INSCRIPTION FOR A MONUMENT IN THE VALE OF EWIAS by ROBERT SOUTHEY

HERE was it, stranger, that the patron saint
Of Cambria past his age of penitence,
A solitary man; and here he made
His hermitage, the roots his food, his drink
Of Hodney's mountain stream. Perchance thy youth
Has read with eager wonder how the knight
Of Wales in Ormandine's enchanted bower
Slept the long sleep; and if that in thy veins
Flows the pure blood of Britain, sure that blood
Has flow'd with quicker impulse at the tale
Of David's deeds, when through the press of war
His gallant comrades followed his green crest
To conquer. Stranger! Hatterill's mountain heights
And this fair vale of Ewias, and the stream
Of Hodney, to thine after-thoughts will rise
More grateful, thus associate with the name
Of David and the deeds of other days.

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