THE HERMIT of WARK WORTH. A Northumberland BALLA D. FIT THE SECOND. fmil'd the morn, And every ftorm was fled But lovelier far, with fweeter fmile, Fair ELEANOR left her bed. She found her HENRY all alone, What fweet furprize o'erpower'd her breast? When fondly he befought her there Within this lonely Hermitage There is a chapel meet: Then grant, dear maid, my fond requests And make my blifs compleat. O HENRY, when thou deign't to fue, When thou, lov'd youth, haft won my heart, For thee I left a father's fmiles, And wilt thou then, O generous maid, Such matchlefs favour show, To fhare with me a banish'd wight Now heaven, I trust, hath joys in store For, know, fond hope affures my heart Not far from hence ftands Coquet Isle. There dwells a holy friar, well-known 'Tis father Bernard, fo revered To fetch this good and holy man Wi' join us both in one: ar * In the l'ttle inland of Coquet, near Warkworth, n the mins of a Cell, which belonged to the Benedictine monks of Tinemouth-Abbey. Thus they in sweet and tender talk With pious joy and wonder mix'd, Then ftrait to RABY's diftant walls And now, attended by their host, And near a flight of shapely steps, And piercing thro' a ftony Arch, Ran winding up the hill. There deck'd with many a flower and herb His little Garden ftands; With fruitful trees in fhady rows, All planted by his hands. Then, fcoop'd within the folid rock, Each proper ornament was there, O'er either door a facred Text And in a little fcutcheon hung Up to the Altar's ample breadth And near a glimmering folemn light Befide the altar rofe a Tomb A kneeling Angel fairly carv'd Lean'd hovering o'er her breaft; A weeping warrior at her feet; And near to thefe her Crest.* The cliff, the vault, but chief the tomb, The Hermit figh'd, the Hermit wept, Alas! my children, human life And very mournful is the tale, * This is a Bull's Head, the creft of the Widdrington family. the Figures, &c. here defcribed, are ftill visible; only fomewhat effaced with length of time. 1' HE HERMIT's TAL E. Young lord, thy grandfire had a friend Yon diftant hills were his domains; Where'er the noble PERCY fought Young Bertram lov'd a beauteous maid, Fair WIDDRINGTON the maiden's name, * Yon towers her dwelling place? Her fire an old Northumbrian chief, Devoted to thy race. Many a lord, and many a knight Lord PERCY pleaded for his friend, But the with ftudied fond delays And loves to try his conftancy, And prove her maiden power. *Widdrington Caftle, is about five miles fouth of Warkworth. |