She tells of time mispent, of comfort lost,
Of fair occasions gone for ever by;
Of hopes too fondly nurs'd, too rudely cross'd,
Of many a cause to wish, yet fear to die;
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.