Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

tween three and four. It would be needless to say they present every feature of the most perfect park scenery; for where so much attention has been bestowed on the seat of royalty, the grounds surrounding it are sure not to be neglected.

Windsor Forest is a large tract of land upwards of fifty miles in extent, and comprising within its bounds many beautiful seats belonging to the nobility and gentry, much too numerous to mention; the whole forming a fitting place for the residence and amusements of the sovereign of one of the first nations in the world. Pope has some beautiful lines in his poem of Windsor Forest, which are very applicable; he says

Here waving groves a chequered scene display,
And part admit, and part exclude the day;
As some coy nymph her lover's warm address,
Nor quite indulges, nor can quite repress.
There interspers'd in lawns and opening glades,
Thin trees arise that shun each other's shades.
Here in full light the russet plains extend:
There wrapt in clouds the bluish hills ascend.
E'en the wild heath displays her purple dyes,

And 'midst the desert fruitful fields arise,

That, crown'd with tufted trees and springing corn,
Like verdant isles, the sable waste adorn.

It was a beautiful moonlight night when we quitted Windsor on our way to Maidenhead, which is but a few miles further. Nothing could exceed the appearance of the scenery around, radiant as it was in the beams of the goddess of night; in truth, it dwells upon the memory as a

fairy scene-so enchanting in reality, so lovely in review.

On the Buckinghamshire side is beheld fine meadows, that lie in all the subdued beauty the rays of Diana can confer, stretching far away, till they are screened from further curiosity by the lengthening shades of the luxuriant hedges that bound their course; on the other side were seen the fair woods of Windsor, silvered o'er by the glorious moonlight, whose image, reflected in the face of the shining waters, seemed redolent with joy, and dancing with gladness over the silent but ever-rolling waves; while in perspective, and towering over all, is beheld the monarch of the scene,

"Standing, like a giant, proudly pre-eminent."

To what reflections does not such a picture give birth! What reminiscences does it not recall! Seated on a rising ground the whole is before us. Looking towards Windsor, we have to our left the plains of Buckinghamshire; on our right the woody heights of Berkshire, the river rippling and foaming between, Windsor town and castle bounding the view. Oh! as those distant turrets catch the eye, what indefinable sensations arise within the breast! What thoughts of former times break in upon the mind, which inadequately find vent in something like the following:

I gaz'd upon thy towers, and I thought
On all the ages that had pass'd away

Since thou wert first created, and as nought
Are many generations, and their clay
Is undistinguishable-thou hast seen

The mighty and the feeble in decay.

And though o'er thee have cent'ries pass'd, I ween
Thou hast not yet seen thy meridian day.
Thou stand'st a pile of grandeur, fit to tell
Thy nation's glory-and thou dost it well.

I could have wept when first those towers gray,
Hoar with the lapse of ages, met my sight;
All seemed so stlll, so silent, while the ray

Of the chaste moon shed forth her soft'ning light;
Flooding the whole with glory. Where are they,
The myriads who have pass'd thy halls among,
Whose mighty deeds have hallow'd their decay,
And o'er their brows the wreath of laurel flung?
All, all have vanish'd; thou alone can'st tell

Thine and their nation's glory-and thou dost it well.

It is with reluctance that such scenes as these are left; but the little tower of Bray church withdraws us from their further contemplation.

BRAY is famed for the versatile character of its vicar, who was a protestant in the reign of Henry the Eighth, a catholic in that of Mary, and once again a protestant when her sister Elizabeth wielded the sceptre. On being reproached for his inconsistency, he is said to have answered, that he meant to be consistent in one thing, which was, to live and die vicar of Bray.

This little village lies in Berkshire, whose small gray church and white cottages present an agreeable feature of English landscape. On the north wall of the chancel of the church are the two

following epitaphs.

The first is underneath the

figure of a man, whose hands rest on a skull, while

near him stands his wife :

If what I was thou seekest to know,
These lynes my character will shew;
Those benefits that God me lent,
With thankes I tooke, and freely spent ;
I scorned what plainess could not get,
And next to treason hated debt;

I loved not those who stirred up strife,
True to my friend, and to my wife;
The latter here by me I have,

We had one bed, and have one grave.
My honesty was such, that I

When death came, feared not to die.

On the other, underneath the figures of a man and his wife, who are both in a kneeling posture, is the following:

When Oxford gave thee two degrees in Art,

A love possessed thee, master of my heart.

Thy College Fellowship thou leftst for myne,

And nought but death could separate thee from thyne.
Thirty-five years we lived in wedlock's bands,

Conjoyned in our hearts as well as hands.

Death the bodies of best friends divides,

And in the earth's close womb their reliques hides;
Yet here they are not lost, but sowne, that they
May rise more glorious at the Judgment Day.

Near unto Bray there is a small island, known by the name of MONKEY ISLAND, said to have received such name from the circumstance of two small pavilions or summer houses which were

G

here erected being hung with tapestry, having the figures of divers monkeys worked thereon. This is a pretty spot, well adapted for the seclusion of those willing, for a few hours at least, to retire from the bustle of the world, and for which purpose the pavilions before-named seem to have been erected.

The Thames, which had flowed from Windsor to the above spot in a gentle bend, so continues until it reaches the town of

MAIDENHEAD, having passed several beautiful islets in its course, that being generally adorned with the richest foliage, add a charm and freshness to the scene, not more desired than agreeable. Within a short distance of Maidenhead is beheld a fine view of its bridge, which is of stone, and consists of thirteen arches. Its first bridge was of wood, and built in the year 1297. The pier of the large arch of the present structure divides the two counties of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. The ancient name of this town was Ealington or Elyngton. Stow says it took its present name from the circumstance of 11,000 virgins having here undergone martyrdom, with St. Usurla at their head; but Simondus, a very eminent Jesuit, tells a very different and much more probable story, and gives the following as a reasonable solution of its origin. He says "In some very ancient manuscript I fell in with the words Usurla and Undecemilla, which is the name of one virgin ;" and further, "that the

« ZurückWeiter »