8
WINDSOR-FOREST.
Rich Industry sits smiling on the plains,
And Peace and Plenty tell, a Stuart reigns.
Not thus the Land appear'd in ages past,
A dreary desert and a gloomy waste,
To savage beasts and [1]savage laws a prey,
And Kings more furious and severe than they;
Who claim'd the Skies, dispeopled air and floods
The lonely Lords of empty wilds and woods.
Cities laid waste, they storm'd the dens and caves,
(For wiser Brutes were backward to be slaves.)
What could be free, when lawless beasts obey'd
And ev'n the Elements a Tyrant sway'd?
In vain kind seasons swell'd the teeming grain,
Soft show'rs distill'd, and Suns grew warm in vain;
And Peace and Plenty tell, a Stuart reigns.
Not thus the Land appear'd in ages past,
A dreary desert and a gloomy waste,
To savage beasts and [1]savage laws a prey,
And Kings more furious and severe than they;
Who claim'd the Skies, dispeopled air and floods
The lonely Lords of empty wilds and woods.
Cities laid waste, they storm'd the dens and caves,
(For wiser Brutes were backward to be slaves.)
What could be free, when lawless beasts obey'd
And ev'n the Elements a Tyrant sway'd?
In vain kind seasons swell'd the teeming grain,
Soft show'rs distill'd, and Suns grew warm in vain;
- ↑ The Forest Laws.
The
