cheek.?
8. Every cottage in this country has its orchard; mavera Candida e vermiglia,' is every where so and I imagine that not even those of Herefordshire, enchanting [Smith's note, quoting Petrarch's son- or Worcestershire, exhibit a more beautiful pros-net 310, 'pure and ruddy spring']. pect, when the trees are in bloom, and the 'Pri
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56 / CHARLOTTE SMITH
340 With fond regret I recollect e'en now In Spring and Summer, what delight I felt Among these cottage gardens, and how much Such artless nosegays, knotted with a rush By village housewife or her ruddy maid,
345 Were welcome to me; soon and simply pleas'd.
An early worshipper at Nature's shrine, I loved her rudest scenes?warrens,0 and heaths, land for breeding And yellow commons, and birch-shaded hollows, And hedge rows, bordering unfrequented lanes
350 Bowered with wild roses, and the clasping woodbine Where purple tassels of the tangling vetch9 With bittersweet, and bryony inweave,1 And the dew fills the silver bindweed's2 cups.? I loved to trace the brooks whose humid banks
355 Nourish the harebell, and the freckled pagil;3 And stroll among o'ershadowing woods of beech, Lending in Summer, from the heats of noon A whispering shade; while haply there reclines Some pensive lover of uncultur'd flowers,0 wildflowers
360 Who, from the tumps0 with bright green mosses clad, hillocks, mounds Plucks the wood sorrel,4 with its light thin leaves, Heart-shaped, and triply folded; and its root Creeping like beaded coral; or who there Gathers, the copse's pride, anemones,5
365 With rays like golden studs on ivory laid Most delicate: but touch'd with purple clouds, Fit crown for April's fair but changeful brow.
Ah! hills so early loved! in fancy still I breathe your pure keen air; and still behold
370 Those widely spreading views, mocking alike The Poet and the Painter's utmost art. And still, observing objects more minute, Wondering remark the strange and foreign forms Of sea-shells; with the pale calcareous0 soil chalky
375 Mingled, and seeming of resembling substance.6 Tho' surely the blue Ocean (from the heights Where the downs westward trend, but dimly seen) Here never roll'd its surge. Does Nature then
9. Vetch. Vicia syivatica [Smith's note], 1. Bittersweet. Solatium dulcamara. Bryony. Bryonia alba [Smith's note]. 2. Bindweed. Convolvulus senium [Smith's note]. 3. Harebell. Hyacinthus non scriptus. Pagil. Primula veris [Smith's note]. 4. Sorrel. Oxalis acetosella [Smith's note]. 5. Anemones. Anemone tiemorosa. It appears to be settled on late and excellent authorities, that this word should not be accented on the second syllable, but on the penultima. I have however ventured the more known accentuation, as more generally used, and suiting better the nature of my verse [Smith's note]. 6. Among the crumbling chalk I have often found shells, some quite in a fossil state and hardly distinguishable from chalk. Others appeared more recent; cockles, muscles, and periwinkles, I well remember, were among the number; and some whose names I do not know. A great number were like those of small land snails. It is now many years since I made these observations. The appearance of sea-shells so far from the sea excited my surprise, though I then knew nothing of natural history. I have never read any of the late theories of the earth, nor was I ever satisfied with the attempts to explain many of the phenomena which call forth conjecture in those books I happened to have had access to on this subject [Smith's note].
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BEACHY HEAD / 57
Mimic, in wanton mood, fantastic shapes
380 Of bivalves, and inwreathed volutes,7 that cling To the dark sea-rock of the wat'ry world? Or did this range of chalky mountains, once8 Form a vast basin, where the Ocean waves Swell'd fathomless? What time these fossil shells,
385 Buoy'd on their native element, were thrown Among the imbedding calx:? when the huge hill lime Its giant bulk heaved, and in strange ferment Grew up a guardian barrier, 'twixt the sea And the green level of the sylvan weald.9
390 Ah! very vain is Science' proudest boast, And but a little light its flame yet lends To its most ardent votaries; since from whence These fossil forms are seen, is but conjecture, Food for vague theories, or vain dispute,
395 While to his daily task the peasant goes, Unheeding such inquiry; with no care But that the kindly change of sun and shower, Fit for his toil the earth he cultivates. As little recks the herdsman of the hill,
400 Who on some turfy knoll, idly reclined, Watches his wether0 flock, that deep beneath male sheep Rest the remains of men, of whom is left1 No traces in the records of mankind, Save what these half obliterated mounds
405 And half fill'd trenches doubtfully impart To some lone antiquary; who on times remote, Since which two thousand years have roll'd away, Loves to contemplate. He perhaps may trace, Or fancy he can trace, the oblong square
410 Where the mail'd legions, under Claudius,2 rear'd The rampire,0 or excavated fosse0 delved; rampart / ditch What time the huge unwieldy Elephant3
7. Spiral-shelled mollusks such as periwinkles. 'Bivalves': hinge-shelled mollusks such as clams and oysters. 8. The theory here slightly hinted at, is taken from an idea started by Mr. White [Smith's note, referring to Gilbert White, author of The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, 1789]. 9. The Sussex Weald, a wooded tract of land between the North and South Downs. 1. These Downs are not only marked with traces of encampments, which from their forms are called Roman or Danish; but there are numerous tumuli [burial mounds] among them. Some of which having been opened a few years ago, were supposed by a learned antiquary to contain the remains of the original natives of the country [Smith's note]. 2. That the legions of Claudius [ 10 b.c.e-54 c.e.] were in this part of Britain appears certain. Since this emperor received the submission of Cantii, Atrebates, Irenobates, and Regni, in which latter denomination were included the people of Sussex [Smith's note]. 3. In the year 1740, some workmen digging in the park at Burton in Sussex, discovered, nine feet below the surface, the teeth and bones of an elephant; two of the former were seven feet eight inches in length. There were besides these, tusks, one of which broke in removing it, a grinder not at all decayed, and a part of the jaw-bone,. with bones of the knee and thigh, and several
