His sacred piece called
_The Star of Bethlehem_ has been a special favorite:
When marshalled on the nightly plain
The glittering host bestud the sky,
One star alone of all the train
Can fix the sinner's wandering eye.
_Bishop Percy_, 1728-1811: Dr. Thomas Percy, Bishop of Dromore, deserves
particular notice in a sketch of English Literature not so much for his
own works,--although he was a poet,--as for his collection of ballads,
made with great research and care, and published in 1765. By bringing
before the world these remains of English songs and idyls, which lay
scattered through the ages from the birth of the language, he showed
England the true wealth of her romantic history, and influenced the
writers of the day to abandon the artificial and reproduce the natural,
the simple, and the romantic. He gave the impulse which produced the
minstrelsy of Scott and the simple stories of Wordsworth. Many of these
ballads are descriptive of the border wars between England and Scotland;
among the greatest favorites are _Chevy Chase, The Battle of Otterburne,
The Death of Douglas_, and the story of _Sir Patrick Spens_.
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