For what, except th' instinctive fear
Lest she survive, detains me here,
When "all the life of life" is fled?--
What, but the deep inherent dread,
Lest she beyond the grave resume her reign,
And realize the hell that priests and beldams feign?

NOTE a.

_Hast thou thru Eden's wild-wood vales pursued_

On the road-side between Penrith and Appelby there stands a small
pillar with this inscription:

"This pillar was erected in the year 1656, by Ann Countess Dowager of
Pembroke, &c. for a memorial of her last parting, in this place, with
her good and pious mother, Margaret, Countess Dowager of Cumberland,
on the 2nd of April, 1616; in memory whereof she hath left an annuity
of 4_l_. to be distributed to the poor of the parish of Brougham,
every 2nd day of April for ever, upon the stone-table placed hard by.
Laus Deo!"

The Eden is the principal river of Cumberland, and rises in the
wildest part of Westmoreland.

NOTE b.

_O'er his dead son the gallant ORMOND sigh'd_.
Ormond bore the loss with patience and dignity: though he ever
retained a pleasing, however melancholy, sense of the signal merit of
Ossory. "I would not exchange my dead son," said he, "for any living
son in Christendom." HUME, vi. 340. The same sentiment is inscribed
on Miss Dolman's urn at the Leasowes.

Heu, quanto minus est cum reliquis versari, quam tui meminisse!

NOTE c.

_High on exulting wing the heath-cock rose_.

This bird is remarkable for his exultation during the spring.
Brit, Zoology, 266.

NOTE d.

_Derwent's clear mirror_

Keswick Lake in Cumberland.

NOTE e.

_Down by St Herbert's consecrated grove_.

A small island covered with trees, among which were formerly the
ruins of a religious house.

NOTE f.

_When lo! a sudden blast the vessel blew_.

In a lake surrounded with mountains, the agitations are often violent
and momentary. The winds blow in gusts and eddies; and the water no
sooner swells, than it subsides.
See BOURN'S Hist, of Westmorland.

NOTE g.

_To what pure beings, in a nobler sphere_,

The several degrees of angels may probably have larger views, and
some of them he endowed with capacities able to retain together, and
constantly set before them, as in one picture, all their past
knowledge at once.
LOCKE on Human Understanding, b. ii, c. x. g.

AN EPISTLE TO A FRIEND.

Villula,..........et pauper agelle,
Me tibi, et hos una mecum, et quos semper