THE STRONGHOLD OF THE BIGODS.
WRECK of past ages! on thy mouldering towers
No feudal banner waves its silken fold;
No archers now direct their deadly showers
From thy lone heights, as in the days of old,
When he of iron soul and stalwart mould,
The haughty Bigod, in his tameless pride,
Held with the lord of England parlance bold;
And the chafed lion to his teeth defied,
And taunt for taunt with answering scorn replied.
And spake of his stronghold on Waveney's shore
With stern regret, as fortress whence he might
Have braved securely, till the storm was o'er,
The royal anger in its fellest height-
Nor cared for proud Plantagenet's despite ;
But there, in his rebellious hardihood,
The sap, the siege, the desultory fight,
Fiercely repelled, and made resistance good
Through each reverse, unawed and unsubdued.
Bright visions of departed grandeur rise,
In shadowy splendour, as I gaze on thee,
Lone, crumbling pile! they sweep before mine eyes,
The varied scenes of pomp and pageantry
Thy walls have seen, but ne'er again will see;
When to the lofty harp's inspiring chime
High tales were sung of love and chivalry,
In the wild numbers of spontaneous rhyme,
By gifted minstrels of the olden time.
And high-born beauty, in the graceful dance,
Trod the light measure to the rebec's sound-
Or led the mask in quaint device, perchance,
Or for her lordly sire the wine-cup crown'd
Ere the deep pledge of revelry went round;
While haply in the guarded keep below,
Or murky dungeon's solitude profound,
The fettered captive pined in hopeless woe,
Mourning his adverse fate, his battle's overthrow.
Deserted towers! no steel-clad warder now
O'erlooks with watchful eye the quiet vale,
From its green willowed depth to upland brow,
For plumes and pennons waving in the gale-
And hostile chieftain in his warlike mail,
With steed caparisoned, and couchant lance-
Such as in ancient chronicle and tale,
Stand forth portrayed, and poesy's romance
Presents embodied to our mental glance.
Their date is past-the strife of feudal war
Disturbs no more sweet Waveney's peaceful side;
No rival clarions now resound from far,
Nor life's red current stains his silvery tide;
But those unruffled waters, as they glide
Through smiling meads of ever-verdant hue,
Reflect the snowy lily's queen-like pride,
Throned on the waves, all beautiful to view,
And mirror back the heavens' delicious blue.
And where the martial pride of helm and spear
Flashed in the western sun's declining ray,
On massive walls, now desolate and drear,
Sits the lone, mournful spirit of decay,
Time's ruthless daughter, robed in lichens gray,
Throned in their dust, and sternly waving round
The iron sceptre of her gloomy sway,
O'er mouldering turret, parapet, and mound,
With clustering ivy-leaves profusely crowned-
Ivy aye flourishing in adverse days,
Unchanged by summer suns or wintry showers,
With faithful love a mantling veil displays,
And clings more closely when the tempest lowers;
And there the delicate and starry flowers
Of sweetest jasmine yield their fragrant breath
To every breeze that sweeps their pendent bowers,
And from those heights, where once the shafts of death
Were sternly launched, fling their light graceful wreath.
THE STRONGHOLD OF THE BIGODS.
THIS interesting relic of the feudal times is seated on the most considerable of a cluster of round green mounds on the extreme verge of the county of Suffolk, separated from Norfolk only by the river Waveney, which flows at the foot of this fortalice, and formed a part of its defence, enabling the manorial nobile, by whom it was held, to render it inaccessible by laying all the lowlands under water. Bungay Castle derives some historical as well as local interest from having been the stronghold of the powerful Anglo-Norman earls of Norfolk, of the house of Bigod, who, from the time of the Conquest, claimed and for nearly two centuries exercised, the high and important office of hereditary earl-marshal of England.
It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader that it was the peculiar province of that great state official to preserve good order in the court by preventing quarrels, and enforcing the ceremonial observances of royal etiquette in all its venerative solemnity. This duty com
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