WILLIAM BROOME, LL.D. Chaplain to the Right Honourable CHARLES

Lord CORNWALLIS, Baron of Eye.

Nos otia vitæ « Solamur Cantu.”

STAT.

WITH

ADDITIONS and ALTERATIONS, Made by the Author in 1743, but not copied

in the Edition of 1750.

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To the Right Honourable

CHARLES, Lord Viscount TOWNSHEND;

Late one of his Majesty's Principal Secretaries

of State, and Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, &c.

MY LORD,

I

Beg leave to publish the following poems under your

patronage : A present, I confess, unworthy of it, and of little value, excepting what gratitude gives it : But, I fear, it may be esteemed a boast rather than an acknowledgement, or at best, an oftentatious kind of gratitude, to tell the world that I have received the higheit obligations from the Lord Townshend : It is an honour to be regarded by a person of so distinguished a character: I am proud of it, and, not being of a nature to be content with a silent gratitude, am not deterred from owning it, though it be liable to be miscalled vanity.

:

You have, my Lord, the happiness to enjoy what that great statesman Walfingham, who held the fame office which you fill with so much honour, frequently wished,

but

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but never obtained ; a retirement from business in the declension of life, to enjoy age in peace and tranquillity: this last action {peaks you truly great; for that person who, by a voluntary retreat, could indui triously renounce all the grandeur of the world, muft evidently have a soul above it.

Tully in his Tufculum was never more happy, than the Lord Townshend in his Rainham,

Where majestically plain “ Pure Nature reigns, where varied views from views “ Diffusive prospects yield * : here shagg’d with woods, “ Here rich with harvest, and there white with flocks, “ And all the gay horizon smiles around « Full of thy Genius! Lo! between yon groves • The dome with easy grandeur, like the soul “ Of its great master, rising overlooks “ The subject regions, and commands the charms “ Of many a pleasing landskip, to the eye

Delightful change! here groves of loftiest shade “ Wave their proud tops, and form of statelieft view “ A sylvan theatre! while Nature's hand “ Pours forth profuse, o'er hill, o'er vale, o’er lawn, “ Her choicest blessings : See! where yonder lake “ Spreads its wide liquid plain : now stands unmovid “ Pure as th' expanse of heaven, and heaven reflects « From its broad-glittering mirrour ; now with waves