THE

SCARECROW,

A

TALE

"And sermons are less read than tales."

Kind Heaven bade Hope, with features fair,
Dispel the thoughts that nurse despair,
To hint, that though immers'd in grief,
Unlook'd-for means, may bring relief;
To tell us, though in sight of ruin,
A thousand blessings may be brewing;
That though to-day may set in sorrow,
The sun of Joy may rise to-morrow.

A farmer, than his neighbours, wiser,

(By thoughtless spend-thrifts, called a miser)

A field, with such abundance stor'd,

That all the birds came there to board;
Where'er they fled, the beaky sinners,
Came there to eat their daily dinners;

At length to check the daring crew,

He fix'd a Scarecrow full in view;

The birds, who now, their feasting miss'd,
Collected, chatter'd, peck'd, and hiss'd,

And fearing, that some plot was hatching,
Suppos'd the farmer daily watching;

By caution led, they ey'd him round,

And each some striking feature found;

So ready is Imagination,

To furnish traits of self-creation;

But whether it was so or not,

They call'd a meeting on the spot?

Decreed, the Magpies all proclaim,

From distant Idris* eagles came;

The Daws set out from Edward'st towers,

And Cranes came down in feathery showers;

Seiriol and Ormus § were deserted,

And Swans from Cevni's shores departed;

• Cader Idris, a well known mountain in Merionethshire, the apex of which, appears like the crater of a volcano: the word eader, in common language, signifies a chair, but here, it is synonymous with observatory. Idris being like Don of Arvon, a shepherd, and like him also an Astronomer. The flocks of remote ages, in these rocky regions, are described as consisting of many thousands, the shepherds must necessarily be numerous; and the chief might probably be elevated by a superior sagacity — in holy writ, and the antiquity of nations, a knowledge of the stars appears to be the natural and concomitant produce of the leisure of pastoral life.

The ruins of the fortresses built by Edward the first, are now immense Aviaries, and chiefly occupied by the Daw tribe.

A small island at the eastern extremity of Anglesey, and a favorite resort of migratory and other sea birds.

§ Orme's head, a huge promontory in Carnarvonshire, and one of the horn-works to the Bay of Beaumaris; the sailors call it

Even Gulls, that love the ocean's roar,

To learn the issue, left the shore;

Such screams and fluttering fill'd the air,

Astonish'd Mona stood to stare;

Whole flocks, that came net to be fed,

By love of news, this day were led ;

The Linnets left their homes and hay-ricks,

And not a Crow was seen at Meyrick's;

*

The birds that haunt our ploughs and harrows

And every thatch had lost its Sparrows;

(Save Ducks and Geese, who rarely roam,

And almost always dine at home);

Death's head, from an imaginary similitude in its profile, from some points at sea, and the idea is not a little confirmed by its dangerous vicinity.-Its British name is Gogarth, the projecting cliff; aquatic birds are here also to be found in great numbers.

* In a country denuded as Anglesey now is, the regular evening return of vast flights of these birds to the woods about Bodorgan, the seat of O. P. Meyrick, Esq. is an interesting spectacle.