FOURTH MAIDEN. <<< Leave these gems of poorer shine, Leave them all, and look on mine! While their glories I expand, Shade thine eye-brows with thy hand. Mid-day sun and diamond's blaze Blind the rash beholder's gaze.»— CHORUS. << Warrior, seize the splendid store: XXVII. Calmly and unconcern'd the knight XXVIII. And now the morning sun was high, Some frolic water-run; And soon he reach'd a court-yard square, Where dancing in the sultry air, Toss'd high aloft, a fountain fair Was sparkling in the sun. On right and left a fair arcade In long perspective view display'd Alleys and bowers, for sun or shade; XXIX. Here stopp'd de Vaux an instant's space, The music that the green-wood leaves XXX. And oft in such a dreamy mood, Fair apparitions in the wood, In gay procession came. Are these of such fantastic mould, Seen distant down the fair arcade, These maids enlink'd in sister-fold, Who, late at bashful distance staid, Now tripping from the green-wood shade, Nearer the musing champion draw, And, in a pause of seeming awe, Again stand doubtful now?— Ah, that sly pause of witching powers! Be yours to tell us how.» Their hue was of the golden glow That suns of Candahar bestow, O'er which in slight suffusion flows A frequent tinge of paly rose; Their limbs were fashion'd fair and free, In nature's justest symmetry, And wreath'd with flowers, with odours graced, Stay, then, gentle warrior, stay, << Then shall she you most approve, XXXII. O do not hold it for a crime In the bold hero of my rhyme, For stoic look, And meet rebuke, He lack'd the heart or time; XXXIII. Downward De Vaux through darksome ways And ruin'd vaults has gone, Till issue from their wilder'd maze, Or safe retreat, seem'd none; And e'en the dismal path he strays Grew worse as he went on. For cheerful sun, for living air, Foul vapours rise and mine-fires glare, Whose fearful light the dangers show'd That dogg'd him on that dreadful road. Deep pits, and lakes of waters dun, They show'd, but show'd not how to shun. These scenes of desolate despair, These smothering clouds of poison'd air, How gladly had De Vaux exchanged! Though 't were to face yon tigers ranged! Nay, soothful bards have said, So perilous his state seem'd now, With Asia's willing maid. Seem'd thus to chide his lagging way. Nor climb'd he far its steepy round Till fresher blew the air And next a welcome glimpse was given, A lofty hall with trophies dress'd, XXXVI. Of Europe seem'd the damsels all; With crown, with sceptre, and with globe, The fourth a space behind them stood, Of merry Eugland she, in dress A crown did that fourth maiden hold, XXXVII. At once to brave De Vaux knelt down O'er many a region wide and fair, But homage would he none: << Rather, he said, « De Vaux would ride, A warder of the Border-side, In plate and mail, than, robed in pride, So pass'd he on, when that fourth maid, SONG OF THE FOURTH MAIDEN. << Quake to your foundations deep, <«<< Fiends that wait on Merlin's spell, << It is HIS, the first who e'er <<< Quake to your foundations deep, Bastion huge and turret steep! Tremble keep, and totter tower! This is Gyneth's waking hour.»—— XXXVIII. Thus while she sung, the venturous knight Has reach'd a bower, where milder light Through crimson curtains fell; That bower, the gazer to bewitch, Between the earth and sky. He saw King Arthur's child! XXXIX. That form of maiden loveliness, Folds his arms and clasps his hands, Trembling in his fitful joy, « St George! St Mary! can it be, XL. Gently, lo! the warrior kneels, Safe the princess lay! Safe and free from magic power, Opening to the day; And round the champion's brows was bound The crown that druidess had wound, Of the green laurel-bay. And this was what remain'd of all The garland and the dame :- CONCLUSION. I. MY LUCY, when the maid is won, The minstrel's task, thou know'st, is done; And to require of bard That to the dregs his tale should run, Were ordinance too hard. Our lovers, briefly be it said, Wedded as lovers wont to wed, When tale or play is o'er; Lived long and blest, loved fond and true, The honours that they bore. 'T is now a vain illusive show, That melts whene'er the sun-beams glow, Or the fresh breeze hath blown. II. But see, my love, where far below Our lingering wheels are moving slow, Our menials eye our steepy way, Marvelling, perchance, what whim can stay Our steps when eve is sinking gray On this gigantic hill. So think the vulgar-life and time Ring all their joys in one dull chime Of luxury and case; And O! besides these simple knaves, To such coarse joys as these, The green-wood and the wold; By ancient bards is told, NOTES. CANTO I. Note 1. Introduction. Stanza viii. Like COLLINS, ill-starr'd name! COLLINS, according to Johnson, « by indulging some pe culiar habits of thought, was eminently delighted with those flights of imagination which pass the bounds of nature, and to which the mind is reconciled only by a passive acquiescence in popular traditions. He loved fairies, genii, giants, and monsters; he delighted to rove through the meanders of enchantment, to gaze on the magnificence of golden palaces, to repose by the waterfalls of Elysian gardens.» Note 2. Stanza i. the Baron of Triermain. Triermain was a fief of the Barony of Gilsland, in Cumberland; it was possessed by a Saxon family at the time of the Conquest, but, «< after the death of Gilmore, Lord of Tryermaine and Torcrossock, Hubert Vaux gave Tryermaine and Torcrossock to his second son, Ranulph Vaux, which Ranulph afterwards became heir to his elder brother Robert, the founder of Lanercost, who died without issue. Ranulph, being Lord of all Gilsland, gave Gilmore's lands to his own younger son, named Roland, and let the barony descend to his eldest son Robert, son of Ranulph. Ronald had issue Alexander, and he Ranulph, after whom succeeded Robert, and they were named Rolands successively, that were lords thereof, until the reign of Edward the Fourth. That arms, Vert, a bend dexter, chequey, or and gules.»-BURN's Antiquities of Westmoreland and Cumberland, vol. II, p. 482. house gave for those ancient and noble families. The male line failing in John de Vaux, about the year 1665, his daughter and heiress, Mabel, married Christopher Richmond, Esq. of Highhead Castle, in the county of Cumberland, descended from an ancient family of that name, lords of Corby Castle, in the same county, soon after the Conquest, and which they alienated about the 15th of Edward the Second, to Andrea de Harcla, Earl of Carlisle. Of this family was Sir Thomas de Raigemont (miles auratus), in the reign of King Edward the First, who appears to have greatly distinguished himself at the siege of Kaerlaveroc, with William Baron of Leybourne. In an ancient heraldic poem now extant, and preserved in the British Museum, describing that siege, his arms are stated to be, Or, 2 Bars Gemelles Gules, and a Chief Or, the same borne by his descendants at the present day. The Richmonds removed to their castle of Highhead in the reign of Henry the Eighth, when the then representative of the family married Margaret, daughter of Sir Hugh Lowther, by the Lady Dorothy de Clifford, only child by a second marriage of Henry Lord Clifford, great-grandson of John Lord Clifford, by Elizabeth Percy, daughter of Henry (surnamed Hotspur) by Elizabeth Mortimer; which said Elizabeth was daughter of Edward Mortimer, third Earl of Marche, by Philippa, sole daughter and heiress of Lionel, Duke of Cla rence. The third in descent from the above-mentioned John Richmond became the representative of the families of Vaux, of Triermain, Caterlen, and Torcrossock, by his marriage with Mabel de Vaux, the heiress of them. His grandson Henry Richmond died without issue, leaving five sisters co-heiresses, four of whom married; but Margaret, who married William Gale, Esq. of Whitehaven, was the only one who had male issue surviving. She had a son, and a daughter married to Henry Curwen of Workington, Esq., who represented the county of Cumberland for many years in Parliament, and by her had a daughter married to John Christian, Esq. (now Curwen). John, son and heir of William Gale, married Sarah, daughter and heiress of Christopher Wilson of Bradsea-hall, in the county of Lancaster, by Margaret, aunt and co-heiress of Thomas Braddyl, Esq. of Barddyl, and Cornishead Priory, in the same county, and had issue four sons and two daughters :-- 1st, William Wilson, died an infant; 2d, Wilson, who upon the death of his cousin, Thomas Braddyl, without issue, succeeded to his estates and took the name of Braddyl, in pursuance of his will, by the king's sign manual; 3d, William, died young; and, 4th, Henry Richmond, a lieutenant-general of the army, married Sarah, daughter of the Rev. R. Baldwin; Margaret married Richard Greaves Townley, Esq. of Fulbourne, in the county of Cambridge, and of Bellfield, in the county of Lancaster; Sarah, married to George Bigland, of Bigland-hall, in the same county. Wilson Braddyl, eldest son of John Gale, and grandson of Margaret Richmond, married Jane, daughter and heiress of Matthias Gale, Esq. of Catgill-hall, in the This branch of Vaux, with its collateral alliances, is county of Cumberland, by Jane, daughter and heiress now represented by the family of Braddyl of Cornishead of the Rev. S. Bennet, D.D.; and, as the eldest surviving Priory, in the county palatine of Lancaster; for it ap-male branch of the families above-mentioned, he quarpears that, about the time above mentioned, the house ters, in addition to his own, their paternal coats in the of Triermain was united to its kindred family Vaux following order, as appears by the records in the College of Caterlen, and, by marriage with the heiress of Dela- of Arms. more and Leybourne, became the representative of 1st. Argent, a fess azure, between three saltiers of the same, charged with an anchor between 2 lions' heads erazed, or,-Gale. CANTO II. 2d. Or, 2 bars gemelles gules, and a chief or,-Richmond. 3d. Or, a fess chequey, or and gules between 9 gerbes gules,-Vaux of Caterlen. 4th. Gules, a fess chequey, or and gules between 6 gerbes or,-Vaux of Torcrossock. 5th. 'Argent, a bend chequey, or and gules, for Vaux of Triermain. 6th. Gules, a cross-patonce, or,-Delamore. 7th. Gules, 6 lions rampant argent, 3, 2, and 1,Leybourne.2 Note 3. Stanza vi, And his who sleeps at Dunmailraise. Dunmailraise is one of the grand passes from Cumberland into Westmoreland. It takes its name from a cairn, or pile of stones, erected, it is said, to the memory of Dunmail, the last king of Cumberland. Note 4. Stanza vii. -Penrith's Table Round. A circular entrenchment, about half a mile from Penrith, is thus popularly termed. The circle within the ditch is about one hundred and sixty paces in circumference, with openings, or approaches, directly opposite to each other. As the ditch is on the inner side, it could not be intended for the purpose of defence, and it has reasonably been conjectured, that the inclosure was designed for the solemn exercise of feats of chivalry; and the embankment around for the convenience of the spectators. Note 5. Stanza vii. Higher up the river Eamont than Arthur's Round Table, is a prodigious inclosure of great antiquity, formed by a collection of stones upon the top of a gently-sloping hill, called Mayburgh. In the plain which it incloses there stands erect an unhewn stone of twelve feet in height. Two similar masses are said to have been destroyed during the memory of man. The whole appears to be a monument of druidical times. Note 6. Stanza x. Though never sun-beam could discern The small lake called Scales-tarn lies so deeply embosomed in the recesses of the huge mountain called Saddleback, more poetically Glaramara, is of such great depth, and so completely hidden from the sun, that it is said its beams never reach it, and that the reflection of the stars may be seen at mid-day. Note 7. Stanza xvii. -Tintadgel's spear. Tintadgel Castle, in Cornwall, is reported to have been the birth-place of King Arthur. Note 8. Stanza xvii. Caliburn in cumbrous length. This was the name of King Arthur's well-known sword, sometimes also called Excalibar. 1 Not vert, as stated by Burn. 2 This more detailed genealogy of the family of Triermain was obligingly sent to the author by Major Braddyll of Cornishead Priory. Note 1. Stanza x. From Arthur's hand the goblet flew. The author has an indistinct recollection of an adventure somewhat similar to that which is here ascribed to King Arthur, having befallen one of the ancient Kings of Denmark. The horn in which the burning liquor was presented to that monarch, is said still to be preserved in the Royal Museum at Copenhagen. Note 2. Stanza x. Nor tower nor donjon could he spy, ➖➖➖« We now gained a view of the Vale of Saint John, a very narrow dell, hemmed in by mountains, through which a small brook makes many meanderings, washing little inclosures of grass-ground, which stretch up the rising of the hills. In the widest part of the dale you are struck with the appearance of an ancient ruined castle, which seems to stand upon the summit of a little mount, the mountains around forming an amphitheatre. This massive bulwark shows a front of various towers, and makes an awful, rude, and Gothic appearance, with its loffy turrets and ragged battlements; we traced the galleries, the bending arches, the buttresses. The greatest antiquity stands characterized in its architecture; the inhabitants near it assert it is an antediluvian structure. << The traveller's curiosity is roused, and he prepares to make a nearer approach, when that curiosity is put upon the rack by his being assured, that if he advances, certain genii who govern the place, by virtue of their supernatural art and necromancy, will strip it of all its beauties, and, by enchantment, transform the magic walls. The vale seems adapted for the habitation of such beings; its gloomy recesses and retirements look like haunts of evil spirits. There was no delusion in the report; we were soon convinced of its truth; for this piece of antiquity, so venerable and noble in its aspect, as we drew near changed its figure, and proved no other than a shaken massive pile of rocks, which stand in the midst of this little vale, disunited from the adjoining mountains, and have so much the real form and resemblance of a castle, that they bear the name of the Castle Rocks of St John.»-HUTCHINSON'S Excursion to the Lakes, p. 121. Note 3. Stanza xi. The Saxons to subjection brought. Arthur is said to have defeated the Saxons in twelve pitched battles, and to have achieved the other feats. alluded to in the text. Note 4. Stanza xiii. There Morolt of the iron mace, etc. The characters named in the following stanza are all of them, more or less, distinguished in the romances which treat of King Arthur and his Round Table, and their names are strung together according to the cstablished custom of minstrels upon such occasions; for example, in the ballad of the marriage of Sir Gawaine : |