WALKS IN A FOREST, AND OTHER POEMS: BY THOMAS GISBORNE, A.M. THE EIGHTH EDITION. TO WHICH ARE ADDED, SOME POEMS NOT BEFORE PUBLISHED. LONDON: PRINTED FOR T. CADELL, AND W. DAVIES, IN THE STRAND. PREFACE. THE scenes and incidents noticed in the six subsequent Poems are such, with some exceptions, introduced by way of contrast, as occur in the Forests of Great Britain. The Author has endeavoured to delineate them with such a degree of particularity as might mark the characteristic features of each ; and to avoid on the one hand florid and indeterminate description, and on the other, that minuteness of detail which would be scarcely intelligible to persons not accustomed studiously to examine the face of nature, and might prove tedious even to accurate observers. He has also had in view another object which he willingly avows; namely, to inculcate, on every fit occasion, those moral truths, which the contemplation of the works of God in the natural world suggests, and that reverence and love for the great Creator which it is adapted to inspire. He trusts therefore that, not only when occupied in a professed enquiry into human duties, but also when engaged in com a posing the following pages, he has been employed in his proper vocation. And he would gladly hope that they may tend, under the divine blessing, to infuse - into the minds of persons who delight in natural scenery, and especially of the young, those momentous principles, the influence of which, whether he solicits attention in prose, or in verse, he trusts that he is chiefly anxious to promote. YOXALL LODGE, December 2. 1795. |