"The first couplet of the above, as it before stood, would have appeared ludicrous, if the stone had remained after the trees might have been gone. The couplet relating to the household virtues did not accord with the painter and the poet; the former being allegorical figures; the latter, living men."
This letter--which is not now in the Beaumont collection at Coleorton Hall--seems to imply that Wordsworth thought of combining the first couplet on the Urn with the last nine lines of the inscription for the stone behind the Cedar tree. But this was never carried out. The inscriptions are printed in the text as they were carved at Coleorton.--ED.
Till ye have framed, at length, a darksome aisle, Like a recess within that sacred pile
Till they at length have framed a darksome Aisle;-- Like a recess within that awful Pile 1815.
Hence, an obscure Memorial, without blame, In these domestic Grounds, may bear his name; Unblamed this votive Urn may oft renew Some mild sensations to his Genius due From One--a humble Follower of the Art
Five lines instead of three in MS. letter to Sir George Beaumont, 16th November, 1811.
Composed November 19, 1811.--Published 1815
Beneath yon eastern ridge, the craggy bound, Rugged and high, of Charnwood's forest ground, Stand yet, but, Stranger! hidden from thy view The ivied Ruins of forlorn GRACE DIEU; Erst a religious House, which[1] day and night 5 With hymns resounded, and the chanted rite: And when those rites had ceased, the Spot gave birth To honourable Men of various worth:[2] There, on the margin of a streamlet wild, Did Francis Beaumont sport, an eager child; 10 There, under shadow of the neighbouring rocks, Sang youthful tales of shepherds and their flocks; Unconscious prelude to heroic themes, Heart-breaking tears, and melancholy dreams Of slighted love, and scorn, and jealous rage, 15 With which his genius shook[3] the buskined stage. Communities are lost, and Empires die, And things of holy use unhallowed lie;[A] They perish;--but the Intellect can raise,[4] From airy words alone, a Pile that ne'er decays. 20
Charnwood forest, in Leicestershire, is an almost treeless wold of between fifteen and sixteen thousand acres. The
eastern ridge, the craggy bound, Rugged and high,