The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott, with memoir of the author.

HAROLD THE DAUNTLESS.
CANTO THIRD.
I.
GREY towers of Durham! there was once a
time
I view'd your battlements with such vague
hope,
As brightens life in its first dawning prime;
Not that e'en then came within fancy's scope
A vision vain of mitre, throne, or cope;
Yet, gazing on the venerable hall,
Her flattering dreams would in perspective ope
Some reverend room, some prebendary's stall,And thus Hope me deceived as she deceiveth all.'
1 [In this stanza occurs one of many touches by which,
in the introductory passages of Harold the Dauntless, as of
Triermain, Sir Walter Scott betrays his half-purpose of
identifying the author with his friend William Erskine. That
gentleman, the son of an Episcopalian clergyman, a stanch