Watlington Hill
Mary Russell Mitford
From pious Brittwell pass we now
At freedom's honoured shrine to bow
On Chalgrove's neighbouring field;
An undistinguished speck it seems.
Where scarce the sun's refulgent beams
One spark of light can yield,—
A common spot of earth, where grows
In summer time the yellow corn;
Where now his grain the seedsman throws
With careful hand from early morn,
Yet pauses midst his toil to tell
That in that field bold Hampden fell.
Hampden! thy name from age to age
The patriot heart shall fire;
The good, the fair, the brave, the sage,
All weep thy funeral pyre.
Thy very enemy confest
The virtues of thy noble breast;
Hard as it is amid the jar
Of falling thrones, of civil war.
To judge of man's inconstant state.
Even he confessed thee good and great.
How was the Stuart fallen, when thou
Didst brave his power with dauntless brow!
How raised when Falkland by him stood
As great as thou, as wise, as good!
O who, by equal fame misled.
Who shall the righteous cause decide.
When for his king Lord Falkland bled.
When Hampden for his country died!
This is an extract from the long poem Watlington Hill.
Chalgrove was the site of the Battle of Chalgrove Field, a minor engagement in the English Civil War. In the skirmish, John Hampden, a leading Parliamentarian, was wounded and he died of his wound a few days later. Towns called Hampden or Hamden in Maryland, Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts are named after him.
