And while around the rocks of hill and dale Cling weird traditions of the dead and lost, So also is there many a doleful tale Haunting grim boulders on the frowning coast.[13]
Hard by the scenes where pagan hosts have striven, And where their valiant chieftains fell, 'tis said, Great mounds are raised o'er slabs all roughly riven, Which serve to guard the ashes of the dead.[14]
On Long Stones, set erect, brief words are traced,[15] Names of the mighty, and their noble sires-- The memory of their deeds long since effaced!-- In dark oblivion their renown expires.
Some rude memorials bear the sacred sign Which shews a Christian has been laid beneath;[16] Nor need his relics any gilded shrine While the fair wild-flowers gem his native heath.
Dotting the pilgrim-tracks across the moor At the Three-turnings, churchyard, market-place, Boulder-hewn symbols, carved in days of yore, Did guide the erring, and proclaim God's grace.
[11] Fogous, Bee-hive Huts, Gumb's House, &c. (Fogous, plural of fogou. A fogou is a subterranean retreat built like a dolmen.)
[12] King Arthur's Castle on Tintagel precipices and Island, &c.
[13] The floating stones; wrecks, omens, &c.
Printed and Published by W. & R. CHAMBERS, 47 Paternoster Row, LONDON, and 339 High Street, EDINBURGH.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, by Various