Star.
London, England, 1823-08-20 00:00:00

LANGHORNE'S POEMS. •

The Poems of Langhorne are very little read and never
quoted at the present time. They have'been lung t.ince consigned
to that stpuichre of genius the " Comp:ete Winks of British
Poets," in whose " ponderous and marbt-t jaws" they repose,
‘‘ peactildy and quietly inhumed." Yet did the Muse of Lang-
1, wne, in her happier moments, paint with an exquisite pencil,
and with " colours dipped in licAvEN that never die." His
characteristics, at such 'intervals, are delicious sweetness, an har-
monious flow of diction, tender and lovely sentiment, and a
pathos, mild, delicate, and, if we may be allowed the expression:,
graceful and elegant. Witness the opening stanzas of " Owen
of Carton," one of the most original Poems its our language,
full of beauties and defects.

On Carrou's side the primrose pale,
Why does it wear a purple hue?
Ye maidens Car of Marlivale,
Why stream your eyes with Pity's dew?
'Tis all with gentle °wares blood
That purple grows the primrose pale;
That Pity pours the tender flood
From each fair eye in Marlivale !

The evening star sate in his eye,
The sun his golden tresses gave ;
The North's pure more her orient dye,
To him who rests in yonder grave!

Benzath no high historic stone,
Though nobly born, is OWEN laid,
Stretch'd on the green-wood's lap alone,
He sleeps beneath the waving shade !
There many a flow'ry race hath sprung,
And fled before the mountain gale,
Since first his simple dirge ye sung—
Ye maidens fair of Marlivale !
Yet still, when May, with fragrant feet,
liathwander'd o'er your meads of gold,
That dirge I hear, so simply sweet,
Far echo'd from each evening fold !

A RURAL RIDE IN A STAGE COACH.

BURY, AUGUST 1.5.

As it was the main thing to see what sort of a
I,(7rve4 we were likely to have, I determined to look
about me for my self. There is no believing the
London PI CSS, and as to the County Papers, they are
to a man under the influence of the titled and un-
titled aristocrAcy. I can only believe what 1 see;
and as I know that the harvest alone will, in a great
degree—mind, I say in a great degree—determine
the fate of the. landlords, I resolved to see, with my
own eyes, what was the real condition of the crops.
I therefore prepared to visit King Coke's country.
As the Norfolk lads had heretofote talked much of
their agriculture, I thought I would just have a peep
at their looks now. I thought I would just have ano-
ther peep at the bloated numbskulls before the parish
had compelled them to doff their top-boots, to kick
the piannies out at the windows, and to mount the
smock frocks. And why should they not? Who are
they, I wonder ! England will never be England, till
smock-froCks are again the fashion.
_ _

On my road to Norfolk, I arrived here this even-
ing. In order to have tile day well before me, I rose
as the sun began to rise, and when the lark was
shaking its wings, at four o'clock. It was a glorious
morning. The sun rose clear. No clouds threatened
to mar the progress of the day. Ah ! my Norfolk
lads, we shall have coin at four shillings per
bushel; if we have no rains, if this weather continue
—remember I say, if all crops are got in, and on an
average of years and seasons, I think we shall have
corn at four shillings; indeed, I shall not be sur-
prised to see it below three shillings a bushel. We
must have the smock-frocks; there will be no doing
without them.
Often as I have marked the rising of the sun, I
think, in my life—and it has been a happy one, in
spite of my insolent foes—l think I never more hear:
tily enjoyed a fine morning. I had to pass all through
that monstrously overgrown London to Whitechapel,
to get to the coach. What with thought of the Nor-
folk lads; what with imagining how they will look
me in the face now ; what with picturing King Coke,
by the side of his neighbour Gaffer Gooch, brought
to the smock-frock ; and what with contemplating
wheat at three and four shillings a bushel, I was
never so much delighted with a progress through the
dingy city. To be sure there were no carriages inso-
lently to throw up the dirt against one ; none of the
mushroom gentry pompously bustling " to 'Change"
—I was spaied the pangs of beholding this race; but
as 64 London never sleeps," I saw thousands passing
to their daily toil ; and I saw those who earned their
bread ; and my heart would have been gladdened
with the sight more than it was, could I have for-
gotten that the rewards of their labour will be wormed
with cork-screw force by the tax gatherer from their
pockets. Then, it was so early in the morning, there
was no smoke. You could see the tops of the houses;
you could see the steeples of the churches, only we
could not forget that they surmounted churches, and
you could even see the top of St. Paul's, the flourish-
ing and figuring on the new ball and cross—a cheer-
ing sight, and would have been more cheering had
they been above any other place. My servant, who
was currying my portmanteau, seemed to feel the
influence of the morning and the difference of the'
prospect; but he did not know what made the dif-
ference. I told him why he was so pleased with this
clearness, even in huge London's streets. I also told
him that it was ever the sonie clearness in Paris. I
told him that from Mont- Moire, for instance, he could
see all over Pori:; but then I added, they burn no
coals there, they have nothing but wood-fires, so that
they have no smoke. It was the cursed smoke, I told
him, when the still more accursed tea-kettle was put
on for the slop-d. inking crew, that spoiled all—it
vas the smoke and the tea, I told him, which I ve-
rdy believed altered the characters and minds of the
greedy, jobbing generation. How else, I asked,
were we to account for such a falling off from their
forefathers?
I was at the coach half an hour before my time.
Your cockneys would have been half an hour af-
ter their time; they must have stopped to get the
nerve and' soul destroying tea. I told my servant to
s:e my r ortmanteau placed safely in the boot, for
Clem is no trusting the fellows about inns. I would
as soon have faith in the Holy Alliance chaps. I then
told my servant to put my great coat-and gloves on
tie seat I meant to occupy is the coach. I also

cl•arged h;rn to keep hi: eye on them till he saw me
take my seat. At a quarter past six we gallopped
off, helter-skelter, at a tremendous rate. Why all this
haste? Why so much hurry ? To be sure the cattle
were very fine ; the King, whom I honour, and al-
ways have supported in his crown and dignity, has
not nobler carriage cattle.
At Stratford-le-Bow,
_I saw that both oats and
wheat had been cut. They were in sheaf, and, in
some instances, there, and further down the road,
they were hooded—that is, the sheaf's were piled one
above another by the ears, so as to turn off the wet.
I would recommend this plan ; it is much used in the
North. They do so in Yorkshire; they are knowing
fellows in Yorkshire, almost as brave as the-brave
Lancashirers ; however, brother farmers, adopt this
plan if you see the rain's coming. Anything to cheat
the Quakers—anything to knock down the landlords,
which will be done by banging down wheat to four
and three shillings a bushel. I have always said so,
and though prices have got up, and keep tsp, nous
verrons—which is French for we shall see.
As I looked to the right, in the direction of the
Black wall Docks, &c. (more of what the blockheads
call " Improvements !"), I saw clouds succeeding
clouds of smoke; the smiths, the factories, the dock-
' vards, the steam-engines, all were at work ; there was
the bustle of thousands, and all to fill the coffers of
the few. We had not gone much further, when I
saw, by the road-side, men picking stones to• break
them for the roads. Here is occupation for English-
men! Breaking stones for the roads! But the men
looked well ; seemed as if they had meat and beer at
least twice a day ; had jackets on, and no hay-bands
about their legs. But depend upon it, there was
some trickery in this—it was so near London—there
were so many eyes likely to be turned on the stone-
peckers, that it would not do to let them appear with
ragged clothes, meagre looks, and twisted hay about
their legs. This, however, will not do; there is no
deceiving us the sytem is touched, and, like the fly
in turnips, there is no cure.
Just beyond Stratford, there lives a fellow who,
they told me, has made an immense fortune by
rowing potatoes. There's a fellow for you ! only
thihk, to make a fortune by growing that abominable
and mischievous toot, which is only exceeded in mis-
chief by the tea! I dare say he does not eat potatoes.
No, no ; he knows better than that, I'll warrant him.
Like the vagabond razor-maker, mentioned by Peter
Pinder, a vagabond of a thymster—your moderns
call them poets—what he manufactures is for sale!
But thus we are jilted and gulled; and all by " ma-
nufacture" and " system." Well, I care not !
As we approached Romford, I saw several fields
of turnips (no Swedes !); and there were some poor
devils niggling at them with hoes. They appeared
happy enough, such is the baneful influence of habit
and of an artificial system of prices. The turnips,
however, were poor, very thin; the fly appeared to
have been at them. The crops would not pay ; but
why should I grieve? It serves the man right; if
he wanted to have good stock for his cattle, why.did
he not plant Swedes? Others may pity him; I shall not.
We passed the Cast/if/over Inn. This sounds some-
thing better than your " Duke's Head," your " Red
Lion," or your " Cannon;" such signs only give
people lofty notions. They get thinking about war-
riors, foreign countries, and battles; leave such things
to " our betters." Give me the " Hampshire Hog,"
or the " Cauliflower" for a sign. It is three-and-
twenty years since I first saw the" Cauliflower." Ah!
how many changes have taken place since then !
How have I struggled? Twice have I crossed the
Channel to Calais; once have I been in Paris ; I have
mounted the Pare de Vendome, but the statue of
Bonaparte was gone; I have attended innumerable
County Meetings; I have been opposed by rank ene-
mies and deadly hostility; but 1 have surmounted
them all, and here I am, alive, hearty, and strong.
Temporary or apparent defeat has only given me
breathing time.
The crops everywhere look well, on to Chelms-
ford thence to Bocking. In many instances the cut-
ting of the wheat was begun. Just through Chelms•
ford in particular I saw twelve men in one field. The
wheat was uncommonly. fine. The ears were ripened
a good colour, and the straw was well dried. With
very few exceptions, and those were where the bines
and weeds had got rather strong in consequence of
the frequent rains, the fields had a rich, bright appear-
ance, and the wheat, too, was full in the ear. If this
glorious weather continue (for we have only had some
showers), and as the men have got generally into the
wheat fields as far down as here, there will be an ex-
cellent harvest, for there is this year an amazing deal
of wheat on the ground. Should the sun shine on,
the Broadbrims will lower, and Mark-lane look un-
commonly sulky. The oats are rather poor; but the
beans in many instances have recovered froin the
vermin. I have now not many fears and then
down will gallop prices..
WILLIAM CROCKERY.

FLAX GAMIN-G.-Mr. Bernard, of the Linen
Board has been directed to proceed through the pro-
vince of Ulster, with the Dutch flax farmers recently
brought to Ireland by the trustees of the linen
manufacture, for the purpose of sheaving the mode
of pulling and steeping flax as practised in the Ne-
therlands. In Russia, and every part of the Conti-
nent, flax is deprived of the bole before steeping, and
it is a fact well known, that Irish flax, generally
speaking, is the most irregularly prepared for market
of any in Europe. The mellowness and evenness of
every description of continental linen, so well known
and admired by those acquainted with that manufac-
ture, is considered to arise from the superior quality
of the flax of which it is composed, in the prepara-
tion of which the greatest pains are taken. Viewing
the treatment of this valuable plant in the Nethet-
lands, in all its heal iogs, it seems, that the great art
(if such it may be called) of producing it of better
quality, and in a more merchantable form, than it is
done in Ireland, rests solely on a well-regulated sys-
tem, from which no person deviates, from the sower
of the seed to the export merchant—a practice wor-
thy the imitation of every person concerned in the
cultivation of flax in this country.
Wednesday se'nnight, Joseph Dale, one of the per-
sons suspected of the' murder of Mr. Wood, near
Disley, was apprehended at Liverpool, a here he had
been lurking since the murder. He had endeavoured
to enlist into the service of the East India Company,
but WAS rejected. He is committed to Lancaster
for trial.