Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: nnfr fens nf The Spires and Towers of England ! Dear are those gothic piles Of pillar’d arch ? the high, the grand, And dim cathedral aisles; Through which the sun’s rich mellow light In chastened grandeur falls From painted windows quaintly dight, Which light the escutcheoned walls. The Spires and Towers of England, How stately do they rise, The glory of our mother-land, The pride of centuries. Those treasured beacons of the heart, Which, when we wandering roam, Are looked on last, as we depart, First sought, as we come home. The Spires and Towers of England! Proud monuments of art, Device of many a cunning hand, Which Time hath watched depart; Bright thought of many an active brain Whose intellectual fire Illumed those precincts, where remain The beauteous tower and spire. The Spires and Towers, how eloquent Of genius high they tell, Of ardour in God’s service spent, Of hopes no fears could quell; Of days of persevering toil, Of nights of laboured thought, Ere rising from our parent soil Their heights the sun rays caught. How splendid is the storied tower! How proud its beauty’s swell! How sweet the melodies which pour Forth from its Sabbath bell! 24 THE SFIBES AND TOWERS OF KM.; LAN U. What memories those peals can bring Of man’s unblighted youth, Of forms to which we used to cling In childhood’s trusting truth. Most hallow’d is that spot of all, Where first in awe he knelt, And dearest is that time-worn wall, Where his young prayers were spelt, Where broke his first repentant sigh, Where his first vows were given: How many blessed thoughts still lie In our first dreams of Heaven! The Spires and Towers of England! How welcome is their gleam, When, after years of st…
