" 'I've heard the moss is spotted red With drops of that poor infant's blood : But kill a new-born infant thus, I do not think she could! Some say, if to the pond you go, 'And some had sworn an oath that she The little babe is buried there, thorn; mond to Askrigg. Its name is derived from a | Dismounting then, he leaned against a remarkable chase, the memory of which is preserved by the monuments spoken of in the second part of the following poem, which monuments do now exist as I have there de scribed them. He had no follower, dog, nor man, nor boy: He neither cracked his whip, nor blew his horn, But gazed upon the spoil with silent joy. Close to the thorn on which Sir Walter leaned, [feat: "And, in the summer-time when days are | What this imported I could ill divine: And pulling now the rein my horse to stop, The trees were gray, with neither arms nor I looked upon the hill both far and near, I stood in various thoughts and fancies lost, When one, who was in shepherd's garb attired, Came up the hollow:-him did I accost, And what this place might be I then inquired. The shepherd stopped, and that same story told [hearsed. Which in my former rhyme I have reA jolly place," said he, "in times of old! But something ails it now; the spot is cursed. "Here on the grass perhaps asleep he sank, UPON THE RESTORATION OF LORD CLIF Lulled by this fountain in the summer-tide; This water was perhaps the first he drank When he had wandered from his mother's side. In April here beneath the scented thorn He heard the birds their morning carols sing; [born And he, perhaps, for aught we know, was Not half a furlong from that self-same spring. "Now, here is neither grass nor pleasant shade; The sun on drearier hollow never shone; So will it be, as I have often said, FORD, THE SHEPHERD, TO THE ESTATES AND HONOURS OF HIS ANCESTORS.* HIGH in the breathless hall the minstrel sate, [song.And Emont's murmur mingled with the The words of ancient time I thus translate, A festal strain that hath been silent long : Henry Lord Clifford, etc., etc., who is the subject of this poem, was the son of John Lord Clifford, who was slain at Towton Field, which John Lord Clifford, as is known to the reader of English history, was the person who after the battle of Wakefield slew, in the pursuit, the young Earl of Rutland, son of the Duke of Till trees, and stones, and fountain, all are York, who had fallen in the battle, in part of gone." revenge" (say the authors of the History of Cumberland and Westmoreland) : "for the earl's father had slain his." A deed which worthily blemished the author (says Speed); but who, as he adds, "dare promise anything temperate of himself in the heat of martial fury? chiefly when it was resolved not to leave any branch of the York line standing; for so one maketh this lord to speak." This, no doubt, 1 would observe by the by, was an action suffi ciently in the vindictive spirit of the times, and yet not altogether so bad as represented; "for the earl was no child, as some writers would have him, but able to bear arms, being sixteen or seventeen years of age, as is evident from this (say the Memoirs of the Countess of Pembroke, who was laudably anxious to wipe away, as far as could be, this stigma from the illustrious name to which she was born), that he was the next child to King Edward the Fourth, which his mother had by Richard Duke of York, and that king was then eighteen years of age; and for the small distance betwixt her children, see Austin Vincent in his book of Nobility, page 622, where he writes of them all. It may further be observed, that Lord Clifford, age, had been a leading man and commander, who was then himself only twenty-n e years of two or three years together in the army of Lancaster, before this time; and, therefore, would "From town to town, from tower to Both roses flourish, red and white. The two that were at strife are blended, "They came with banner, spear, and shield; And it was proved in Bosworth-field. be less likely to think that the Earl of Rutland might be entitled to mercy from his youth.-But independent of this act, at the best a cruel and savage one, the family of Clifford had done enough to draw upon them the vehement hatred of the House of York; so that after the battle of Towton there was no hope for them but in flight and concealment. Henry, the subject of the poem, was deprived of his estate and honours during the space of twenty-four years; all which time he lived as a shepherd in Yorkshire, or in Cumberland, where the estate of his father-inlaw (Sir Lancelot Threlkeld) lay. He was restored to his estate and honours in the first year of Henry the Seventh. It is recorded that, when called to parliament, he behaved nobly and wisely; but otherwise came seldom to London or the court; and rather delighted to live in the country, where he repaired several of his castles, which had gone to decay during the late troubles." Thus far is chiefly collected from Nicholson and Burn; and I can add, from my own knowledge, that there is a tradition current in the village of Threlkeld and its neighbourhoop, his principal retreat, that, in the course of his shepherd-life he had acquired great astronomical knowledge. I cannot conclude this note without adding a word upon the subject of those numerous and noble feudal edifices, spoken of in the poem, the ruins of some of which are, at this day, so great an ornament to that Interesting country. The Cliffords had always been distinguished for an honourable pride in these castles; and we have seen that after Loud voice the land has uttered forth, "How glad is Skipton at this hour- Of all her guardian sons bereft - the wars of York and Lancaster they were rebuilt; in the civil wars of Charles the First they were again laid waste, and again restored almost to their former magnificence by the celebrated Lady Anne Clifford, Countess of Pembroke, etc., etc. Not more than twenty-five years after this was done, when the estates of Clifford had passed into the Family of Tufton, three of these castles, namely, Brough, Brougham, and Pendragon, were demolished, and the timber and other materials sold by Thomas Earl of Thanet. We will hope that when this order was issued, the Earl had not consulted the text of Isaiah, 58th Chapter, 12th Verse, to which the inscription placed over the gate of Pendragon Castle, by the Countess of Pembroke (I believe his grandmother) at the time she repaired that structure, refers the reader. "And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places; thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in." The Earl of Thanet, the present possessor of the es tates, with a due respect for the memory of his ancestors, and a proper sense of the value and beauty of these remains of antiquity, has (I am told) given orders that they shall be preserved from all depredations. This line is from the Battle of Bosworth Field, by Sir John Beaumont (brother to the dramatist), whose poems are written with much spirit, elegance, and harmony. |