William Bowles - The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles Vol. 2

Tib, the cat.

The notes of the cuckoo are the only notes, among birds, exactly according to musical scale. The notes are the fifth, and major third, of the diatonic scale.

The "whip-poor-will" is a bird so called in America, from his uttering those distinct sounds, at intervals, among the various wild harmonies of the forest. See Bertram's Travels in America.

In Cornwall, and in other countries remote from the metropolis, it is a popular belief, that they who are to die in the course of the year appear, on the eve of Midsummer, before the church porch. See an exquisite dramatic sketch on this subject, called "The Eve of St Mark," in Blackwood.

Madern-stone, a Druidical monument in the village of Madern, to which the country people often resort, to learn their future destinies.

Such is the custom in Cornwall.

Polwhele. These are the first four lines of the real song of the season, which is called "The Furry-song of Helstone." Furry is, probably, from Feriæ.

Campanula cymbalaria, foliis hederaciis .

Erica multiflora , common in this part of Cornwall.

The rhythm of this song is taken from a ballad "most musical, most melancholy," in the Maid's Tragedy, "Lay a garland on my grave."

The bay of St Ives.

Feniculum vulgare , or wild fennel, common on the northern coast of Cornwall.

Revel is a country fair.

It is a common idea in Cornwall, that when any person is drowned, the voice of his spirit may be heard by those who first pass by.

The passage folded down was the 109th Psalm, commonly called "the imprecating psalm." I extract the most affecting passages: —

The people of the country consult the spirit of the well for their future destiny, by dropping a pebble into it, striking the ground, and other methods of divination, derived, no doubt, from the Druids. — Polwhele.

Bay of St Michael's Mount.

The blue jay of the Mississippi. See Chateaubriand's Indian song in "Atala."

Called the Flying Dutchman, the phantom ship of the Cape.