ARGU MEN T.
THE fubject propofed. Dedicatory addrefs. Of paftures in general, fit for fheep: for fine-wool'd fheep: for long-wool'd fheep. Defects of pastures, and their remedies. Of climates. The moisture of the English climate vindicated. Particular beauties of England Different kinds of English sheep: the two common forts of rams defcribed. Different kinds of foreign fheep. The feveral forts of food. The diftempers arifing from thence, with their remedies. Sheep led by instinct to their proper food and phyfic. Of the fhepherd's fcrip, and its furniture.. Care of sheep in tupping-time. Of the caftration of lambs, and the folding of fheep. Various precepts relative to changes of weather and feasons. Particular care of new-fallen lambs. The advantages. and fecurity of the Englifh fhepherd above those in hotter or colder climates; exemplified with refpect to Lapland, Italy, Greece, and Arabia. Of sheepfhearing. Song on that occafion. Cuftom in Wales of sprinkling the rivers with flowers. Sheep-fhearing feast and merriments on the banks of the Severn. THE
HE care of fheep, the labours of the loom,
And arts of trade, I fing. Ye rural nymphs,
Ye fwains, and princely merchants, aid the verse..
And ye, high-trusted guardians of our ifle,
Whom public voice approves, or lot of birth
To the great charge affigns: ye good, of all
Degrees, all fects, be present to my fong.
So may distress, and wretchednefs, and want,
The wide felicities of labour learn:
So may the proud attempts of restless Gaul
From our strong borders, like a broken wave,
In empty foam retire. But chiefly Thou,
The people's fhepherd, eminently plac'd
Over the numerous fwains of every vale,
With well-permitted power, and watchful eye,
On each gay field to shed beneficence,
Celestial office! Thou protect the fong.
On spacious airy downs, and gentle hills,
With grass and thyme o'erspread, and clover wild,
Where fmiling Phoebus tempers every breeze,
The fairest flocks rejoice! they, nor of halt,
Hydropic tumours, nor of rot, complain;
Evils deform'd and foul: nor with hoarse cough
Disturb the music of the paftoral pipe;
But, crouding to the note, with filence foft
The close-woven carpet graze; where Nature blends Flowrets and herbage of minutest size,
Innoxious luxury. Wide airy downs
Are Health's gay walks to fhepherd and to fheep.
All arid foils, with fand, or chalky flint,
Or fhells deluvian mingled; and the turf,
That mantles over rocks of brittle stone,
Be thy regard: and where low-tufted broom,
Or box, or berry'd juniper arife;
Or the tall growth of gloffy-rinded beech;
And where the burrowing rabbit turns the duft;.
And where the dappled deer delights to bound.
Such are the downs of Banstead, edg'd with woods,
And towery villas; fuch Dorceftrian fields,
Whose flocks innumerous whiten all the land:
Such those flow-climbing wilds, that lead the ftep
Infenfibly to Dover's windy cliff,
Tremendous height and fuch the clover'd lawns
And funny mounts of beauteous Normanton*,
Health's chearful haunt, and the selected walk
Of Heathcote's leifure: fuch the fpacious plain
Of Sarum, spread like Ocean's boundless round,
Where folitary Stonehenge, grey with mofs,
Ruin of ages, nods: fuch too the leas
And ruddy tilth, which fpiry Rofs beholds,
From a green hilloc, o'er her lofty elms;
And Lemster's brooky tract, and airy Croft †
And fuch Harleian Eywood's + fwelling turf,
Wav'd as the billows of a rolling fea:
* A feat of Sir John Heathcote in Rutlandshire † A feat of Sir Archer Croft.
Of the Earl of Oxford.
And Shobden, for its lofty terrace fam'd,
Which from a mountain's ridge, elate o'er woods
And girt with all Siluria †, fees around
Regions on regions blended in the clouds.
Pleasant Siluria, land of various views,
Hills, rivers, woods, and lawns, and purple groves
Pomaceous, mingled with the curling growth
Of tendril hops, that flaunt upon their
poles,
More airy wild than vines along the fides.
Of treacherous Falernum †; or that hill
Vefuvius, where the bowers of Bacchus rose,
And Herculanean and Pompeian domes.
But if thy prudent care would cultivate
Leiceftrian fleeces, what the finewy arm
Combs through the spiky fteel in lengthen'd flakes
Rich faponaceous loam, that flowly drinks
The blackening shower, and fattens with the draug
Or marle with clay deep-mix'd, be then thy choice,
Of one confiftence, one complexion, spread
Through all thy glebe; where no deceitful veins
Of envious gravel lurk beneath the turf,
To loose the creeping waters from their springs,
Tainting the pafturage: and let thy fields
+ Siluria, the part of England which lies weft of the Severn, viz. Herefordshire, Monmouthshire, &c.
Treacherous Falernum, becaufe part of the hills of Falernum was many years ago overturned by an eruption of fire, and is now an high and barren mount of cinders, called Monte Novo.
In flopes defcend and mount, that chilling rains
May trickle off, and haften to the brooks.
Yet fome defect in all on earth
appears;
All feek for help, all prefs for focial aid.
Too cold the graffy mantle of the marl,
In ftormy winter's long and dreary nights,
For cumbent sheep; from broken flumber oft
They rise benumb'd, and vainly shift the couch;
Their wafted fides their evil plight declare.
Hence, tender in his care, the shepherd swain
Seeks each contrivance. Here it would avail,
At a meet distance from the upland ridge,
To fink a trench, and on the hedge-long bank
Sow frequent fand, with lime, and dark manure;
Which to the liquid element will yield
A porous way, a paffage to the foe.
Plough not fuch pastures: deep in spungy grass
The oldeft carpet is the warmest lair,
And foundest; in new herbage coughs are heard.
Nor love too frequent shelter: fuch as decks
The vale of Severn, Nature's garden wide,
By the blue steeps of distant Malvern * wall'd
Solemnly vaft. The trees of various shade,
Scene behind scene, with fair delufive
pomp
Enrich the prospect, but they rob the lawns.
Nor prickly bramble, white with woolly theft,
Should tuft thy fields. Applaud not the remiss
Dimetians †, who, along their moffy dales,
* Malvern, a high ridge of hills near Worcester.
Dimetia, Caermarthenshire in South Wales.
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