button to main menu  Gents Mag 1792 p.942
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Gentleman's Magazine 1792 p.942

The choice was past - yet through the toil
The eye was pleasur'd all the while,
And cover'd many a sigh.

Ye Naiads of the brooks so gay,
That on the crystal surface play
Invisible to all;
When you retire beneath the Deep,
May you in peaceful caverns sleep,
Lull'd by the cataract's fall!

Or of on airy wing you fly,
Attend the cleaving, tirsty sigh,
To mountains bend your way;
Exert your powers, and from below
Enforce some hidden fount to flow
T' assuage the heat of day.

Helveylin's height at last we gain'd,
And, panting for relief, remain'd
To mark th' extension round;
Then down with lighter pace we bent;
A spring! - the clearest Heav'n e'er sent -
I kiss'd the moisten'd ground.

Eager I drew the cooling stream,
And all fatigue was gone - a dream!
Helveylin's praise to sing:
Thy carpet was the liveliest green,
Thy steep the swiftest* I have seen,
All owing to thy spring.

They prospects are beyond compare;
Mountains, and dales, and lakes, appear,
And Ocean bounds the whole;
They bubbling was the sweetest sound
That ever tinkled o'er the ground
To lull the enraptur'd soul.

Nearest to Heav'n† - unrival'd flow;
May torrents ne'er deface thy brow,
No season dry thy course!
May all thy sheep untroubled live,
And man the limpid draught receive
At thy enliv'ning source!
Then shall bold man Helveylin's views make known;
Refresh'd by thee - on Skiddow's‡ height look down.
A RAMBLER.
* Mountain sheep are peculiarly swift. Ed.
† I believe the highest spring in England.
‡ Called, "lofty Skiddow;" and by some (perhaps those who are proud of having visited it) wrongly imagined as high as Helveylin.
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