This Height a ministering Angel might select: For from the summit of BLACK COMB (dread name Derived from clouds and storms!) the amplest range Of unobstructed prospect may be seen That British ground commands:--low dusky tracts, 5 Where Trent is nursed, far southward! Cambrian hills To the south-west, a multitudinous show; And, in a line of eye-sight linked with these, The hoary peaks of Scotland that give birth To Tiviot's stream, to Annan, Tweed, and Clyde:-- 10 Crowding the quarter whence the sun comes forth Gigantic mountains rough with crags; beneath, Right at the imperial station's western base Main ocean, breaking audibly, and stretched Far into silent regions blue and pale;-- 15 And visibly engirding Mona's Isle That, as we left the plain, before our sight Stood like a lofty mount, uplifting slowly (Above the convex of the watery globe) Into clear view the cultured fields that streak 20 Her[1] habitable shores, but now appears A dwindled object, and submits to lie At the spectator's feet.--Yon azure ridge, Is it a perishable cloud? Or there Do we behold the line[2] of Erin's coast?[A] 25 Land sometimes by the roving shepherd-swain (Like the bright confines of another world) Not doubtfully perceived.--Look homeward now! In depth, in height, in circuit, how serene The spectacle, how pure!--Of Nature's works, 30 In earth, and air, and earth-embracing sea, A revelation infinite it seems; Display august of man's inheritance, Of Britain's calm felicity and power![B] VARIANTS: [1] 1827. Its ... 1815. [2] 1832. ... the frame ... 1815. FOOTNOTES: [A] The Irish coast can be seen from Black Comb, but it is seldom visible till after sundown.--ED. [B] Compare, in _The Minstrels of Winandermere_, by Charles Farish, p. 33-- Close by the sea, lone sentinel, Black Comb his forward station keeps; He breaks the sea's tumultuous swell, And ponders o'er the level deeps. ED. WRITTEN WITH A SLATE PENCIL ON A STONE, ON THE SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN OF BLACK COMB Composed 1813.--Published 1815 [The circumstance, alluded to at the conclusion of these verses, was told me by Dr. Satterthwaite, who was Incumbent of Bootle, a small town at the foot of Black Comb. He had the particulars from one of the engineers who was employed in making trigonometrical surveys of that region.--I. F.] Included among the "Inscriptions."--ED.