University of Virginia Library

CAUPER GREEN

Now eves hours hot noons succeed
& days herralds winged speed
Flusht wi summers ruddy face
Hies to light some cooler place
Now her hand wip 'dustrys dropt
And the din of labours stopt
Horses gingling in their gears
Waggons ringing in ones ears
Lumping frail & smacking whip
Boys loud bawls of ‘rose’ & ‘hip’
All are silent free from care
Welcome boon of night to share
Pleasd I wander from the town
Pestered by the selfish clown
Whose whole learnings hogs & cows
Horses best for carts & ploughs
Whose talk tho spun the night about
Hogs cows & horses spins it out
Far from these so low so vain
Glad I wind me down the lane
Where a deeper gloom pervades
Tween the hedges narrow shades
Where a mimic night hour spreads
Neath the ash groves meeting heads
Onward there I glad proceed
Where the inscet & the weed
Courts my eye as I pursue
Somthing curious worthy view
Chiefly tho my wanderings bend
Where the ashen groves do end
& this lane end lights the scene
Of thy lovd prospects cauper green
Tho no runnels sandy sweep
Down thy shaggy sides do creep
Save as when thy rutt gulld lanes
Run little brooks wi hasty rains
Tho no yellow plains alow
Food on thee for sheep or cow
Where on listning ears so sweet
Falls the mellow low & bleat
Greeting on eves dewey gale
Resting fold & milking pail
Tho nor these adorn thy scene
Still I love thee cauper green
Some may love the grass plat whims
Where the gardner weekly trims
& cut hedge & lawn adore
Which their shears have smoothend oer
But from prospects such as these
Tastless samness neer to please
Leave me lonly pondering still
Nature when she blooms at will
In her kindred taste & joy
Wildness & variety
When the firs have leave to wreath
Their dark prickles oer the heath
Where the grey grown awtrees spread
Foliagd houses oer ones head
By the spoiling ax untoucht
Where the oak tree knarld & notcht
Lifts its deep mossd furrowd side
In natures grandeur natures pride
Still be such my favourd scene
Still I seek the[e] cauper green
& full pleasd woud natures child
Wander oer thy narrow wild
Marking well thy shaggy head
Where uncheckt the brambles spread
Where the thistle meets the sight
With its down head cotton white
& the nettle keen to view
& the hemlocks gloomy hue
Where the henbane finds a room
For its sickly stinking bloom
& full many a namless weed
Neglect leaves to run to seed
Seemly wi disgust by those
Who judge a blossom by a nose
Wildness is my suiting scene
Pleasd I seek thee cauper green
Still thou ought to have thy meed
To show thy flower as wells thy weed
Tho no fays on ma[y]days lap
Cowslips on thee cares to drop
Still does nature yearly bring
Fairest herolds of the spring
On thy woods warm sunny side
Primrose blooms in all its pride
Violets carpet all thy bowers
& anemonies weeping flowers
Dyd in winters snow & ryhme
Constant to their early time
Whites the leaf strewn ground agen
& makes each wood a garden then
Thines full many a pleasing bloom
Of blossoms lost to all perfume
Thines the dandelion-flowers
Gilt wi dew like suns wi showers
Hare bells thine & bugles blue
& cuckoo flowers all sweet to view
Thy wild w[o]ad on each road we see
& medicinal betony
By thy wood side railing reeves
Wi antique mullins flannel leaves
These tho mean the flowers of wastes
Planted here in natures haste
Each prove on the zerning eye
Her lovd wild variety
Each have charms in natures book
I cannot pass wi out a look
& thou canst boast thy herbs & plants
Which only gardens culture wants
Thy horehound tufts I love em well
& ploughmens spiknards spicey smell
Thy thyme strong scented neath ones feet
Thy marjoram beds so doubly sweet
& pennyroyals creeping twine
These each succeeding each are thine
Spreading oer thee wild & gay
Blessing spring or summers day
As herb flower weed adorn thy scene
Pleasd I seek thee cauper green
Blest I oft zigzag me round
Thy uneven heathy ground
Here a knowl & there a scoop
Jostling down & clambering up
Which the sand mans delving spade
& the pitmans pix has made
Tho many a year has oer thee rolld
Since the grass first hid the mould
& many a hole has delved thee still
Since peace clothd each mimic hill
Where the pitmen often find
Antique coins of varied kind
& neath many a loosend block
Unbeds coffins in the rock
Casting up the skull & bone
Heedless as one hurls a stone
Not a thought of battles bye
Bloody times of chivallry
When each countrys kingly lord
Gainst his neighbour drew his sword
& on many a hidden scene
Now a hamlet field or green
Wagd his little bloody fight
To keep his freedom & his right
& doubtless such was once the scene
Of thee time shrouded cauper green
O I love a glimpse to see
Of hoary bald antiquity
& often in my musings sigh
Where ere such relics meet my eye
To think that historys early page
Should yield to black oblivions rage
& een wi out a mention made
Resign em to his deadly shade
& leave congecture but to pause
That such & such might be the cause
Sweet the fragments to observe
Times so kind as to preserve
Wrecks the cowboy often meets
On the mole hills thymy seats
While by carless pulling weeds
Chance unbares the shining beeds
That to tastful minds display
Relics of the druid day
Opening on congecturing eyes
Some lone hermits paradise
Doubtless where as so it might
Such like relics meet the sight
On each self same spot of ground
Where the cowboys beads are found
Hermits once from worldly care
Fled & mossd a cottage there
Livd on herbs that there abound
Food & phisic doubly found
Herbs that have existance still
In every vale on every hill
Whose virtues only wi em dyd
As rural life gave way to pride
Doubtless too oblivions blot
Blacks some sacred lonly spot
‘Cauper green’ as so it may
That once was thine in early day
Thou might hide thy pilgrims then
From the plague of worldly men
Thou might here posses thy cells
Wholsome herbs & pilgrim wells
& doubtlessly this very seat
This thyme capt hill beneath ones feet
Might be or nearly so the spot
On which arose his lonly cot
& on that very 'xisting bank
Clothed in its sedges rank
Grass might grow & mosses spread
That thatchd his roof & made his bed
& such might be for such I love
To think & fancy as I rove
Oer thy wood encircld hill
A vain world shuning p[i]lgrim still
Hail thou natal pleasing scene
Pleasd I seek thee cauper green
While the dew mists faster fall
& the night her gloomy pall
Blackening flings tween earth & sky
Hiding all things from the eye
Nor broken seam nor thin spun screen
The moon can find to peep between
When thy unmolested grass
Untrackd even by the ass
Spindld up its destind height
Far too sour for stock to bite
Drooping hangs each feeble joint
Wi a glass nob on its point
When the dewy laden brake
Hiding holes the rabbits make
Oer the narrow pathways neet
Sops the shoes & wets the feet
Then fancys sleep shall leave thy scene
& bid good night to cauper green