Page:Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea 1903.djvu/146

8 made their remarks upon a Versifying Maid of Honour and the greater number with prejudice, if not contempt. And indeed, the apprehension of this, had so much wean'd me from the practice and inclination to itt; that had nott an utter change in my Condition, and Circumstances, remov'd me into the solitude, & security of the Country, and the generous kindnesse of one that possest the most delightfull seat in itt; envited him, from whom I was inseperable, to partake of the pleasures of itt, I think I might have stopp'd ere it was too late, and suffer'd those few compositions I had then by me, to have sunk into that oblivion, which I ought to wish might be the lott of all that have succeeded them. But when I came to East well, and cou'd fix my eyes only upon objects naturally inspiring soft and Poeticall immaginations, and found the Owner of itt, so indulgent to that Art, so knowing in all the rules of itt, and att his pleasure, so capable of putting them in practice ; and also most obligingly favorable to some lines of mine, that had fall'n under his Lordship's perusal, I cou'd no longer keep within the limmitts I had prescrib'd myself, nor be wisely reserv'd, in spite of inclination, and such powerf ull temptations to the contrary. Again I engage my self in the service of the Muses, as eagerly as if :From their new Worlds, I know not where,
 * Their golden Indies in the air—

they cou'd have supply'd the material losses, which I had lately sustain'd in this. And now, whenever I contemplate all the several beautys of this Park, allow'd to be (if not of the Universal yett) of our British World infinitely the finest,


 * Smooth as her lawnes, and lofty as her Groves.
 * Boundlesse my Genius seems, when my free sight,
 * Finds only distant skys to stop her flight.