The Delhi with his cap of terror on, And crooked glaive; the lively, supple Greek, The bearded Turks that rarely deigns to speak, LVIII. Are mix'd conspicuous: some recline in groups, "There is no god but God!-to prayer-lo! God is great!" LIX. Just at this season Ramazani's fast Through the long day its penance did maintain: Here woman's voice is never heard: apart, Herself more sweetly rears the babe she bears Who never quits the breast, no meaner passion shares. LXI. In marble-pav'd pavilion, where a spring Of living water from the centre rose, Whose bubbling did a genial freshness fling, And soft voluptuous couches breath'd repose, Yet in his lineaments ye cannot trace, While Gentleness her milder radiance throws Along that aged venerable face, The deeds that lurk beneath, and stain him with disgrace. Love conquers age-so Hafiz hath averr'd, In years, that marked him with a tyger's tooth; The character of the Albanians is given with great energy, in the succeeding stanzas: we extract the first of them: LXIV. Fierce are Albania's children, yet they lack Harold terminates his stay among the Albanians at a feast, and with a characteristic effusion, which the author informs us was composed by him from different Albanese songs. SONG. Tambourgi! Tambourgi! thy 'larum afar 2. Oh! who is more brave than a dark Suliote, In his snovy camese and his shaggy capote? To the wolf and the vulture he leaves his wild flock, 3. Shall the sons of Chimari, who never forgive The fault of a friend bid an enemy live? Let those guns so unerring such vengeance forego? 4. Macedonia sends forth her invincible race; For a time they abandon the cave and the chase; 5 Then the pirates of Parga that dwell by the waves, 6. I ask not the pleasures that riches supply, My sabre shall win what the feeble must buy; 7. I love the fair face of the maid in her youth, Her caresses shall lull me, her music shall sooth; 8. Remember the moment when Previsa fell,* 9. I talk not of mercy, I talk not of fear; He neither must know who would serve the Vizier : 10. Dark Muchtar his son to the Danube is sped, Let the yellow-hair'd† Giaours‡ view his horsetails with dread, 11. Selictar!ft unsheath then our chief's scimitar; The remainder of the poem is dedicated to that enchanting country, Greece, and every line of it will be felt by the scholar and the man of taste; but to which, we must again say, our limits compel us to refer our readers; who, indeed, will eventually be pleased with a reference that shall induce them to peruse the whole of a poem calculated to diffuse delight. It is followed by notes relative to the subjects introduced, and by a few short miscellanies, chiefly written abroad, of which several are on similar topics; and some are translations of Romaic songs. The volume concludes with an appendix, containing a catalogue of Romaic authors, with specimens of that language. In some future number, and at a more leisure moment, we may return with pleasure to their contents. Some of the notes, particularly those written at Athens, furnish matter for observations, which the calls of our printer warn us to postpone. *It was taken by storm from the French. + Yellow is the epithet given to the Russians. + Infidel. Horse-tails are the insignia of a Pacha. ** Horsemen, answering to our forlorn hope. HSword-bearer. t SPIRIT OF MAGAZINES. FROM THE LITERARY PANORAMA. BELL ROCK LIGHT-HOUSE. AMONG the works which have done the greatest honour to the persevering skill and intelligence of the British nation, the Eddystone Light House has always been considered as holding a distinguished place. With the difficulties attending the progress and completion of that structure, we are familiar by means of Smeaton's History of the work, which is copied into all books of travels in the West of England. A work, so far as we can learn, not less arduous has been accomplished on the Bell Rock in the Firth of Forth: it has engaged our attention several times;* and the history of it displays such a persevering and unabated struggle with difficulties, and such a happy and cheap victory over them, that we cannot but congratulate our age and country on the spirit and skill displayed in the undertaking. The Cape, or Bell Rock, lies about eleven miles in a southwest direction from the Red Head, in Forfarshire, and thirty miles north by east, from St. Abb's Head, in Berwickshire. These two head-lands form the boundaries of the estuary, or Firth of Forth, which is the principal inlet upon the east coast of Great Britain for vessels overtaken with an easterly storm while navigating the German Ocean or North Sea. This dangerous Rock is not usually inserted in general maps of Scotland; but we have the pleasure of referring our readers to that admirable one of the Parlimentary Commissioners inserted in LITERARY PANORAMA, Vol. III. p. 1, and annexed to our account of the "Report to Hon. House of Commons, relative to Improvements in Roads, Bridges, &c. forming in the Highlands, &c. &c. of Scotland." In this map the Bell Rock is distinctly marked. This rock is almost one entire or continuous mass, having only a very few detached or separate pieces. It is a red sand-stone, Comp. Panorama. Vol, H. p. 649; VII. p. 167.-Eddystone L. H. Vol. IV. 2. 339. very hard, and of a fine grit, with minute specks of mica. At low water of neap tides, the rock is only partially left by the tide; but its dimensions, as seen at low water of spring tides, are about 2000 feet in length, with an average breadth of 230 feet; and then the height of the north-east part, where the light house is built, may be stated at four feet above the surface of the water; but the south-west or opposite end of the rock, is lower, and its surface is never left by the tide. The surface of the rock is very uneven, and walking upon it is difficult and even dangerous. Those parts which are higher, and consequently oftener left by the tide, are covered with mussels, limpets, whelks, and numbers of seals occasionally play about the rock, and rest upon it at low water. Those parts which appear only at spring tide, are thickly coated with sea weeds; as the great tangle (fucus digitatus), and baaderlocks or hen-ware (fucus esculentus), which here grows to the length of eighteen feet. The red-ware cod is got very near the rock, and as the water deepens, the other fish common in those seas, are caught in abundance. Such being the position of this fatal rock, appearing only a few feet above the low water mark of spring tides, and being wholly covered by the water when the tide has flowed but a short time, its dangerous effects have been long and severely felt, and the want of some distinguishing mark to point out its place, has been lamented with the occurrence of every shipwreck upon the coast. But until commerce had made considerable advances towards its present state, the erection of a light-house could not be undertaken, as the ships frequenting those seas, were not suf ficiently numerous to afford the probability of raising an adequate revenue, by a small duty or tonnage upon each vessel. Tradition, however, informs us, that so long ago as the fourteenth century, the monks of Aberbrothwick caused a large bell to be hung upon the rock, in such a manner that the waves of the sea gave it motion, by which means warning was given to the mariner of the vicinity of the rock. In this way the name of "Bell Rock," is said to have arisen. Such a bell must soon have been swept away by the raging sea: and centuries elapsed without any effectual steps being taken for distinguishing the rock. In 1806, a bill passed in both houses of parliament, under the auspices of the then lord-advocate, the honourable Henry Erskine, aided by Sir John Sinclair, bart. By this bill, the northern light duty, of three half-pence per ton upon British, and threepence per ton upon foreign bottoms, was allowed to be extended to all vessels bound to, or from any of the ports between Peterhead in the north, and Berwick-upon-Tweed in the south, and the commissioners were empowered to borrow £25,000 from the 3 per cent consols, which with £20,000 which they possessed, made a disposable fund of £45,000 to go on with the work. |