QUOTATIONS AND NOTES.
99
white, of an agreeable fragrance; these are succeeded by seed pods that bear some resemblance to feathers or hair, whence it is sometimes called Old Man's Beard.
Line 9.
Banks! which inspired thy Otway's plaintive strain!
Wilds, whose lorn echoes learn'd the deeper tone
Of Collins' powerful shell!
Collins, as well as Otway, was a native of this country, and probably at some period of his life an inhabitant of this neighbourhood, since in his beautiful Ode on the death of Colonel Ross, he says,
The Muse shall still, with social aid,
Her gentlest promise keep;
E'en humble Harting's cottag'd vale
Shall learn the sad repeated tale,
And bid her shepherds weep.
