Page images
PDF
EPUB

The Delhi with his cap of terror on,

And crooked glaive; the lively, supple Greek,
And swarthy Nubia's mutilated son;

The bearded Turks that rarely deigns to speak,
Master of all around, too potent to be meek,

LVIII.

Are mix'd conspicuous: some recline in groups,
Scanning the motley scene that varies round;
There some great Moslem to devotion stoops,
And some that smoke, and some that play, are found:
Here the Albanian proudly treads the ground;
Half whispering there the Greek is heard to prate;
Hark! from the mosque the nightly solemn sound,
The Muezzin's call doth shake the minaret,

"There is no god but God!-to prayer-lo! God is great!"

LIX.

Just at this season Ramazani's fast

Through the long day its penance did maintain:
But when the lingering twilight hour was past,
Revel and feast assum'd the rule again.
Now all was bustle, and the menial train
Prepar'd and spread the plenteous board within;
The vacant gallery now seem'd made in vain,
But from the chambers came the mingling din,
As page and slave anon were passing out and in.
LX.

Here woman's voice is never heard: apart,
And scarce permitted, guarded, veil'd, to rove,
She yields to one her person and her heart,
Tam'd to her cage, nor feels a wish to move :
For, not unhappy in her master's love,
And joyful in a mother's gentlest cares,
Blest cares! all other feelings far above!

Herself more sweetly rears the babe she bears

Who never quits the breast, no meaner passion shares.

LXI.

In marble-pav'd pavilion, where a spring

Of living water from the centre rose,

Whose bubbling did a genial freshness fling,

And soft voluptuous couches breath'd repose,
ALI reclined, a man of war and woes;

Yet in his lineaments ye cannot trace,

While Gentleness her milder radiance throws

Along that aged venerable face,

The deeds that lurk beneath, and stain him with disgrace.

[blocks in formation]

Love conquers age-so Hafiz hath averr'd,
So sings the Teian, and he sings in sooth-
But 'tis those ne'er forgotten acts of ruth,
Beseeming all men ill, but most the man

In years, that marked him with a tyger's tooth;
Blood follows blood, and, through their mortal span,
In bloodier acts conclude those who with blood began.

The character of the Albanians is given with great energy, in the succeeding stanzas: we extract the first of them:

LXIV.

Fierce are Albania's children, yet they lack
Not virtues, were those virtues more mature.
Where is the foe that ever saw their back?
Who can so well the toil of war endure?
Their native fastnesses not more secure
Than they in doubtful time of troublous need.
Their wrath how deadly! but their friendship sure,
When Gratitude or Valour bids them bleed,
Unshaken rushing on where'er their chief may lead.

Harold terminates his stay among the Albanians at a feast, and with a characteristic effusion, which the author informs us was composed by him from different Albanese songs.

SONG.
1.

Tambourgi! Tambourgi! thy 'larum afar
Gives hope to the valiant, and promise of war;
All the sons of the mountains arise at the note,
Chimariot, Illyrian, and dark Suliote!

2.

Oh! who is more brave than a dark Suliote,

In his snovy camese and his shaggy capote?

To the wolf and the vulture he leaves his wild flock,
And descends to the plain like the stream from the rock.

3.

Shall the sons of Chimari, who never forgive

The fault of a friend bid an enemy live?

Let those guns so unerring such vengeance forego?
What mark is so fair as the breast of a foe?

4.

Macedonia sends forth her invincible race;

For a time they abandon the cave and the chase;
But those scarfs of blood-red shall be redder, before
The sabre is sheath'd and the battle is o'er.

5

Then the pirates of Parga that dwell by the waves,
And teach the pale Franks what it is to be slaves,
Shall leave on the beach the long galley and oar,
And track to his covert the captive on shore.

[blocks in formation]

6.

I ask not the pleasures that riches supply,

My sabre shall win what the feeble must buy;
Shall win the young bride with her long flowing hair,
And many a maid from her mother shall tear.

7.

I love the fair face of the maid in her youth,

Her caresses shall lull me, her music shall sooth;
Let her bring from the chamber her many-ton'd lyrej
And sing us a song on the fall of her sire.

8.

Remember the moment when Previsa fell,*
The shrieks of the conquer'd, the conqueror's yell;
The roofs that we fir'd, and the plunder we shar'd,
The wealthy we slaughter'd, the lovely we spar'd.

9.

I talk not of mercy, I talk not of fear;

He neither must know who would serve the Vizier :
Since the days of our prophet the Crescent ne'er saw
A chief ever glorious like Ali Pashaw.

10.

Dark Muchtar his son to the Danube is sped,

Let the yellow-hair'd† Giaours‡ view his horsetails with dread,
When his Delhis** come dashing in blood o'er the banks,
How few shall escape from the Muscovite ranks!

11.

Selictar!ft unsheath then our chief's scimitar;
Tambourgi! thy 'larum gives promise of war.
Ye mountains that see us descend to the shore!
Shall view us as victors, or view us no more!

The remainder of the poem is dedicated to that enchanting country, Greece, and every line of it will be felt by the scholar and the man of taste; but to which, we must again say, our limits compel us to refer our readers; who, indeed, will eventually be pleased with a reference that shall induce them to peruse the whole of a poem calculated to diffuse delight.

It is followed by notes relative to the subjects introduced, and by a few short miscellanies, chiefly written abroad, of which several are on similar topics; and some are translations of Romaic songs. The volume concludes with an appendix, containing a catalogue of Romaic authors, with specimens of that language. In some future number, and at a more leisure moment, we may return with pleasure to their contents. Some of the notes, particularly those written at Athens, furnish matter for observations, which the calls of our printer warn us to postpone.

*It was taken by storm from the French. + Yellow is the epithet given to the Russians. + Infidel. Horse-tails are the insignia of a Pacha. ** Horsemen, answering to our forlorn hope. HSword-bearer.

t

SPIRIT OF MAGAZINES.

FROM THE LITERARY PANORAMA.

BELL ROCK LIGHT-HOUSE.

AMONG the works which have done the greatest honour to the persevering skill and intelligence of the British nation, the Eddystone Light House has always been considered as holding a distinguished place. With the difficulties attending the progress and completion of that structure, we are familiar by means of Smeaton's History of the work, which is copied into all books of travels in the West of England. A work, so far as we can learn, not less arduous has been accomplished on the Bell Rock in the Firth of Forth: it has engaged our attention several times;* and the history of it displays such a persevering and unabated struggle with difficulties, and such a happy and cheap victory over them, that we cannot but congratulate our age and country on the spirit and skill displayed in the undertaking.

The Cape, or Bell Rock, lies about eleven miles in a southwest direction from the Red Head, in Forfarshire, and thirty miles north by east, from St. Abb's Head, in Berwickshire. These two head-lands form the boundaries of the estuary, or Firth of Forth, which is the principal inlet upon the east coast of Great Britain for vessels overtaken with an easterly storm while navigating the German Ocean or North Sea. This dangerous Rock is not usually inserted in general maps of Scotland; but we have the pleasure of referring our readers to that admirable one of the Parlimentary Commissioners inserted in LITERARY PANORAMA, Vol. III. p. 1, and annexed to our account of the "Report to Hon. House of Commons, relative to Improvements in Roads, Bridges, &c. forming in the Highlands, &c. &c. of Scotland." In this map the Bell Rock is distinctly

marked.

This rock is almost one entire or continuous mass, having only a very few detached or separate pieces. It is a red sand-stone, Comp. Panorama. Vol, H. p. 649; VII. p. 167.-Eddystone L. H. Vol. IV.

2. 339.

very hard, and of a fine grit, with minute specks of mica. At low water of neap tides, the rock is only partially left by the tide; but its dimensions, as seen at low water of spring tides, are about 2000 feet in length, with an average breadth of 230 feet; and then the height of the north-east part, where the light house is built, may be stated at four feet above the surface of the water; but the south-west or opposite end of the rock, is lower, and its surface is never left by the tide. The surface of the rock is very uneven, and walking upon it is difficult and even dangerous. Those parts which are higher, and consequently oftener left by the tide, are covered with mussels, limpets, whelks, and numbers of seals occasionally play about the rock, and rest upon it at low water. Those parts which appear only at spring tide, are thickly coated with sea weeds; as the great tangle (fucus digitatus), and baaderlocks or hen-ware (fucus esculentus), which here grows to the length of eighteen feet. The red-ware cod is got very near the rock, and as the water deepens, the other fish common in those seas, are caught in abundance.

Such being the position of this fatal rock, appearing only a few feet above the low water mark of spring tides, and being wholly covered by the water when the tide has flowed but a short time, its dangerous effects have been long and severely felt, and the want of some distinguishing mark to point out its place, has been lamented with the occurrence of every shipwreck upon the coast. But until commerce had made considerable advances towards its present state, the erection of a light-house could not be undertaken, as the ships frequenting those seas, were not suf ficiently numerous to afford the probability of raising an adequate revenue, by a small duty or tonnage upon each vessel. Tradition, however, informs us, that so long ago as the fourteenth century, the monks of Aberbrothwick caused a large bell to be hung upon the rock, in such a manner that the waves of the sea gave it motion, by which means warning was given to the mariner of the vicinity of the rock. In this way the name of "Bell Rock," is said to have arisen. Such a bell must soon have been swept away by the raging sea: and centuries elapsed without any effectual steps being taken for distinguishing the rock.

In 1806, a bill passed in both houses of parliament, under the auspices of the then lord-advocate, the honourable Henry Erskine, aided by Sir John Sinclair, bart. By this bill, the northern light duty, of three half-pence per ton upon British, and threepence per ton upon foreign bottoms, was allowed to be extended to all vessels bound to, or from any of the ports between Peterhead in the north, and Berwick-upon-Tweed in the south, and the commissioners were empowered to borrow £25,000 from the 3 per cent consols, which with £20,000 which they possessed, made a disposable fund of £45,000 to go on with the work.

« PreviousContinue »