CAMBRIA.

Hail fource of bleffings to our isle !
While gloomy clouds shall take their flight,
Shot through by thy victorious light,
Propitious ever on thy Britons fmile!

BOTH VOICES.

To joy, to triumphs, dedicate the day.

CAMBRIA.

Rife, goddess of immortal fame,
And, with thy trumpet's fwelling found,
To all Britannia's realms around,

The double festival proclaim.

FAME.

The goddess of immortal fame
Shall, with her trumpet's fwelling found,

To all Britannia's realms around,

The double festival proclaim.

O'er Cambria's diftant hills let the loud notes rebound! Each British foul be rais'd, and every eye be gay! To joy, to triumphs, dedicate the day.

E X

66

HIS little Poem was writ by the acci

of having Horace my com

"panion in a confinement by fickness, and fancying "I had difcovered a new fenfe of one of his odes, for "which I have found your lordship's great indulgence "and partiality to me, the best exposition.

"Perhaps we never read with that attention, as "when we think we have found fomething applicable "to ourselves. I am now grown fond enough of this

fense to believe it the true one, and have drawn two "or three learned friends (to whom I have mentioned "it) into my opinion.

"The Ode, your lordship will fee, is that in which "Horace feigns himself turned into a fwan. It paffes "(for aught I know univerfally) for a compliment on "himself, and a mere enthusiastick rant of the poet "in his own praife, like his EXEGI MONUMENTUM, "&c. I confefs I had often flightly read it in that ❝ view,

"view, and have found every one I have lately asked, "deceived by the fame opinion, which I cannot but "think poils the cde, and finks it to nothing; I had "almoft faid, turns the fwan into a goofe.

"The Grammarians feem to have fallen into this "mistake, by wholly overlooking the reason of his rapture, viz. its being addreffed to Mecenas; and “have prefaced it with this, and the like general in"feriptions-VATICINATUR CARMINUM SUORUM ❝IMMORTALITATEM, &c. which I think is not the

"fubject.

"I am very happy in the occafion which fhewed it "me in a quite different fenfe from what I had ever "apprehended, till I had the honour to be known to

your lordship; I am fure a much more advantage"ous one to the Poet, as well as more juft to his great 66 patron. If I have exceeded the liberty of an imi"tator, in purfuing the fame hint further, to make "it lefs doubtful, yet his favourers will forgive me, "when I own I have not on this occafion fo much "thought of emulating his poetry, as of rivaling his 66 pride, by the ambition of being known as,

MY LORD,

YOUR LORDSHIP'S MOST OBLIGED,

AND DEVOTED HUMBLE SERVANT,

J. HUGHES.

ODE

D

E

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

LORD CHANCELLOR COWPER.

ANNO MDCCXVII.

IN ALLUSION TO HORACE, LIB. II. ODE XX.

I

I.

'M rais'd, transported, chang'd all o'er !
Prepar'd, a towering fwan, to foar

Aloft; fee, fee the down arife,

And clothe my back, and plume my thighs!
My wings fhoot forth; now will I try
New tracks, and boldly mount the sky;
Nor Envy, nor Ill-fortune's fpite,
Shall ftop my courfe, or damp my flight.

II.

Shall I, obfcure or difefteem'd,

Of vulgar rank henceforth be deem'd ?
Or vainly toil my name to fave
From dark oblivion and the grave?

No-He can never wholly die,

Secure of immortality,

Whom Britain's Cowper condefcends

To own, and numbers with his friends.

III. 'Tis

III.

'Tis done-I fcorn mean honours now;
No common wreaths fhall bind my
brow.
Whether the Muse vouchsafe t' infpire
My breast with the cœleftial fire;
Whether my verfe be fill'd with flame,
Or I deferve a Poet's name,
Let Fame be filent; only tell

That generous Cowper loves me well.

IV.

Through Britain's realms I fhall be known
By Cowper's merit, not my own.

And when the tomb my dust shall hide,
Stripp'd of a mortal's little pride,

Vain pomp be spar'd, and every tear;
Let but fome ftone this fculpture bear:
"Here lies his clay, to earth confign'd,
"To whom great Cowper once was kind.”

WHAT