To cast the strong-flung shuttle or the spear. MIGRATIONS OF THE WEAVING ART; FROM EGYPT TO PHŒNI- Ye sons of Albion! with unyielding heart, The loom, that long-renowned, wide-envied gift, FLEMINGS, EXILED THROUGH THE DUKE OF ALVA'S TYRANNY, Our day arose, When Alva's tyranny the weaving arts SOME MANUFACTURING EMIGRANTS CAME FROM BERGHEM, Berghem, and Sluys, and elder Bruges, chose With cheer revived; and in Sabrina's flood, Thus, then, on Albion's coast the exiled band, From rich Menapian towns, and the green banks Of Scheld, alighted; and, alighting, sang Grateful thanksgiving. EFFECTS OF THE IMMIGRATION OF THE FLEMISH WEAVERS; TURNING SHEPHERDS AND IDLERS TO OPERATIVES. Yet at times they shift Their habitations, when the hand of pride, Restraint, or southern luxury, disturbs Their industry, and urges them to vales Of the Brigantes ; 2 where, with happier care Inspirited, their art improves the fleece, Which occupation erst, and wealth immense, Gave Brabant's swarming habitants, what time We were their shepherds only; from which state With friendly arm they raised us: nathless some Among our old and stubborn swains misdeemed And envied who enriched them; envied those Whose virtues taught the varletry of towns To useful toil to turn the pilfering hand. BRITAIN THE REFUGE OF THE PERSECUTED. And still, when Bigotry's black clouds arise (For oft they sudden rise in papal realms), They from their isle, as from some ark secure, Careless, unpitying, view the fiery bolts Of superstition and tyrannic rage, And all the fury of the rolling storm, Which fierce pursues the sufferers in their flight. Shall not our gates, shall not Britannia's arms, Spread ever open to receive their flight? A virtuous people, by distresses oft (Distresses for the sake of truth endured) Corrected, dignified; creating good Wherever they inhabit: this our isle Has oft experienced; witness all ye realms, Of either hemisphere where commerce flows: 12 Flandria, Flanders; Venetia, Venice; Phenice, Phoenicia; Ægyptus, Egypt; Nilus, the Nile: Cantium, Kent; Norvicum, Norwich; Colcestria, Colchester; Antona, the Avon; Clausentum, Southampton (?); Vecta, the Isle of Wight; Sabrina, Severn; Silurian Tame, the Temd, which runs by Ludlow; Vigornia, Worcester; Vaga, the Wye; Ariconium, Kenchester, see note, p. 379; Salop, Shropshire; Cambria, Wales; Dimetia, the south part of Wales; Menapian, Belgian; Brigantes, people of Yorkshire. BRITISH FABRICS CREATED OR IMPROVED BY PERSECUTED IMMIGRANTS; CHEYNEY, BAIZE, SERGE, ALEPINE, TAMMY, CRAPE, ETC.; STEEL, GLASS, MIXED FABRICS. Th' important truth is stamped on every bale ; Their wit has given the fleece, now taught to link THE ARRAS BLENHEIM TAPESTRIES. — RAMILLIES, ARLEUX. They, too, the many-colored Arras taught To mimic nature, and the airy shapes Of sportive fancy; such as oft appear In old mosaic pavements, when the plough Upturns the crumbling glebe of Weldon field, Or that o'ershaded erst by Woodstock's bower, Now graced by Blenheim, in whose stately rooms Rise glowing tapestries that lure the eye With Marlborough's wars: here Schellenberg exults Behind surrounding hills of ramparts steep, And vales of trenches dark; each hideous pass Armies defend; yet on the hero leads His Britons, like a torrent, o'er the mounds. Another scene is Blenheim's glorious field, And the red Danube. Here, the rescued states Crowding beneath his shield; there, Ramillies' Important battle next the ten-fold chain Of Arleux burst, and the adamantine gates Of Gaul flung open to the tyrant's throne. A shade obscures the rest Ah! then, what power Invidious from the lifted sickle snatched The harvest of the plain? So lively glows The fair delusion, that our passions rise In the beholding, and the glories share HISTORY OF THE ART, VARIOUS CHEF-D'ŒUVRES OF DIFFER- Did zealous Europe learn of pagan hands, Far-distant Tibet in her gloomy woods 1 There is woven at Manchester, for the East Indies, a very thin stuff, of thread and cotton, which is cooler than the manufactures of that country, where the material is only cotton. Their porcelain, Japan its varnish boasts. But chief by numbers of industrious hands And emulation: the whole world receive, Each clime, each sea, the spacious orb of each, MANUFACTURING HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS OF COMMERCE IN snows. [wave [side, MEANS OF TRANSPORT IN GREAT BRITAIN; SMALL PONIES OF N. WALES; SHREWSBURY; SNEER AT THE LANGUEDOC CANAL. The northern Cambrians, an industrious tribe, Carry their labors on pigmean steeds, Of size exceeding not Leicestrian sheep, Yet strong and sprightly over hill and dale They travel unfatigued, and lay their bales In Salop's streets, beneath whose lofty walls Pearly Sabrina waits them with her barks, And spreads the swelling sheet. For nowhere far From some transparent river's naval course Arise and fall our various hills and vales, Nowhere far distant from the masted wharf. We need not vex the strong laborious hand With toil enormous, as th' Egyptian king, Who joined the sable waters of the Nile From Memphis' towers to the Erythræan gulf; Or as the monarch of enfeebled Gaul, Whose will imperious forced an hundred streams Through many a forest, many a spacious wild, To stretch their scanty trains from sea to sea, That some unprofitable skiff might float Across irriguous dales and hollowed rocks. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS; TRENT, SEVERN, AND THAMES, Far easier pains may swell our gentler floods, And celebrate the union; and the light RIVER NAVIGATION; LONDON THE WORLD'S MART FOR THE Even now behold Adown a thousand floods the burdened barks, woods Haste to their harbors. See the silver maze Lo, from the simple fleece how much proceeds! NOTE.-Book IV. (of The Fleece'), on Commerce, is omitted, as not according with the plan of this compilation. J. Rural Ode and Description for February. GREENE'S "SHEPHERD AND HIS WIFE." It was near a thicky shade, That broad leaves of beech had made, Joining all their tops so nigh, Flocks of kids and flocks of sheep: He upon his pipe did play; She tuned voice unto his lay. And for you might her housewife know, That breast and bosom in did wrap, To shroud him from the wet aloft : A leather scrip of color red, Nor Menalcas, whom they call With drops of blood, to make the white Please the eye with more delight. In ambush for some wanton prize; She wore a chaplet on her head; MILTON'S "GARDEN OF EDEN." Of stateliest view. Yet higher than their tops Shenstone's "Schoolmistress." THE SCHOOLMISTRESS." Aн, me! full sorely is my heart forlorn, To think how modest worth neglected lies; While partial fame doth with her blasts adorn Such deeds alone as pride and pomp disguise; Deeds of ill sort and mischievous emprise ; Lend me thy clarion, goddess! let me try To sound the praise of merit ere it dies; Such as I oft have chancéd to espy, Lost in the dreary shades of dull obscurity. In every village marked with little spire, Embowered in trees, and hardly known to fame, There dwells, in lowly shed and mean attire, A matron old, whom we Schoolmistress name, Who boasts unruly brats with birch to tame; They grieven sore, in piteous durance pent, Awed by the power of this relentless dame, And ofttimes, on vagaries idly bent, [shent. For unkempt hair, or task unconned, are sorely And all in sight doth rise a birchen tree, Which Learning near her little dome did stowe, Whilom a twig of small regard to see, Though now so wide its waving branches flow, And work the simple vassals mickle woe; For not a wind might curl the leaves that blew, But their limbs shuddered, and their pulse beat [grew, low; And as they looked, they found their horror And shaped it into rods, and tingled at the view. So have I seen (who has not, may conceive) A lifeless phantom near a garden placed ; So doth it wanton birds of peace bereave, Of sport, of song, of pleasure, of repast; They start, they stare, they wheel, they look Sad servitude! such comfortless annoy [aghast; May no bold Briton's riper age e'er taste! Ne superstition clog his dance of joy, Ne vision empty, vain, his native bliss destroy. Near to this dome is found a patch so green, On which the tribe their gambols do display; And at the door imprisoning-board is seen, Lest weakly wights of smaller size should stray, Eager, perdie, to bask in sunny day! The noises intermixed, which thence resound, Do Learning's little tenement betray; Where sits the dame, disguised in look profound, And eyes her fairy throng, and turns her wheel Her cap, far whiter than the driven snow, [around. Emblem right meet, of decency does yield; Her apron, dyed in grain, is blue, I trowe, As is the hare-bell that adorns the field; And in her hand, for sceptre, she does wield Tway birchen sprays, with anxious fears entwined, With dark distrust, and sad repentance filled, And steadfast hate, and sharp affliction joined, And fury uncontrolled, and chastisement unkind. Few but have ken'd, in semblance meet portrayed, The childish faces of old Eol's train; Libs, Notus, Auster; these in frowns arrayed, The cot no more, I ween, were deemed the cell, "T was her own country bred the flock so fair; 'T was her own labor did the fleece prepare ; And, sooth to say, her pupils, ranged around, Through pious awe did term it passing rare; For they in gaping wonderment abound, And think, no doubt, she been the greatest wight on Albeit ne flattery did corrupt the truth, [ground! Ne pompous title did debauch her ear; Goody, good-woman, n'aunt, forsooth, Or dame, the sole additions she did hear; Yet these she challenged, these she held right dear; Ne would esteem him act as mought behove, Who should not honored eld with these revere ; For never title yet so mean could prove, But there was eke a mind that did that title love. One ancient hen she took delight to feed, The plodding pattern of the busy dame; Which, ever and anon, impelled by need, Into her school, begirt with chickens, came! Such favor did her past deportment claim; And if neglect had lavished on the ground Fragment of bread, she would collect the same, For well she knew, and quaintly could expound, What sin it were to waste the smallest crumb she found. [speak, Herbs, too, she knew, and well of each could That in her garden sipped the silvery dew; Where no vain flower disclosed a gaudy streak ; But herbs for use and physic not a few, Of gray renown, within those borders grew; The tufted basil, pun-provoking thyme, Fresh baum, and marygold of cheerful hue ; The lowly gill, that never dares to climb; And more I fain would sing, disdaining here to rhyme. |