How beautiful! how blue th' ethereal vault,
How verdurous the lawns, how clear the brooks!
Such noble warlike steeds, fuch herds of kine,
So fleek, fo vaft; fuch spacious flocks of sheep,
Like flakes of gold illumining the green,
What other paradise adorn but thine,

Britannia? happy, if thy fons would know
Their happiness. To thefe thy naval streams,
Thy frequent towns fuperb of busy trade,
And ports magnific add, and ftately ships,
Innumerous. But whither strays my Muse?
Pleas'd, like a traveller upon the strand

Arriv'd of bright Augusta : wild he roves,

From deck to deck, through groves immense of masts;
'Mong crouds, bales, cars, the wealth of either Ind;
Through wharfs, and squares, and palaces, and domes,
In fweet furprize; unable yet to fix

His raptur'd mind, or fcan in order'd course
Each object fingly; with difcoveries new
His native country ftudious to enrich.

Ye fhepherds, if your labours hope fuccefs,

Be firft your purpose to procure a breed,
To foil and clime adapted. Every foil

And clime, ev'n every tree and herb, receives
Its habitant peculiar : each to each,

The Great Invisible, and each to all,.

Through earth, and fea, and air, harmonious fuits. Tempeftuous regions, Darwent's naked peaks,

*

Snowden

* Darwent's naked peaks, the peaks of Derbyshire.

Snowden and blue Plynlymmon

*

Aërial fides of Cader-yddris huge;

and the wide

These are bestow'd on goat-horn'd sheep, of fleece
Hairy and coarfe, of long and nimble shank,
Who rove o'er bog or heath, and graze or brouze
Alternate, to collect, with due dispatch,
O'er the bleak wild, the thinly-fcatter'd meal.
But hills of milder air, that gently rife
O'er dewy dales, a fairer fpecies boast,
Of fhorter limb, and frontlet more ornate;
Such the Silurian. If thy farm extends
Near Cotswold downs, or the delicious groves
Of Symmonds, honour'd through the fandy foil
Of elmy Rofs †, or Devon's myrtle vales,
That drink clear rivers near the glaffy fea;
Regard this fort, and hence thy fire of lambs
Select his tawny fleece in ringlets curls ;
Long fwings his flender tail; his front is fenc'd
With horns Ammonian, circulating twice
Around each open ear, like those fair scrolls
That grace the columns of th' Iönic dome.
Yet fhould thy fertile glebe be marly clay,
Like Melton paftures, or Tripontian fields †,
Where ever-gliding Avon's limpid wave
Thwarts the long courfe of dufty Watling-street;

Snowdon, Plynlymmon, and Cader-yddris, high

hills in North Wales.

A town in Herefordshire.

I Tripontian fields, the country between Rugby, in Warwickihire, and Lutterworth, in Leicestershire.

That larger fort, of head defenceless, feek,

Whofe fleece is deep and clammy, close and plain :
The ram fhort-limb'd, whose form compact describes
One level line along his spacious back;

Of full and ruddy eye, large ears, ftretch'd head,
Noftrils dilated, breaft and fhoulders broad,
And spacious haunches, and a lofty dock.

Thus to their kindred foil and air induc'd,
Thy thriving herd will bless thy skilful care,
That copies Nature; who, in every change,
In each variety, with Wifdom works,
And powers diversify'd of air and foil,
Her rich materials. Hence Sabæa's rocks,
Chaldæa's marl, Ægyptus' water'd loam,
And dry Cyrene's fand, in climes alike,
With different stores fupply the marts of trade.
Hence Zembla's icy tracts no bleaters hear;
Small are the Ruffian herds, and harsh their fleece
Of light efteem Germanic, far remote

From föft fea-breezes, open winters mild,
And fummers bath'd in dew: on Syrian fheep
The coftly burden only loads their tails:
No locks Cormandel's, none Malacca's tribe
Adorn; but fleek of flix, and brown like deer,
Fearful and shepherdlefs, they bound along
The fands. No fleeces wave in torrid climes,
Which verdure boaft of trees and fhrubs alone,
Shrubs aromatic, caufee wild, or thea,

Nutmeg, or cinnamon, or fiery clove,
Unapt to feed the fleece. The food of wool

Is grafs or herbage foft, that ever blooms
In temperate air, in the delicious downs
Of Albion, on the banks of all her streams.

of graffes are unnumber'd kinds, and all (Save where foul waters linger on the turf) Salubrious. Early mark, when tepid gleams Oft mingle with the pearls of summer showers, And fwell too haftily the tender plains: Then snatch away thy fheep; beware the rot; And with detersive bay-salt rub their mouths ; › Or urge them on a barren bank to feed, In Hunger's kind distress, on tedded hay; Or to the marith guide their easy steps, If near thy tufted crofts the broad sea spreads. Sagacious care foreacts: when strong disease Breaks in, and stains the purple streams of health, Hard is the ftrife of art: the coughing peft From their green pasture sweeps whole flocks away.. That dire diftemper fometimes may the fwain, Though late, discern; when on the lifted lid,. Or visual orb, the turgid veins are pale; The fwelling liver then her putrid store Begins to drink: ev'n yet thy fkill exert, Nor fuffer weak despair to fold thy armsAgain deterfive falt apply, or shed The hoary medicine o'er their arid food.

In cold stiff foils the bleaters oft complain Of gouty ails, by fhepherds term'd the halt : Those let the neighbouring fold or ready crook Detain; and pour into their cloven feet

Corrofive drugs, deep-fearching arfenic,
Dry alum, verdigrise, or vitriol keen.
But if the doubtful mischief scarce appears,
"Twill ferve to shift them to a dryer turf,
And falt again: th' utility of falt

Teach thy flow fwains: redundant humours cold
Are the diseases of the bleating kind.

Th' infectious fcab, arifing from extremes

Of want or surfeit, is by water cur'd
Of lime, or fodden ftave-acre, or oil
Difperfive of Norwegian tar, renown'd
By virtuous Berkeley, whose benevolence
Explor'd its powers, and eafy medicine thence
Sought for the poor: ye poor, with grateful voice,
Invoke eternal bleffings on his head.

Sheep alfo pleurifies and dropfies know,

Driv'n oft from Nature's path by artful man,
Who blindly turns afide, with haughty hand,
Whom facred Inftinét would fecurely lead.
But thou, more humble fwain, thy rural gates.
Frequent unbar, and let thy flocks abroad,
From lea to croft, from mead to arid field;
Noting the fickle seasons of the sky.
Rain-fated paftures let them fhun, and feek
Changes of herbage and falubrious flowers.
By their All-perfect Mafter inly taught,
They beft their food and phyfic can difcern
For He, Supreme Existence, ever near,
Informs them. O'er the vivid green obferve
With what a regular confent they crop,

At