While thus fhe spake, my looks exprefs'd
The raptures kindling in my breaft:
My foul a fix'd attention gave ;
When the ftern monarch of the grave
With haughty ftrides approach'd-amaz'd,
I ftood and trembled as I gaz'd.
The feraph calm'd each anxious fear,
And kindly wip'd the falling tear ;
Then haften'd with expanded wing
To meet the pale, terrifick king.
But now what milder fcenes arife!
The tyrant drops his hoftile guife:
He seems a youth divinely fair,
In graceful ringlets waves his hair;
His wings their whitening plumes display,
His burnish'd plumes reflect the day.
Light flows his fhining azure veft,
And all the angel ftands confefs'd.

I view'd the change with sweet furprize,

And, oh! I panted for the skies;

Thank'd Heav'n, that e'er I drew my breath,
And triumph'd in the thoughts of Death.

KENSINGTON GARDEN.

BY MR. TICKEL.

Campos, ubi Troja fuit.

VIRG.

HERE Kenfington, high o'er the neighb'ring lands,
Midft greens and fweets, a regal fabrick ftands,

And fees each spring, luxuriant in her bow'rs,
A fnow of bloffoms, and a wild of flow'rs,
The dames of Britain oft in crowds repair
To groves and lawns, and unpolluted air.

Here, while the town in damps and darkness lies,
They breathe in fun-fhine, and fee azure skies.
Each walk, with robes of various dyes befpread,
Seems from afar a moving tulip-bed,
Where rich brocades and gloffy damasks glow,
And chintz, the rival of the show'ry bow.

Here England's daughter, darling of the land,
Sometimes, furrounded with her virgin band,
Gleams through the fhades: fhe, tow'ring o'er the reft,
Stands fairest of the fairer kind confefs'd,

Form'd to gain hearts, that Brunswick's cause deny'd,
And charm a people to her father's fide.

Long have these groves to royal guests been known,
Nor Nassau first preferr'd them to a throne.

Ere Norman banners wav'd in British air;

i

Ere lordly Hubba, with the golden hair,

Pour'd in his Danes; ere elder Julius came;ð ha
Or Dardan Brutus gave our ille a name;

A prince of Albion's lineage grac'd the wood,

1

The scene of wars, and ftain'd with lovers blood.
You, who thro' gazing crowds, your captive throng,
Throw pangs and paffions as you move along,

Turn on the left, ye

fair, your radiant eyes, Where all unlevell'd the gay garden lies:

If gen'rous anguifh for another's pains,

Ere heav'd your hearts, or shiver'd through your veins,
Look down attentive on the pleafing dale,

And listen to my melancholy tale.

That hollow space, where now in living rows,
Line above line, the yew's fad verdure grows,
Was, ere the planter's hand it's beauty gave,"
A common pit, a rude unfafhion'd cave;
The landscape now fo fweet we well may praise,
But far, far fweeter, in it's ancient days;
Far fweeter was it, when it's peopled ground I
With fairy domes and dazzling tow'rs were crown'd.

Where

Where in the midst those verdant pillars spring,
Rofe the proud palace of the Elfin king;
For ev'ry hedge of vegetable green,

In happier years, a crouded street was feen;
Nor all thofe leaves, that now the profpect grace,
Could match the numbers of it's pigmy race.
What urg'd this mighty empire to it's fate,
A tale of woe and wonder, I relate,

When Albion rul'd the land, whofe lineage came
From Neptune mingling with a mortal dame,
Their midnight pranks the fprightly fairies play'd
On ev'ry hill, and danc'd in ev'ry shade.
But, foes to funthine, moft they took delight
In dells and dales, conceal'd from human fight:
There hew'd their houses in the arching rock;
Or fcoop'd the bofom of the blasted oak;
Or heard, o'erfhadow'd by some shelving hill,
The distant murmurs of the falling rill.
They, rich in pilfer'd spoils, indulg'd their mirth,
And pity'd the huge wretched fons of earth.
E'en now, 'tis faid, the hinds o'erhear their ftrain,
And strive to view their airy forms in vain
They to their cells at man's approach repair,
Like the shy leveret, or the mother hare,,
The whilft poor mortals startle at the found
Of unfeen footsteps on the haunted ground.
Amid this garden, then with woods o'ergrown,

Stood the lov'd feat of royal Oberon.
From ev'ry region, to his palace-gate

;

Came peers and princes of the fairy ftate,
Who, rank'd in council round the facred fhade,
Their monarch's will and great behefts obey'd.
From Thames fair banks, by lofty tow'rs adorn'd,
With loads of plunder oft his chiefs return'd:.....
Hence, in proud robes, and colours bright and gay,
Shone ev'ry knight and ev'ry lovely fay.

Whoe'er

Whoe'er, on Powell's dazzling stage difplay'd,
Hath fam'd king Pepin and his court furvey'd,
May guess, if old by modern things we trace,
The pomp and fplendor of the fairy race.

By magick fenc'd, by fpell encompass'd round,
No mortal touch'd this interdicted ground;
No mortal enter'd, thofe alone who came,
Stol'n from the couch of fome terrestrial dame:
For oft of babes they robb'd the matron's bed,
And left fome fickly changeling in their stead.

It chanc'd, a youth of Albion's royal blood
Was fofter'd here, the wonder of the wood;
Milkah, for wiles above her peers renown'd,
Deep skill'd in charms and many a mystick sound,
As through the regal dome she fought for prey,
Obferv'd the infant Albion, where he lay,
In mantles broider'd o'er with gorgeous pride,
And stole him from the fleeping mother's fide.

Who now but Milkah triumphs in her mind!
Ah, wretched nymph, to future evils blind!
The time shall come when thou fhalt dearly pay
The theft, hard-hearted! of that guilty day:
Thou, in thy turn, fhalt like the queen repine,
And all her forrows, doubled, shall be thine;
He who adorns thy houfe, the lovely boy
Who now adorns it, fhall at length destroy.

Two hundred moons in their pale course had feen
The gay-rob'd fairies glimmer on the green,
And Albion now had reach'd in youthful prime
To nineteen years, as mortals measure time.
Flush'd with refiftlefs charms, he fir'd to love
Each nymph and little Dryad of the grove;
For skilful Milkah fpar'd not to employ
Her utmost art to rear the princely boy.

Each fupple limb she swath'd, and tender bone,

And to the Elfin standard kept him down ;

She