TO THE BOSTON FRIGATE,*

ON LEAVING HALIFAX FOR ENGLAND, OCTOBER, 1804.

ΝΟΣΤΟΥ ΠΡΟΦΑΣΙΣ ΓΛΥΚΕΡΟΥ.- ΡΙΝDΑR. Pyth. 4.

WITH triumph this morning, oh! Boston! I hail The stir of thy deck and the spread of thy sail, For they tell me I soon shall be wafted, in thee, To the flourishing isle of the brave and the free, And that chill Nova-Scotia's unpromising strand † Is the last I shall tread of American land.

* Commanded by Captain J. E. Douglas, with whom I returned to England, and to whom I am indebted for many, many kindnesses. In truth, I should but offend the delicacy of my friend Douglas, and, at the same time, do injustice to my own feelings of gratitude, did I attempt to say how much I owe to him.

+ Sir John Wentworth, the Governor of Nova-Scotia, very kindly allowed me to accompany him on his visit to the College which they have lately established at Windsor, about forty miles from Halifax, and I was indeed most pleasantly surprised by the beauty and fertility of the country which opened upon us after the bleak and rocky wilderness by which Halifax is surrounded. I was told that, in travelling onwards, we should find the soil and the scenery improve, and it gave me much pleasure to know that the worthy Governor has by no means such an "inamabile regnum" was, at first sight, inclined to believe.

as 1

Well-peace to the land! may the people, at

length,

Know that freedom is bliss, but that honour is

strength;

That though man have the wings of the fetterless

wind,

Of the wantonest air that the north can unbind, Yet if health do not sweeten the blast with her

bloom,

Nor virtue's aroma its pathway perfume,

Unblest is the freedom and dreary the flight,
That but wanders to ruin and wantons to blight!

Farewell to the few I have left with regret,
May they sometimes recal, what I cannot forget,
That communion of heart and that parley of soul,
Which has lengthen'd our nights and illumined
our bowl,

When they've ask'd me the manners, the mind, or the mien

Of some bard I had known or some chief I had

seen,

Whose glory, though distant, they long had

adored,

Whose name often hallow'd the juice of their board!

And still as, with sympathy humble but true,
I told them each luminous trait that I knew,
They have listen'd, and sigh'd that the powerful

stream

Of America's empire should pass, like a dream, Without leaving one fragment of genius, to say How sublime was the tide which had vanish'd

away!

Farewell to the few-though we never may meet On this planet again, it is soothing and sweet

To think that, whenever my song or my name Shall recur to their they'll recal me the same

ear,

I have been to them now, young, unthoughtful,

and blest,

Ere hope had deceived me or sorrow depress'd!

But, DOUGLAS! while thus I endear to my

mind

The elect of the land we shall soon leave behind, I can read in the weather-wise glance of thine eye, As it follows the rack flitting over the sky,

That the faint coming breeze will be fair for our

flight,

And shall steal us away ere the falling of night. Dear DOUGLAS! thou knowest, with thee by my side, With thy friendship to soothe me, thy courage to guide,

There is not a bleak isle in those summerless seas, Where the day comes in darkness, or shines but

to freeze,

Not a tract of the line, not a barbarous shore, That I could not with patience, with pleasure explore!

Oh! think then how happy I follow thee now, When hope smooths the billowy path of our

prow,

And each prosperous sigh of the west-springing wind

Takes me nearer the home where my heart is inshrined;

Where the smile of a father shall meet me again, And the tears of a mother turn bliss into pain; Where the kind voice of sisters shall steal to my heart,

And ask it, in sighs, how we ever could part!—

But see!-the bent top-sails are ready to swellTo the boat-I am with thee-Columbia, farewell!

TO LADY H

ON AN OLD RING FOUND AT TUNBRIDGE-WELLS.

"Tunnebrige est à la même distance de Londres que Fontainebleau l'est de Paris. Ce qu'il y a de beau et de galant dans l'un et dans l'autre sexe s'y rassemble au temps des La compagnie," etc. etc.

eaux.

See Mémoires de Grammont, seconde part. chap. iii.

TUNBRIDGE-WELLS, August, 1805.

WHEN Grammont graced these happy springs,
And Tunbridge saw, upon her Pantiles,
The merriest wight of all the kings

That ever ruled these gay, gallant isles

Like us, by day they rode, they walk'd,
At eve they did as we may do,
And Grammont just like Spencer talk'd,
And lovely Stewart smiled like you!

The only different trait is this,

That woman then, if man beset her,

;