also the indignant feelings of a young soldier at the unworthy arts practised, to defraud Sir J. Moore of his well-earned fame ?* MONODY. "Twas on Corunna's fatal shore, In weeping Victory's blood-stain'd arms, Brave Moore with glory died. Britannia heard the news with grief, O'erwhelm'd beneath a load of woe, In future times the Bard shall tell, Iberia's sons shall hear. And oft the Patriot, bold and brave, Shall seek his much-lov'd Chieftain's grave, And dew it with a tear! T. J. Shall we now proceed to note another feature of an ardent and impassioned mind? A genuine sensi * In the Edinburgh Review, No. 35, p. 300, Scott's Vision of Don Roderick, you will find some candid remarks, which suggested the following tribute to the memory of Sir John Moore. + The Iberi were a people of Spain, so called from their neighbourhood to the river Iberus, now Ebro. bility to the beauties of nature leads many to travel, and excites so lively an interest in visiting scenes commemorated by genius, or merely in search of the picturesque, when, in some sylvan scene, we seek the murmuring of a brook, the deep shade of a continuity of wood, or the grandeur of the view of waterfalls, and indulge that kind of rapture so innocent and pure that our nature is exalted by it.* Never can we cease to lament the few opportunities our family has ever had of gratifying this predilection ; but by cultivating a taste for drawing, the re-action of a vivid imagination will enable us to taste the charm of many descriptions. Take one, for example, of auld Caledonia's Bard, which we beheld beautifully transmitted to canvas, and of which this drawing conveys some traits. See Provincial Antiquities of Scotland. Loch Katrine lay beneath him roll'd And mountains that like giants stand To centinel enchanted land. Another subject for my pencil was, the Island of Mull : the third visited by Dr. Johnson. Here * Refer to the Petition of Bruar-waters to the Duke of Athol ; by Burns. + Illustrated by Turner and Williams, &c. "To abstract the mind from all local emotion would be C winds roar aloud, and we are ready to exclaim,"Oh from the rock of the hill, from the windy steep, speak, ye ghosts of the dead, whither are ye gone to rest?" when we recall the melancholy catastrophe which there befel two friends, students from Oxford, who, in the summer of 1815, purposed to indulge their taste by visiting the Hebrides. On their return from Mull, a blast struck the vessel at the moment of making a tack, and upset it. Mr. R. lost his life, not being able to swim. The following lines were composed on the occasion, when recollecting an old tradition that "the Gael, anciently residing on the sea coasts, believed in a beneficent Sea-nymph, who made her abode in crystalline palaces beneath the fathomless ocean.' O'er distant Mull's dark waves what sounds of wail His shroud, his coffin, and his grave—the DEEP. 99 impossible, if it were endeavoured; and would be foolish, if it were possible. How characteristic of Dr. J's. style! See his Tour to the Hebrides. THE ISLAND OF MULL. Oer distant, Mull's dark Waves, what sounds of Wail ger, the Air and fill the misty gale, Float The Eagle darts, the sea birds, screaming flock : And borne on storms, desert the sheltering rock. |