,
And bloom, and elegance, and joy around,
The pride of nature and the boast of art.

Where shall the muse begin her song, or end,
Amidst a multitude of beauties lost,
A vast variety of charming themes!
Here high and low, here great and small unite,
Here true magnificence, and seeming scant,
Here princely state, and rustic plainness verge,
In sweet vicinity for ever fix'd,
For ever distant and for ever near,
In one accomplish'd, one distinguish'd all.

But yon descending sun with setting ray
Instructs the muse to cease her much-lov'd song;
Unwilling she obeys, and seeks the dome,
Where due repose and genial joys unite,
And means to meet among the groves at early dawn.