Commixing with the blotted skies, High and more high the wild waves rise, Till, as impetuous torrents urge, Driven on yon fatal bank accursed, The vessel's massy timbers burst, And the crew sinks beneath the infuriate surge. There finds the weak an early grave, Nor dreams that rapine meets him on the strand. And are there then in human form From half-drown'd victims whom the tempests Ah! yes, by avarice once possess'd No pity moves the rustic breast; Callous he proves-as those who haply wait Till I (a pilgrim weary worn) To my own native land return, With legal toils to drag me to my fate! CHARLOTTE SMITH. A SCENE NEAR NETHER STOWEY, SOMERSET. A GREEN and silent spot amid the hills! When through its half-transparent stalks, at eve, Which all, methinks, would love; but chiefly he, COLERIDGE. VOL. II. H SCARBOROUGH CASTLE. HIGH on yon foreland's rugged brow, A stately fortress stood: Seven centuries have roll'd away Since first those towers with lichens gray Since first by Albemarle* its crest Has bleach'd its walls around! The deep-indented wound. Nor from the stroke of civil rage, Oft too the Scot, with onset rude, This castle was built about the year 1136 by William Le Gros, Earl of Albemarle and Holderness; a nobleman described by an early chronicler, as Juvenis strenuissimus, in armis multum exercitatus. Hinderwell's History of Scarborough. And lo! through fields of flame and blood, By baby's scream and matron's shriek On Cuton-Moor to your pale gaze For there, as erst to Constantine, And venerable bishops there Nor shrink they from the banner'd field, The flying foe to press. * In 1138 was fought on Caton-Moor, near Northallerton, between the Earl of Albemarle and David King of Scotland, the battle of the Standard;' so called from a mast borne upon a wheel-carriage, surmounted by a silver cross, under which were suspended three banners dedicated to St. Peter of York, St. John of Beverley, and St. Wilfrid of Ripon. With this standard in their van the English accounted themselves invincible. Ralph, Bishop of the Orkneys, harangued, absolved, and blessed them before the engagement; and infirmity alone prevented Roger, Archbishop of York, from accompanying them to the field. Of the Scottish infantry above 10,000 were left dead upon the spot. But not, with Scottish blood-drops wet, On Albemarle's red brow: Not zeal for England's honour shown His vassal hind and yellow strand Boots not young Bardolph's+ fate to tell, Besmear'd with paynim gore, And treacherous Austria's dungeon cave, On the accession of Henry II. Albemarle was deprived of his government, rebelled, and only upon the intercession of Archbishop Roger obtained his sovereign's pardon. + The younger son of Lord Bardolph, appointed in 1191 to the command of Scarborough Castle by Richard I. with whom he was a great favourite; during his prince's absence in the Holy Land he was guilty of various misdemeanours which cost him his office. William de Dacre of the North' was appointed by Henry III. and John and William de Vesci (brothers) successively by Edward I. to the same splendid station. |