course of his shepherd life, he had acquired great astronomical
knowledge. I cannot conclude this note without adding a word upon
the subject of those numerous and noble feudal Edifices, spoken of
in the Poem, the ruins of some of which are, at this day, so great an
ornament to that interesting country. The Cliffords had always been
distinguished for an honorable pride in these Castles; and we have
seen that after the wars of York and Lancaster they were rebuilt; in
the civil Wars of Charles the First, they were again laid waste, and
again restored almost to their former magnificence by the celebrated
Lady Anne Clifford, Countess of Pembroke, &c. &c. Not more than 25
years after this was done, when the Estates of Clifford had passed
into the family of Tufton, three of these Castles, namely Brough,
Brougham, and Pendragon, were demolished, and the timber and other
materials sold by Thomas Earl of Thanet. We will hope that, when
this order was issued, the Earl had not consulted the text of Isaiah,
58th Chap. 12th Verse, to which the inscription placed over the
gate of Pendragon Castle, by the Countess of Pembroke (I believe his
Grandmother) at the time she repaired that structure, refers the
reader. "_And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste
places; thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations, and
thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach_, _the restorer of
paths to dwell in_." The Earl of Thanet, the present possessor of
the Estates, with a due respect for the memory of his ancestors, and
a proper sense of the value and beauty of these remains of antiquity,
has (I am told) given orders that they shall be preserved from all
depredations.
NOTE VI.
PAGE 130 (304); line 2.--"Earth helped him with the cry of blood."
This line is from The Battle of Bosworth Field by Sir John Beaumont
(Brother to the Dramatist), whose poems are written with so much
spirit, elegance, and harmony, that it is supposed, as the Book is
very scarce, a new edition of it would be acceptable to Scholars and
Men of taste, and, accordingly, it is in contemplation to give one.
NOTE VII.
PAGE 135 (309); line 15.--
"And both the undying Fish that swim
Through Bowscale-Tarn," &c.
It is imagined by the people of the Country that there are two
immortal Fish, Inhabitants of this Tarn, which lies in the mountains
not far from Threlkeld.--Blencathara, mentioned before, is the old
and proper name of the mountain vulgarly called Saddle-back.
NOTE VIII.
PAGE 136 (310); lines 17 and 18.--
"Armour rusting in his Halls
On the blood of Clifford calls."
The martial character of the Cliffords is well known to the readers
of English History; but it may not be improper here to say, by way of
comment on these lines and what follows, that, besides several
others who perished in the same manner, the four immediate
Progenitors of the person in whose hearing this is supposed to be
spoken, all died in the Field.
NOTE IX.
PAGE 140 (314).--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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