school: his poems are little known, but they contain passages of
splendid description; and the versification of his 'Vision of Alfred' is
harmonious and animated. In describing the motions of the Sylphs, that
constitute the strange machinery of his Poem, he uses the following
illustrative simile:

--'Glancing from their plumes
A changeful light the azure vault illumes.
Less varying hues beneath the Pole adorn
The streamy glories of the Boreal morn,
That wavering to and fro their radiance shed
On Bothnia's gulf with glassy ice o'erspread,
Where the lone native, as he homeward glides,
On polished sandals o'er the imprisoned tides,
And still the balance of his frame preserves,
Wheeled on alternate foot in lengthening curves,
Sees at a glance, above him and below,
Two rival heavens with equal splendour glow.
Sphered in the centre of the world he seems;
For all around with soft effulgence gleams;
Stars, moons, and meteors, ray opposed to ray,
And solemn midnight pours the blaze of day.'

He was a man of ardent feeling, and his faculties of mind, particularly
his memory, were extraordinary. Brief notices of his life ought to find
a place in the History of Westmoreland.

321. '_Return' and 'Seathwaite Chapel_.' [Sonnets XVII. and XVIII.]

The EAGLE requires a large domain for its support: but several pairs,
not many years ago, were constantly resident in this country, building
their nests in the steeps of Borrowdale, Wastdale, Ennerdale, and on the
eastern side of Helvellyn. Often have I heard anglers speak of the
grandeur of their appearance, as they hovered over Red Tarn, in one of
the coves of this mountain. The bird frequently returns, but is always
destroyed. Not long since, one visited Rydal lake, and remained some
hours near its banks: the consternation which it occasioned among the
different species of fowl, particularly the herons, was expressed by
loud screams. The horse also is naturally afraid of the eagle.--There
were several Roman stations among these mountains; the most considerable
seems to have been in a meadow at the head of Windermere, established,
undoubtedly, as a check over the Passes of Kirkstone, Dunmailraise, and
of Hardknot and Wrynose. On the margin of Rydal lake, a coin of Trajan
was discovered very lately.--The ROMAN FORT here alluded to, called by
the country people '_Hardknot Castle_,' is most impressively situated
half-w