heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

THE CLIFFORDS. 271
"Our Clifford was a happy youth,
And thankful through a weary time
That brought him up to manhood's prime.
Again he wanders forth at will,
And tends a flock from hill to hill.
His garb was humble ;
ne'er was seen
Such garb with such a noble mien.
Among the shepherds' grooms no mate
Hath he, a child of strength and state ;
Yet lacks not friends for solemn glee,
And a cheerful company,
That learned of him submissive ways,
And comforted his private days.
To his side the fallow deer
Came and rested without fear ;
The eagle (lord of land and sea)
Stooped down to pay him fealty.
He knew the rocks which angels haunt,
On the mountains visitant,
He hath kenned them taking wing ;
And the caves where fairies sing
He hath entered, and been told,
By voices, how men lived of old.
Among the heavens his eye can see,
Face of things that is to be ;
And (if
men report him right)
He could whisper words of might."
For twenty-five years Clifford remained in concealment ; but when
the union of the opposing factions of York and Lancaster was effected
by the marriage of Henry VII. with Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV., in
1486, he emerged from his concealment, and petitioned for the restoration
of his title and estates. So Wordsworth, in his Song at the Feast of
Brougham Castle, says :
" From town to town, from town to town,
The red rose is a gladsome flower ;
His thirty years of winter past,
The red rose is revived at last !
She lifts her head for endless spring,
For everlasting blossoming.
Both roses flourish, red and white,
In love and sisterly delight ;
The two that were at strife are blended,
And all old troubles now are ended."
Lord Clifford was thirty-one years old when he entered on his estates,
but his early training had ill-disposed him to take any prominent position
in the world. Loving seclusion and the companionship of the quiet and
retiring, he fixed on one of the most sequestered spots on his estate,
Barden Tower, and, adapting it for his residence, devoted himself to the
study of astrology and alchemy with the monks of the adjacent priory
of Bolton.