DARTMOOR. IN sunlight and in shade, Repose and storm, wide waste! I since have trod Thy hill and dale magnificent. Again I seek thy solitudes profound, in this Thy hour of deep tranquillity, when rests A robe of beauty, as the fields that bud Noel Thomas Carrington. Dartside. DARTSIDE. 1849. I CANNOT tell what you say, green leaves, I cannot tell what you say; But I know that there is a spirit in you, I cannot tell what you say, rosy rocks, But I know that there is a spirit in you, I cannot tell what you say, brown streams, But I know that in you too a spirit doth live, "O, green is the color of faith and truth, And rose the color of love and youth, And brown of the fruitful clay. Sweet Earth is faithful and fruitful and young, And her bridal day shall come erelong, And you shall know what the rocks and the streams And the whispering woodlands say." Charles Kingsley. Dawlish. A DEVONSHIRE LANE, A SIMILE. a Devonshire lane, as I trotted along T' other day, much in want of a subject for song, Thinks I to myself I have hit on a strain, Sure marriage is much like a Devonshire lane. In the first place 't is long, and when once you are in it, It holds you as fast as the cage holds a linnet; For howe'er rough and dirty the road may be found, Drive forward you must, since there's no turning round. But though 't is so long, it is not very wide, Oft Poverty greets them with mendicant looks, Then the banks are so high, both to left hand and right, That they shut up the beauties around from the sight; And hence you'll allow, —'t is an inference plain, But, thinks I too, these banks within which we are pent, With bud, blossom, and berry are richly besprent; And the conjugal fence which forbids us to roam Looks lovely, when decked with the comforts of home. In the rock's gloomy crevice the bright holly grows, Then long be the journey and narrow the way! John Marriot. DE Dean-Bourn. DEAN-BOURN, A RUDE RIVER IN DEVON. EAN-BOURN, farewell; I never look to see Thy rockie bottome, that doth teare thy streams, Were thy streams silver, or thy rocks all Rockie thou art; and rockie we discover A people currish, churlish as the seas, With whom I did, and may re-sojourne when Robert Herrick. Dean Priory. DISCONTENTS IN DEVON. TORE discontents I never had M° Since I was born then here, In this dull Devonshire. Yet justly too I must confesse, I ne'r invented such Then where I loath'd so much. Robert Herrick. |