Of stormy weather-stains that semblance wrought,
I thank the silent Monitor, and say

"Shine so, my aged brow, at all hours of the day!"

XXI.

TYNWALD HILL.

[Mr Robinson and I walked the greater part of the way from Castle-town to Piel, and stopped some time at Tynwald Hill. One of my companions was an elderly man who, in a muddy way (for he was tipsy), explained and answered, as far as he could, my enquiries about this place and the ceremonies held here. I found more agreeable company in some little children; one of whom, upon my request, recited the Lord's Prayer to me, and I helped her to a clearer understanding of it as well as I could; but I was not at all satisfied with my own part; hers was much better done, and I am persuaded that, like other children, she knew more about it than she was able to express, especially to a stranger.]

1

ONCE on the top of Tynwald's formal mound 1
(Still marked with green turf circles narrowing *

1835.

Once on the top of Tynwald Hill (a mound
Time was when on the top of yon small mound
(Still marked with circles duly narrowing

MS.

Each above each)

MS.

Would sit by solemn usage robed and crowned,
While compassing the grassy mount around,

MS.

Sate 'mid the assembled people robed and crowned, Ms.

only the tower, refectory, and dormitory. The tower is still yellowed with lichen stains. The following occurs in one of Mr H., C. Robinson's letters on the Italian Tour of 1837 :-"This reminds me that I was once privy to the conception of a Sonnet with a distinctness which did not once occur on the longer Italian journey. This was when I accompanied him into the Isle of Man. We had been drinking tea with Mr and Mrs Cookson, and left them when the weather was dull. Very soon after leaving them we passed the Church Tower of Bala-Sala. The upper part of the tower had a sort of frieze of yellow lichens. Mr W. pointed it out to me, and said, 'It's a perpetual sunshine.' I thought no more of it till I had read the beautiful sonnet,

'Broken in fortune, but in mind entire." "

- ED. * The ground at Tynwald Hill (as it is called) remains unchanged.

TYNWALD HILL.

Stage above stage) would sit this Island's King,
The laws to promulgate, enrobed and crowned;
While, compassing the little mount around,
Degrees and Orders stood, each under each:
Now, like to things within fate's easiest reach,1
The power is merged, the pomp a grave has found.
Off with yon cloud,2 old Snafell!* that thine eye
'Over three Realms may take its widest range;
And let, for them, thy fountains utter strange
Voices, thy winds break forth in prophecy,
If the whole State must suffer mortal change,
Like Mona's miniature of sovereignty.

357

Here, on a small plot of ground, the whole Manx people meet annually on Midsummer Day, July 5th, to appoint officers and enact new laws. The first historical notice of these meetings is in 1417. The name Tynwald is derived from the Scandinavian thing, "court of justice," and wald, "fenced." The mound is only 12 feet high, rising by four circular platforms, each 3 feet higher than the one below it. The circumference at the base is 240 feet, and at the top 18 feet. It used once to be walled round, and had two gates. The approach now is by twenty-one steps cut in the turf.-ED.

* The summit of this mountain is well chosen by Cowley as the scene of the "Vision" in which the spectral angel discourses with him concerning the government of Oliver Cromwell. "I found myself," says he, "on the top of that famous hill in the Island Mona, which has the prospect of three great, and not long since most happy, kingdoms. As soon as ever I looked upon them, they called forth the sad representation of all the sins and all the miseries that had overwhelmed them these twenty years." It is not to be denied that the changes now in progress, and the passions, and the way in which they work, strikingly resemble those which led to the disasters the philosophic writer so feelingly bewails. God grant that the resemblance may not become still more striking as months and years advance !-W. W., 1835.

The top of Snaefell (which Wordsworth names "Snafell "), the highest mountain in the Isle of Man, whence England, Scotland, and Ireland are to be seen, as mentioned in the Sonnet, is not visible from Tynwald Hill.-ED.

XXII.

DESPOND Who will-I heard a voice exclaim,

"Though fierce the assault, and shatter'd the defence,1
It cannot be that Britain's social frame,

The glorious work of time and providence,
Before a flying season's rash pretence,2

Should fall; that She, whose virtue put to shame,
When Europe prostrate lay, the Conqueror's aim,
Should perish, self-subverted. Black and dense
The cloud is; but brings that a day of doom
To Liberty? Her sun is up the while,3

That orb whose beams round Saxon Alfred shone:

Then laugh, ye innocent Vales! ye Streams, sweep on,
Nor let one billow of our heaven-blest Isle 1

Toss in the fanning wind a humbler plume."

XXIII.

IN THE FRITH OF CLYDE, AILSA CRAG.

DURING AN ECLIPSE OF THE SUN, JULY 17.

[The morning of the eclipse was exquisitely beautiful while we passed the Crag as described in the Sonnet. On the deck of the steam-boat were several persons of the poor and labouring class, and I could not but be struck by their cheerful talk with each other, while

Clear voices from pure worlds of hope exclaim

Tho' fierce the assault, and shattered the defence. MS.

Before a season's calculating sense,

MS.

2

IN THE FIRTH OF CLYDE, AILSA CRAG.

359

not one of them seemed to notice the magnificent objects with which we were surrounded; and even the phenomenon of the eclipse attracted but little of their attention. Was it right not to regret this? They appeared to me, however, so much alive in their own minds to their own concerns that I could not look upon it as a misfortune that they had little perception for such pleasures as cannot be cultivated without ease and leisure. Yet, if one surveys life in all its duties and relations, such ease and leisure will not be found so enviable a privilege as it may at first appear. Natural Philosophy, Painting, and Poetry, and refined taste are no doubt great acquisitions to society; but among those who dedicate themselves to such pursuits, it is to be feared that few are as happy, and as consistent in the management of their lives, as the class of persons who at that time led me into this course of reflection. I do not mean by this to be understood to derogate from intellectual pursuits, for that would be monstrous: I say it in deep gratitude for this compensation to those whose cares are limited to the necessities of daily life. Among them, self-tormentors, so numerous in the higher classes of society, are rare.]

SINCE risen from ocean, ocean to defy,

Appeared the Crag of Ailsa, ne'er did morn
With gleaming lights more gracefully adorn

His sides, or wreathe with mist his forehead high:
Now, faintly darkening with the sun's eclipse,*
Still is he seen, in lone sublimity,

Towering above the sea and little ships;

For dwarfs the tallest seem while sailing by,
Each for her haven; with her freight of Care,

Pleasure, or Grief, and Toil that seldom looks
Into the secret of to-morrow's fare;

Though poor, yet rich, without the wealth of books

Or aught that watchful Love to Nature owes

For her mute Powers, fix'd Forms, or1 transient Shows.

Compare The Eclipse of the Sun, 1820, in the "Memorials of a Tour on the Continent, 1820" (Vol. VI., p. 253).-Ed.

XXIV.

ON THE FRITH OF CLYDE.

(IN A STEAM-BOAT.)

[The mountain outline on the north of this island, as seen from the Frith of Clyde,* is much the finest I have ever noticed in Scotland or elsewhere.]

ARRAN! a single-crested Teneriffe,

A St Helena next-in shape and hue,

Varying her crowded peaks and ridges blue;
Who but must covet a cloud-seat, or skiff
Built for the air, or wingèd Hippogriff?
That he might fly, where no one could pursue,
From this dull Monster and her sooty crew;
And, as1 a God, light on thy topmost cliff.
Impotent wish! which reason would despise
If the mind knew no union of extremes,

No natural bond between the boldest schemes
Ambition frames, and heart-humilities.†
Beneath stern mountains many a soft vale lies,
And lofty springs give birth to lowly streams.

* Doubtless he refers to the view of Goatfell and Kaim-na-Callaich,

with Loch Ranza in front.-ED.

+ Compare The Triad, p. 284

"High is her aim as heaven above,

And wide as ether her good will;

And, like the lowly reed, her love

Can drink its nurture from the scantiest rill."

-ED.