KATHERINE-HILL, NEAR WINCHESTER'.
A COLLEGE EXERCISE, IN 1729.
SHALL no sublimer muse thy mountain grace,
O Kath'rine, thou delight of Wickham's race?
Shall no young bard once try to speak thy praise,
And sing of thee, on which so oft he plays'?
Justly does this low verse to thee belong,
Pleasure the theme, variety the song.
What, though no fame attend the short-lived lay,
'Tis all a grateful feeble muse can pay.
O, could with thee my rival fancy vie,
As sweet, as awful, as secure, as high!
Could I, like thee, so regularly climb,
Pleasant, though steep, and sportful, though sublime;
Then Cooper's hill to thee should yield in fame,
Nor my muse shrink at Denham's awful name;
Whose lofty song excels my lowly strains,
As thy tall head towers o'er the neighb'ring plains.
When to thy pleasures joyful I repair,
To draw in health, and breathe a purer air,
What various prospects my glad eyes invite!
What various objects crowd upon the sight!
Here the gay youth through all thy beauties strays,
Treads thy delightful walks, and winds thy wond'rous
Where the wild path one little plain commands,
And a small spot contains a length of lands.
See, how they labour in the folded race,
And measure all the comprehensive space;
1 The Rev. Thomas Warton was the author of "Mons Catherinæ, prope Wintoniam, poema Hexametrum," published in 1760.-E.
2 On Katherine-hill the school-boys have leave to play every holiday.
3 This remarkable feature has been recently restored, at the suggestion of the present Warden of Winchester College.-E.
Through all the regular confusion run,
And seem to end where they the course begun :
Close joined the barriers and the goal appear,
(Delusive sight!) how distant, and how near!
But what vast rising bulwark's' mighty row,
War's dire remains, frowns horrid on thy brow?
Here deep and wide down sinks a trench profound,
There huge and high upheaved, a towering mound
Swells formidable; and begirts thy crown
With dreadful pomp, and terrors not thine own.
In thee extremes so wonderful unite,
That every view gives horror and delight;
There the propitious smiles of peace appear,
War, and the footsteps of destruction, here.
So far thy head o'erlooks the spacious plain,
The city's crowd, the traffic of the main,
Fields, woods, and countries, that we seem to see,
All the vast world's epitome in thee.
So, on Achilles' target's various round,
Nature in miniature the surface crowned;
The sculptured labours of the God express,
Plains, shepherds, flocks, joy, sadness, war, and peace;
Earth, sea, and heaven, the hero's shoulders wield,
And bear the mimic world upon his shield.
Deep in the vale, along the mountain's side,
The peaceful Itchen's gentle waters glide;
Thrice happy stream! which visits Hampton's towers,
And makes the main's translated traffic ours.
Exhausting all his wealth, the grateful flood
Pours all his waters for his country's good;
His waves around prolific moisture bring,
Brood on the ground, and hatch eternal spring.
He, bounteous as the Nile, his blessings sends;
But these no monster, as the Nile, attends:
His genial stream the gifts of heaven supplies,
For us his waters fall, for us they rise.
1 The remains of a Roman encampment.
O, may I, sacred flood, thy motions know!
Teach me like thee to ebb, like thee to flow!
Then might I safe pursue the noble theme,
Nor basely mud thy unpolluted stream.
But see, her head unhappy Winton rears,
Torn with war's havoc and the length of years!
Yet once, O Kath'rine, did thy city spread
Round thee her walls, and round the world her dread.
But now war's tempest has erased her fame,
Perhaps from thee the fatal tempest came.
Then too her sacred rites she saw profaned,
When Charles was exiled, and the Tyrant reigned;
Her plundered shrine the common fate partake,
And fall for Charles's and religion's sake.
In ruin then had Wickham's house been spread,
(Fate hover'd o'er her undeserving head,)
But her false son relenting saved her wall,
When Winton's stately towers were doomed to fall.
He that so many oaths had broke before,
For one oath's sake this horrid crime forbore 1.
Yet this, O Winton, did thy woes increase,
That war and plunder wore religion's face.
By this the Tyrant added to thy woe,
He seemed to shield thee when he gave the blow.
Thus while the shower, on wings sonorous borne,
Bursts with destruction on the falling corn;
Oft through the clouds shines forth some feeble ray,
And to the ruin gives a glimpse of day ;
Their blessing and their curse the heavens employ,
Lowering and bright, they smile and they destroy.
See, there ascends the hapless orphan dome',
Old in her youth, and withering in her bloom:
1 When Winchester was attacked in Oliver's days, one that had been of the school, and had taken an oath never to see the College injured, was an officer in the army, and hindered that from being demolished, though he suffered every other part of the town to be ransacked and plundered.
2 The Royal Palace commenced in 1683 for King Charles II. by Sir Christopher Wren, but never completed, and now used for barracks.
At grateful Charles's will, this blessing rose,
To balance all a plundered city's woes.
But, ah! when most she thought her hopes secure,
Charles fell, nor left her infant walls mature;
That cloud did all our dawn of day dispel,
In him that pile, in him this city, fell.
Much for her living sov'reign's love she bore,
But by her sov'reign's death she suffered more.
Oh, how might Winton in her glory pride,
If Charles had never lived, or never died!
Oh, may that pile enjoy a better fate,
And what great Charles began, may George complete!
May George on her his wonted bounty pour,
Her plundered marble' may his hands restore!
Then shall this city's wealth once more increase,
And her towers, Kath'rine, touch thy mighty base.
Thy various pleasures gen'ral praise shall gain,
Some bard shall grace thee with a nobler strain.
Windsor and Cooper's Hill shall then agree,
Both pleased to yield to Winchester and thee.
EPITHALAMIA OXONIENSIA IN GULIELMI CAROLI HENRICI
ARAUSIONENSIS, ANNÆQUE BRITANNICE NUPTIAS.
DILECTAM Veneri purpureus facem
Optatus thalamis Hesperus extulit:
Prodit Virgo; decoro
Prodit pulchrior Hespero:
1 Some curious marble pillars have been conveyed away from the
Equalis comitum subsequitur cohors:
Læto sponsus adest cum juvenum choro :
Lætis ritè puellæ
Respondent juvenum modis.
Juv. Quid, virgo, metuis? cur cupidum tui,
Dejectas lachrymis sparsa genas, times?
Vanos mitte timores,
Splendentesque oculos leva.
Puel. Quid tantum properas1? num tibi languido Subrepit subitus, sponse, sopor? Torus Maturatur; ocellos
Paulum somno hebetes leva.
Juv. Felix conjugio, virgo! Tuum in sinum
Mollem Nassovium illustre genus venit;
Quo non clarius ullum
Nomen fama canit vetus.
Puel. Felix conjugio, sponse! Ita me malè
Di perdant, Veneri si quid adhuc tuæ
Par, aut manè resurgens
Sol, aut viderit occidens.
Juv. Nassovum patriorum æquat honoribus
Heroum Auriasi plurima sanguinis
Virtus, atque tuendæ
Libertatis amor ferox.
Puel. Major foeminea laude amat arduas
Explorare vias Anna scientiæ,
Efformata capacem
Maternis animum artibus.
Juv. At nunc vos alio mollis amor vocat;
Faustis ite avibus: mox date mutui
Charum pignus amoris,
Spem magnæ puerum domus.
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